In 1976, Dave Hancock took his wife on their first date to the movies in La'ie. This week, 33 years later, he brought her back to the newly reopened Laie Palms Cinemas, resurrected by a La'ie couple after an abrupt closure in April 2008.

"It's nostalgic for me to come here, with the same woman that I married," said Hancock, a Sunset Beach resident. "We've been patiently waiting, anticipating it opening it up again so that we wouldn't have to drive all the way to Mililani or anywhere else."

Originally from San Luis Obispo, Calif., Don Neilsen moved to La'ie last year so that his wife, Alicen, could complete her undergraduate degree at Brigham Young University-Hawai'i.

"When we first got here, we noticed the theater had been shut down, and we're a couple of movie nuts so we were really discouraged that there was no theater in this area," said Neilsen, who has a business background in banking and finance.

The two talked to the shopping center management, finally reaching an agreement in January of this year to officially reopen the theater, which was previously operated by Wallace Theaters.

The Neilsens overhauled the entire unit, installing a new roof, ceiling tiles, air conditioning, flooring, concession area and lighting. Upgrades were made to the existing sound and projector systems, along with the twin movie screens, which were left behind by the previous owner.

"It was kind of crazy at first because we still had plumbers and people working in here an hour before we opened, and people were lined up in front of the shopping center, kids banging on the glass doors saying 'open up the theater,' so it was chaotic but it was really fun," Neilsen said.

It's been successful, too, with sold-out shows — "Harry Potter 6" and "Ice Age 3" — throughout last weekend's opening and more than half of the theater's 235 seats full for weeknight showings.

"It's always been a good place for us to go for family night or just a weekend getaway," said Hancock. "I think they should have people in here all the time, every night."

The Neilsens will run the theater independently, with mostly first-run movies, and some showing a week after the release date. They also plan to host film festivals and show the occasional foreign film or Latter-day Saints film to cater to the area's large Mormon population.

"We've got a lot of different ideas that we're going to experiment with to see how it works," said Neilsen, who signed a long-term contract and plans to remain in La'ie after his wife's graduation next year.

Still to come is installation of a digital information screen and marquee sign for the theater's exterior. For now, the Neilsens are serving up popcorn with real butter and retro candy for an old-fashioned, community movie experience.

"We saw a need in the community, we're movie-crazy people, and we thought it was a fun project to get involved with," Neilsen said. "We're just trying to have kind of a quaint, unique, quirky movie theater where people can come and have a good time."