On December 9, 2023, the Castro Theatre's organist played at 2:45 p.m., and then the house sang along to Frozen. As of late October, the theater's calendar for this November and December doesn't list a holiday film, a sing-along or an organ recital.
This is the theater's first holiday season since it reopened on February 6 after a two-year, $41 million renovation, reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. Another Planet Entertainment now runs it, and the season it has booked looks like a concert hall's. That means two things for anyone who lives a few blocks away. The holiday tradition still standing is the one that was always live on stage. And film nights are now the only nights you can decide at dinner to go.
A calendar built for the stage
From November 2 through Christmas Eve, the theater's listings show close to forty dates. Eight of those dates are film nights. The rest are concerts, comedy and community events. They include Ólafur Arnalds for two nights on November 11 and 12, The Moth GrandSLAM Championship on November 13, Rodrigo y Gabriela on November 15, and The Music of Hey Arnold Live! on November 24 and 25 with Jim Lang, the PS 118 AllStars and special guest Craig Bartlett. December brings Sandra Bernhard on the 3rd and a Marc Maron special taping on the 5th, with early and late shows.
Many of these shows had already sold out by late October, including Rebecca Black on November 3, Jorja Smith on November 16, Julio Torres on November 30, and both Maron shows. For the Castro, a sold-out concert means a full sidewalk at doors and a crowd out on Castro Street afterward. In the coming weeks that happens more often than a film crowd does.
The tradition that made it through
The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus is back on Christmas Eve with Holiday Spectacular: Home for the Holidays, three performances on Thursday, December 24, 2026.
- 3 p.m. show, doors 2:30 p.m.
- 5:30 p.m. show, doors 5 p.m.
- 8 p.m. show, doors 7:30 p.m.
The Chorus ran the same three-show Christmas Eve at the Castro in 2023, before the theater closed for renovation. It survived the change because it never depended on a projector. It is a live performance, and a live performance fits the kind of house the Castro is now booked as.
Two other December dates fill out the seasonal programming. David Archuleta brings The Warm Me Up Holiday Tour on December 19 at 8 p.m. Alyssa Edwards performs A Very Alyssa Christmas on December 20 at 7 p.m., and that show is 18+. Both are touring stage shows. Neither is a screening.
Where the films went
The theater still books its films in-house, according to KQED's reopening review. But the November and December film nights are one-off events, mostly presented by festivals and distributors. No seasonal run is on the schedule.
| Date | Film night | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Nov. 2 | Club Kid | Presented by SFFILM, in 35mm |
| Nov. 5 | Elsinore | Presented by Frameline |
| Nov. 8 | Edward Said: Between Worlds | Arab Film Festival |
| Nov. 10 | Tenebre | Claudio Simonetti's Goblin performs the score live |
| Nov. 23 | La Bola Negra | Spanish with English subtitles |
| Dec. 1 | Small Town Gay Bar | 20th-anniversary 4K restoration, hosted by Peaches Christ, with director Malcolm Ingram |
| Dec. 2 | Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall | Paul Thomas Anderson film, Janus/Criterion 35mm; 7:30 p.m. sold out, 9:45 p.m. late show listed |
| Dec. 6 | Circle Jerks x Repo Man | Band set, Q&A with director Alex Cox, then the film; sold out |
December 1 is the closest thing to an old-style Castro night this season. Peaches Christ is hosting, the film is a restoration, and the director is there in person. Doors are at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30. TicketWeb lists general admission at $19.75 plus $2.75 in fees, and student or senior tickets at $17.75 plus the same fee.
The first sing-along on the books comes after the holidays. A Chicago 25th-anniversary sing-along with a performance by Lady Camden is listed for January 9, 2027.
The box office rule that decides your evening
Living within walking distance used to mean you could go on a whim. The theater's FAQ now draws a line. Tickets for every show are sold through apeconcerts.com and thecastro.com, and the box office opens 30 minutes before doors. On the night, the window sells tickets only for in-house movie events, never for concerts.
That gives the holiday calendar two kinds of nights. For the concerts, the chorus and the comedy tapings, you need a ticket bought ahead. For the film nights in the table above, a seat can still be bought at the door if any are left.
A few other rules from the same FAQ:
- The Castro is cashless. Credit cards, debit cards and digital payments are accepted at every point of sale.
- Most shows go on sale on a Friday at 10 a.m., and the venue presale usually starts the Thursday before at 10 a.m. Presale passwords go to the mailing list and to the theater's Instagram, @thecastro_sf.
- The theater warns that tickets bought through third parties may not be valid.
Inside, the room changes with the booking
The renovation is what makes a concert-heavy calendar possible. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that about 650 of the orchestra-level seats are removable. That gives the room roughly 1,150 seats for movies, down from about 1,400 before the renovation, while concerts still hold 1,400. The balcony hasn't changed. Its 500 cast-iron-framed seats are still there, and the Chronicle's review pointed longtime regulars to those seats.
Other parts of the building also change with the booking. KQED reported that the bar at the back of the auditorium is fully removable and is taken out for film screenings. The Mercury News reported that the concession stand is movable. It sits in the lobby during films and moves into the main room for concerts, and the popcorn is made in-house. So a film night this season looks like the old theater, with the lobby concession and no bar. A concert night looks like the new one.
The organ is the clearest example. David Hegarty, the theater's organist since 1978, worked with organ builder Allen Harrah on a new $1 million instrument that the Chronicle called one of the largest in the world. It rose with Hegarty at the reopening, though it had not been tuned yet. The organ is in the building. It isn't on the November or December calendar, and in 2023 it was part of the holiday program.
Listings change, and Another Planet usually adds shows on Friday mornings. A holiday screening could still turn up before December. As of late October, a resident planning around the Castro this season has eight film nights where the box office can sell seats at the door, unless they sell out first, and one Christmas Eve to book early.
Changes at a theater like the Castro shape what a block feels like on a weeknight, and that's part of how we look at homes near Castro Street. If you're thinking about what the theater's new rhythm means for living nearby, Deason Group is glad to talk it over. Contact Us.
