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It’s 7 p.m. on a weeknight at Academy Cinemas, the dollar theater five blocks from PCC. Middle-aged hipsters huddle outside discussing the prospective merits of their film choice within earshot of a cardboard cutout of Charlie Chaplin. The Little Tramp purses his lips and stares quizzically, silently inviting patrons to step up and pay their three bucks (two for the matinee).Walk farther into the theater and you’ll find PCC student Ali Rodriguez, 19, manning a concession stand where hot dogs go for a whopping $1. She’s been working at the Academy after school and on the weekends for four months. It’s a choice job, since it’s long been her favorite movie theater.

She’s not the only one. With its so-cheap-it-may-as-well-be-free ticket prices and a varied film selection, the Academy holds a special place in the hearts of many at PCC.

The theater sees its fair share of backpack-luggers stopping in after or in-between classes, according to Rodriguez.

“It’s so close by and a lot of people have these huge breaks, so they come here to wait it out,” she explained.

Dave Cuatt is assistant professor of digital imaging and a longtime patron of the Academy. (How longtime? On his first visit, he saw an installment in the original “Indiana Jones” series.)

Taking exception with only the $1 hot dogs (“It’s mystery meat cooked by someone making minimum wage after it’s been reheated six more times – a real lottery ticket there.”) Cuatt loves the Academy the way a dollar theater should be loved – warts and all.

“Sometimes it’s seemed a little dirtier than other times, but that’s part of the charm, I guess. If they had a $3 movie theater that was super clean, it wouldn’t feel quite the same,” he said.

Yes, the ArcLight it’s not. The theater’s without the fancy $14-a-seat trappings of the Sunset Boulevard movie house megalith, but at $3 a pop, who needs fancy?

There’s no stadium seating, but there’s enough of an incline that you’re not craning your neck to see past the preternaturally tall guy in front of you. The floor paint’s a little less than pristine and the screen projection’s a little scratchy, like a noisy old-time photo, but eyes belonging to the frugal quickly adjust.

The theater should also be noted for its wide-ranging film offerings. Beneath the neon pink block letters reading “ACADEMY,” the current marquee listing is characteristic of the theater’s selection. There are Oscar nominees on their last leg (“Milk,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), mainstream kids’ flicks (“Hotel For Dogs”) and the independent films the theaters become known for running (“Two Lovers,” “The Wrestler”).

Opened in 1939, replete with balconies and sweeping crimson curtains, the theater was originally the single-house FOX Colorado Theatre. Later, it became the Egyptian Theatre and at some point, in the rascally ’80s, it was streamlined and divided into six screening rooms. Six or seven years ago, Regency Cinema took over.

Cuatt, like a true aficionado, is up on his history.

“It was this big old theater, with kind of sticky floors, and, you know, torn seats and you thought, ‘This must have been really glorious once. Poor thing.'”

“Then [after the reconstruction], you thought, ‘Oh, they’ve cut it into pieces – how terrible.’ But no one went to it when it was not cut into pieces,” he reported.

In spite of all that slicing up, in small ways, the theater hints at a long past luster – a curvaceous motif engraved on the entrance floor here, an ornate silver water fountain there.

Assistant manager Jerry Fairall, a soft-spoken blond who’s been at Regency Cinemas for six years, did his part to reveal an illustrious former life.

“Because the theater was so close to the studios, they used to hold a lot of premieres here. Later, we premiered the original “Star Wars” movie,” he said, the fan in him perking up.

If you ask Fairall about how his theater stacks up to the megaplexes, he’ll give you an honest assessment.

“It’s not your mega-surround sound that’s going to kill your ear drums. It’s basic stereo surround sound, decent-sized screens – what more can you get for your money?” he asked, the Catholic church bells from “Doubt” playing in a theater next door ringing through his words.

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