A gloriously old-school second-run theater in the Sunnyside neighborhood, joined at the hip to a nickel arcade where the games still take five-cent tokens. The Avalon plays recent releases on two screens at famously low prices — about as affordable and unpretentious as moviegoing gets in Portland. Tickets are sold at the box office only.
The Avalon opened in 1912 as the Sunnyside Theatre, making it the oldest continuously operating movie theater in Portland. It took the Avalon name around 1931, and in 1964 new owner John McKee divided it into Portland's first multi-screen cinema. Today it anchors Electric Castle's Wunderland — a classic nickel arcade of more than 100 games — and still shows budget second-run films behind its Art Deco facade on SE Belmont Street.