Im currently in the process of running all of my speaker wire for the theater and had a couple of questions. The theater has two rows of seating, first at about 12' and the second at about 18'. I have a soffit that is at about 20' and drops 12". Is it ok to mount the the two rears (7.1 setup) either in the soffit wall facing the screen wall or even in the ceiling just in front of the soffit? The speakers will only be about 1.5' behind the second row, is that enough room? Also, is there any way to hook up 2 pairs of side surrounds (one for each row) to one 7.1 reciever so that there will be a total of 4 speakers running on the L and R surround channels? Thanks for the help.

Is it ok to mount the the two rears (7.1 setup) either in the soffit wall facing the screen wall or even in the ceiling just in front of the soffit? The speakers will only be about 1.5' behind the second row, is that enough room? .

Depending on the speaker, that can be okay.

Also, is there any way to hook up 2 pairs of side surrounds (one for each row) to one 7.1 reciever so that there will be a total of 4 speakers running on the L and R surround channels? Thanks for the help

Depends on the amp and for that matter the speakers. Likely you would need to split each signal to separate amps that could then feed each speaker. So for example with my pre-amp, I can get a splitter cable from the pre for each channel and feed each to a separate channel of an amp. You would need a total of 9 amp channels to do it this way. With separates, it wouldn't be difficult. If you have an integrated receiver, I don't know if wiring in parallel or is series will work for you.

Also, is there any way to hook up 2 pairs of side surrounds (one for each row) to one 7.1 reciever so that there will be a total of 4 speakers running on the L and R surround channels?

With a receiver like the Denon 3808 or 4310, you can have A and B side surrounds. That's how I hooked up my older 3806 and it works just fine!!