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When the Sundance 608 Cinema opened at the Hilldale Shopping Center in 2007, it was heralded as the first of its kind in the country.

It included a coffee and snack bar with oversized leather chairs in a room surrounded by art, a second-floor bistro and cocktail lounge, rooftop bar and wireless internet at a time when smartphones were only in the hands of a relative few. The movies on its six screens were aimed at those who cherished independent films, not Hollywood blockbusters found at mainstream theaters.

And the founder, who missed the opener but showed up a few months later for a secret visit, couldn’t have been happier.

"It's difficult to find the right balance of the vision of your soul and your heart and the values of a community, but I think we did that,” Robert Redford told a group of about 30 dignitaries in May 2007. "Film experiences assault your senses. We were looking for something more relaxed, more respectful, more calm.”

Now Madison's Sundance is part of one of the biggest movie theater companies in the world and has undergone another name change. AMC Theatres, which operates about 900 theaters and more than 10,000 screens around the globe, has announced that Sundance 608 is now AMC Dine-In Theatres – Movies with a Menu.