In 2013, your movie-going dollar may not get you the same number of feature-length entertainments and concession-stand goodies that it used to. But for the right amount of those dollars, you can still get a movie theater named in your honor.
The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, is expected to announce on Tuesday that it will name its main theater for Sumner M. Redstone, the executive chairman of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corporation, in recognition of a $3 million gift given to the museum by Mr. Redstone’s charitable foundation. Mr. Redstone, whose holdings include the Paramount Pictures movie studio, the CBS television network and the National Amusements theater chain, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that he considered the gift to be “an investment in the present and the future,†while he nodded to past history.
“In the 1920s,†he said, “Paramount filmed movies at the Astoria Studios.†One of those buildings became the site of the Museum of the Moving Image when it opened in 1988.
Mr. Redstone praised the museum for its “work with the young people†and fostering their excitement about film and television.
“Those young people will be involved in the same businesses that I and my companies have been involved in for ages,†he said. “And that’s rewarding for me that history moves on.â€
The museum’s main theater, which starting in May will be known as the Sumner M. Redstone Theater, is a 267-seat facility that can project in formats from 16-millimeter to 70-millimeter as well as in high-definition 3-D. The museum said in a news release that it draws about 60,000 visitors annually for more than 450 screenings and events.
In a statement, Herbert S. Schlosser, the museum board’s chairman, said the naming of the theater “will forge a permanent bond between a visionary entertainment industry leader†and an institution dedicated to “the art, history, and technology of film and digital media.â€
