HOT SPRINGS - The wait is over for moviegoers here going through withdrawal for the past few weeks.

Roy Reintenbaugh, manager of the Hot Springs theater said that after being closed for the past four weeks for repairs and installation of a new hot-water heating system, the theater re-opened May 1, showing "Fast and Furious 4."

"We have replaced the heating system," Reitenbaugh said. "But I have also done a lot of work on problem spots in the ceiling, patching them and making it look nicer." New lenses for the projector were also added.

Another major project was to move the movie screen.

"I built this wall, which is 22 feet high and the width of the stage," he said. "We had to move the screen seven feet further out from the wall." He said that he didn't expect people to notice any difference in watching movies.

Other films on tap for the summer will be the popular "Hannah Montana" film, along with the new Pixar release "Monsters vs. Aliens," Reitenbaugh said.

"Unfortunately, while 'Monsters vs. Aliens' is a 3-D movie, we won't be able to show it here in 3-D," Reitenbaugh said. "They aren't releasing it three-dimensional on film; it's only coming out digitally."

The conversion to complete digital movies is a few years away, he figures, but the time is coming. "It will be expensive to do, but there are more and more movies that are done in only a digital format."

Also planned for the summer are more silent movies with music provided by the Hot Springs Community Band, and a "homemade" movie by a woman from Newcastle, Wyo.

"I don't know a lot about it yet," Reitenbaugh said, "but she said it was about a woman from New York who moves to Wyoming to become a rancher. She told me that all the actors are her family, so they worked free of charge. I think it's a comedy."

Reitenbaugh said construction on the 79-year-old facility began in 1929, with a grand opening on June 1, 1930, when the silent movie "Byrd at the South Pole" was shown. He said he replayed the movie on the theater's 75th anniversary, at the original prices. "Fifty cents for adults and 20 cents for kids," he said, chuckling.

Reitenbaugh is also working on something of a throwback to earlier times, as he plans on opening a drive-in theater near Hermosa, perhaps later this summer or next year. "I'm working on it," he said. "I think it could be fun and nostalgic. I have the equipment already, I just as well put it to use, don't you think?"