Rick Steves purchases Edmonds Theater
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
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| The Edmonds Theater |
By Teresa Wippel
Edmonds-based European travel guide and philanthropist Rick Steves announced on social media Tuesday that he has purchased the Edmonds Theater.
“Fun news: I just bought the Edmonds Theater,” Steves said in a video post on Facebook. He noted that the Edmonds Theater, located at 415 Main St. in Edmonds, is “playing a great little movie called The Last Picture Shows. It’s about the plight of small theaters in our country and the reality that many theaters are going out of business. It’s showing Aug. 28-Sept. 3. (My Edmonds News wrote about the screening of The Last Picture Shows in our earlier post here.)
“As a neighbor, I think I can speak for all of us when I say, ‘We love our Edmonds theater,’ and we’d be sad to see it close,” Steves continued. “Notice I said, ‘OUR theater.’ That’s because I’ve purchased this 100-year-old theater to ensure that it will continue to grace Main Street here in our town well into the future.
“I’m happy to announce that this theater will stay a part of our community — and to remind you that your continued support of our Edmonds theater is much appreciated,” he added.
Inspired by the showing of The Last Picture Shows, Steves announced in the video post he was hosting a celebration of the theater purchase during the Aug. 31 documentary screening. While that Aug. 31 event has already sold out, he encouraged community members to attend one of the other Last Picture Shows screenings, which run Aug. 28-Sept. 3. You can learn more here.
In addition, Steves told My Edmonds News Tuesday that he is planning a larger community event at a later date to celebrate the theater purchase.
Learn more about the history of the Edmonds Theater in this August 2022 Looking Back column by Byron Wilkes here.
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12 comments:
Best news in a long time.
Ummm, it's actually The Last Picture Show. It's a great movie. A singular movie, even.
I've been a fan of Rick since his early TV travelogue. I kept notes for years and when I finally had the chance to travel to Italy, France, Germany those notes were a guide. His purchase of the Edmonds theater seems so very fitting.
We've never met but It fits my view that's he is a really good guy.
We are so damn lucky to have this wonderful, generous, talented man to grace our community. Thank you Rick Steves!
Kudos Mr. Steves, or is it Steve Ricks? ;-)
https://cinema.cafilm.org/film/the-last-picture-shows
The Last Pictures Shows is a 2026 documentary about struggling small movie theaters in small towns.
“Look for the helpers” - Fred Roger’s Mr. Steves is one of the helpers. I grew up in Edmonds and felt fortunate to be able to save up my paper route money and go the Edmonds theater. Thank you Rick!
He is talking about a documentary called The last picture shows
This is wonderful news; the world needs more community minded philanthropists like Rick Steves.
He's not moving to Florida anytime soon. Haven't heard anything about him getting a huge yacht built. Glad he makes this area his home.
Nick Hanauer is a similar person. Rich and understands the importance of giving back.
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