Cinemas Interruptus
Update: Sundance Cinemas left in the dark after power outage caused by lightrail excavation
UPDATE Oct. 16: Power has been restored to the Sundance Cinemas through generators and the theater is on its regular schedule.
UPDATE Oct. 15: A Sundance Cinemas spokesperson said the power outage was caused by a leak in the electrical vault, which was a result of the excavation for the light rail system.
"We are working diligently with our landlord to get this issue fixed, and are extremely sorry if any of our patrons were inconvenienced. We are working with everyone who was affected by the outage, and if anyone purchased an advance ticket or has any questions, we would like to hear from them at our SundanceHouston@sundancecinemas.net email address.
"We have deactivated ticketing until we are back online, and are communicating this via our website," she said.
---------
Just as the suspenseful movie Argo reached a critical point at a Sunday afternoon showing at the Sundance Cinemas complex in downtown Houston, the lights went out in the crowded theater. Moviegoers tell CultureMap that the electrical power in the eight theaters, the lobby and cafe went out around 3:30 p.m. and the complex remains dark.
Scores of moviegoers milled around in the lobby, and, as it appeared evident that the problem could not immediately be rectified, Sundance managers took names and phone numbers to send theater passes for a future showing to patrons since the computers were not operational.
Assistant manager Gabriel Durham said that the electrical room, located in the Bayou Place parking garage, had flooded, so it was currently unsafe for the electrician to get to the breakers to assess the damage until the waters receded.
"We're doing the best we can, but it's an unfortunate situation," Durham said.
Ironically, a similar situation occurred about two weeks ago at Sundance when the power went out due to outage on an entire city block in the area.
The rest of the Bayou City complex, including the Hard Rock Cafe and Blue Fish restaurant, appeared to have power and was unaffected by the Sundance outage.
