A man in Brazil turned his childhood dream into a small cinema for film lovers

Carlos Costa would never forget the summer day his grandmother took him to the movies. He was 6 years old when he first walked into a dark theater to watch “O Trapalhão nas Minas do Rei Salomão,” a 1977 Brazilian comedy that remains one of the country’s biggest box office hits.

“When I saw that giant screen, wow, I was mesmerized. I thought: someday I’ll have a movie theater of my own,” he said. “Fifty years later, that dream has come true.”

In 2022, Costa opened Cine LT3, a 35-seat cinema in Sao Paulo. Using his savings and credit card, he spent about 100,000 reais ($18,600) to renovate an old garage, buy vintage wooden seats — which he found in an old shuttered theater in the countryside — and transform the space into a movie theater.

The screening room now occupies what was once a studio — a space behind