Balboa Theatre marks 100 years with films, mural, neighborhood celebration

The Balboa Theatre’s Spanish Mission facade has anchored Balboa Street near 38th Avenue for 100 years, and the Richmond District turned out Saturday night to mark a movie house many San Franciscans still treat like a neighborhood landmark. The centennial celebration brought free screenings, a newly unveiled tile mural and a tribute to costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers, underscoring how much of the city’s film memory still lives in one local theater.

The Balboa opened on February 27, 1926, after being commissioned by Samuel H. Levin and designed by James and Merritt Reid in a Spanish Mission and Alhambra style meant to fit the neighborhood. It is widely described as one of San Francisco’s oldest continuously operating movie theaters and one of the city’s last remaining neighborhood theaters still in operation. The anniversary itself fell in February, but the public celebration ran as part of a weeklong centennial program from April 13 to 19.

At the center of the celebration was a mural titled A Century of Filmmaking in San Francisco, created by Sandow Birk and Elyse Pignolet. The piece was designed to honor a century of city filmmaking by depicting 48 San Francisco movies, a visual roster that ties the Balboa’s survival to the larger history of local film culture. The artists had completed the installation just days earlier, after an eight-day project.

The theater also used the centennial to honor Aggie Guerard Rodgers with the first annual Balboa Award. Rodgers’ work spans American Graffiti, The Conversation, Return of the Jedi, Fruitvale Station, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, The Witches of Eastwick and The Color Purple, making her an apt figure for a program built around San Francisco film history and craft. Local filmmaker Joe Talbot attended the celebration, joining the crowd that came out to see one of the city’s most familiar cultural institutions take a bow.

Behind the celebration was a harder business reality. Adam Bergeron, who co-directs the theater’s activities with his wife and partner Jaimi Holker, said the Balboa’s recent transition to nonprofit ownership matters because small theaters need community support to survive in perpetuity. CinemaSFBay says the Balboa began transitioning to nonprofit ownership in 2025, and that it also operates the Vogue and 4-Star theaters. The Balboa now presents more than 500 films a year across its two screens, a reminder that the old neighborhood movie house is still working for its audience, not just being remembered by it.