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I am new to this site but have been an exhibitor for eighteen years and have owned several theatres. I've searched past threads for similar subjects, but haven't found an answer.

In considering existing retail (mall) space for potential conversion to theatres, is there a minimum ceiling height required to provide well proportioned stadium auditoriums? The existing building appears to be about 24' high. Thank you.

I just went to several theatres that we put in retail space of a super market and other like building. The key to them is the seating goes up one step per row. So it is stadium but each row is only 6 or 7 inches higher. It felt good to me and it makes it feel like you are watching with a group of peole more than the 18+ inch risers is some stadium seating.

All his screens were at least 24ft wide so do the math for the hight because I forgot.

I’ve converted a couple of buildings to cinemas. One was a warehouse with 15’ ceilings. The other was a 2nd story department store space with 12’ ceilings. It all depends on how many people you want to seat. In the 12’ ceiling project we have 4 auditoriums at 50 seats each. Two are flat-floor and two are sloped. The trick is to set the seats back away from each other to have good site lines. The screens are small, but you can get away with that in an art house. First run? Not so much.

When I started this project, I went to the city with a plan to do two, 100 seat auditoriums. There was some arcane law that prevented that. So I went with four-50 seat auditoriums to be in compliance. I was my own contractor and did most of the work myself. I wish I had not gone with 4 auditoriums since the projection problems are doubled from a two-screen.

Decide what you want to do, then talk to the city. Email me if you have specific questions. This is not a job for people who cannot live on peanut butter and popcorn.

24 feet clear to underside of roof structure is more than adequate to accommodate new auditoriums with stadium seating and for locating the projection booth above the promenade. This clearance also provides you with the opportunity to locate other elements such as toilet rooms, party rooms, offices, storage, etc., underneath the stadium seating. Factors to consider are how large you want the big houses to be (of course existing column spacing will impact this decision) and riser heights at the front and rear sections of the auditoriums.