Alamo Drafthouse announced Wednesday that the New Mission Theater will be permanently rechristened the Christopher Nolan Cinema, with the director's name installed in the lobby. The exterior marquee keeps "New Mission."

At 2550 Mission Street, the marquee keeps reading "New Mission." Inside is where the change lands: Alamo Drafthouse announced Wednesday that the theater — a movie house since May 4, 1916 — will be rechristened the Christopher Nolan Cinema. The director's name will be installed "permanently and prominently" in the lobby, according to Variety, which had the announcement as an exclusive. The exterior facade, a 1932 Timothy Pflueger redesign that has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2001, is unchanged.

The 110th-anniversary renaming connects Nolan's years of advocacy for 70mm large-format projection to a building that has shown film on celluloid since the silent era. "San Francisco's New Mission is a beautiful, historic, iconic cinema with more than a century of rich history," Nolan said in a statement. "To be recognized in this way by Alamo Drafthouse, and with this particular theater which continues the great tradition of showing films on 70mm film, is an incredible honour."

CEO Michael Kustermann framed the dedication as a statement about the medium itself. "The same auditorium that ran silent movies in 1916 now has both 70mm celluloid projection sitting beside Barco's state-of-the-art laser projector," he said. "That trajectory feels right for the Christopher Nolan Cinema."

Nolan is the sixth filmmaker or performer to have an Alamo Drafthouse location named in their honor — joining Spike Lee (Brooklyn), Ivan Reitman (Lower Manhattan), Bong Joon Ho (Austin), John Hughes (Chicago), and Pam Grier (Littleton, Colo.).

A curated 70mm screening event, which Nolan will guest-host, is set for later this year; no date has been announced. The dedication arrives about five weeks before Nolan's next film, The Odyssey, opens July 17.

The lobby will carry his name. Out on Mission Street, the tile reads as it always has.