Like you I attended movies there as a kid . The only downside was sometimes people in the balcony sent a little popcorn and other stuff down on to those below. Once when the new big movie was The Exorcist , they raised their prices for that movie, which wouldn't be tolerated in today's market . You are correct that many have tried and failed to make a go of this building. Years ago when the current owners at the time announced plans to tear down the building and turn it into a building that paid for itself , politicians at the time put the city buying it to preserve it on the ballot. The vote failed . Voting with their own tax money on the line they said let it get torn down. With each passing year fewer and fewer people have any connection to that building , making it less worth saving.  Heck , if you ask the average person in Anchorage what the Campbell Classic was and 80 percent wouldn't have a clue . Ask them where the library downtown was and they wouldn't know.  Time to move on.