Technology of cinema -as in other innovations and inventions- similar to photography, car, railway, telegraph, and telephone was the product of modern scientific research. Modernity within the context of early cinema may refer to various patterns of production, reception, or exhibition. Early cinema, thus, created new patterns for exhibition purposes that were different than other entertainments. “Movie Theater Wonders” explores how film exhibitions, cinema-going and cinema’s modern technology established a new type of spectacle culture and attempted to sustain a modernized infrastructure via the institutionalization of permanent movie theaters in imperial Istanbul. After the mid-1910s, the gradual increase of movie theaters in the capital caused immense infrastructural changes. Initiatives of foreign film companies and entrepreneurs as well as strategies and practices of the central government and municipal organizations established a new way of exhibition which was profitable for business and safe for audiences. These spatially bounded commercial venues, be them converted from theater buildings or other uses; and newly built ones specifically for film exhibition purposes, underwent changes. The threat of fire especially created concern among officials and fear among audiences. Air quality of the venues, heating, lighting, seating arrangements, exits, emergency precautions, and projector room specifications all had to meet new standards of modern amenities. Through analysis of municipal reports, newspaper articles, and memoirs, this paper suggests that movie theater exhibition practices were challenged by the unsettled issue of infrastructural inadequacy and technological needs within the larger process of Ottoman modernization. Early cinema exhibition in Istanbul was one of the aspects of urbanization, regulatory legislation and modern life at the turn of the century.