[3] The theater has hosted visits from several well-known filmmakers and celebrities, such as Terry Gilliam, Michael Moore, Peter Fonda, Cyd Charisse, and many others.

[1] It was designed in Art Deco style, seated 312 people,[2] in addition to a meeting area in the basement for film students.

The Campus Theater closed in 1989,[1] however it was reopened in 1995 under the name Oak Street Cinema under the direction of Bob Cowgill (formerly a professor at Augsburg University), Barry Hans and Randy Carpenter.

Cowgill's successor, Jamie Hook, was fired in September 2005 for mismanaging the budget and missing grant application deadlines.

By the beginning of 2006, the board of the Minnesota Film Arts publicly considered selling the theater, resulting in a protest by Cowgill and community members, under the auspices of the group Save The Oak, which they created for that cause.