The Sunset Theatre is located in Connell, a small town in Eastern Washington. It was built in 1952 by August Aubert and was originally called the Aubert Theatre. The name was changed to The Sunset Theatre in the late 1950s because of several damaged marquee letters and also the fact that people had trouble pronouncing "Aubert" correctly. The word "Sunset" was made from "Aubert" by replacing only three letters on the marquee. In 1952 Connell had a population of less than 500 people. The Theatre was designed for a seating capacity of 500, but during construction it was decided that 384 seats would be plenty. While there is still room for the extra seats, they were never added. Connell currently has a population of about 3,000 and the current seating capacity of The Sunset Theatre is 372.

The Theatre first opened on September 4th, 1952. The first movie played was "The Wild North" with Stewart Granger & Cyd Charisse. In the early days of the theatre, before television had become widely popular there were shows six days a week, and two features per week. Cartoons and newsreels were also part of the show. Installed in the theatre was the latest technology in picture and sound. The theatre had two projectors, which was required of all theatres due to the limitations of the light source of the time. Since each reel of a movie was only about 20 minutes long, the two projectors took turns during the movie. The theatre also had the capability of showing dual projector 3D movies by synchronizing both projectors to run at the same time. This type of 3D movie could never be much longer than 40 minutes though and they soon stopped making them that way. The Theatre also had an elaborate sound system that was the very latest in technology. It was actually two sound systems connected by a complex switching system. The theatre could play standard monaural movies or the latest in four channel magnetic stereo films. They soon stopped producing magnetic stereo films and so most of the old sound system and most of the speakers until recently have been virtually unused. In 1993 a new four channel sound system was installed which made use of all the existing speakers in the ceiling and behind the screen. Recently a subwoofer and 12 additional surround speakers were added.

August Aubert sold the theatre in the 1970s and it went through a series of owners. A video store was added in the 1980s in the space that was at one time a Cable TV Office and Dentist's Office. The current owners, Dirk and Jeri Reinauer bought the theatre and video store in 1992. All the seats in the theatre are the originals as is the popcorn machine, which still puts out a great batch of fresh popcorn for every show. Also still in good working condition are the two original projectors although only one is required now.

For most of the year the theatre is open three nights a week (Friday to Sunday),
and during the summer months it is open five nights (Friday to Tuesday).

Each August The Sunset Theatre is host to "The Summer Rocks Show," a live concert event featuring local and regional bands.

Showtime is 7:30pm for all shows except the occasional 2:00pm Saturday Matinee.

Dirk and Jeri Reinauer would like to thank the people of Connell for supporting their local Movie Theatre!