Grazie!!!

Era la soluzione che cercavo.

posto per completezza

codice:
public class form1

..
..

 Private Sub Button3_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles salva_ogg.Click

        Dim Formatter As New BinaryFormatter
        'Crea un nuovo file su cui salvare l'oggetto
        Dim File As New FileStream("cinema.dat", IO.FileMode.Create)
        Dim nom As New FileStream("nomecinema.dat", IO.FileMode.Create)
        Dim varbo As New FileStream("salvato.dat", FileMode.Create)

        salvato = True
        Try
            Formatter.Serialize(File, cinema)
            Formatter.Serialize(nom, cinema_name)
            Formatter.Serialize(varbo, salvato)

            MsgBox("salvato!")
        Catch ex As SerializationException
            MsgBox("non ci si riesce perchè.. " & ex.Message)
            Throw
        Finally
            File.Close()
            nom.Close()
            varbo.Close()

        End Try

Public Sub carica_ult_config()

        Dim varbool As New FileStream("salvato.dat", FileMode.Open)
        Dim formatter As New BinaryFormatter


        Try
            salvato = DirectCast(formatter.Deserialize(varbool), Boolean)

        Catch ex As SerializationException
            varbool.Close()
            Exit Sub
        End Try

        MsgBox("vuoi caricare ultima configurazione?", 3)
        varbool.Close()
        cinema_name = ""


    End Sub



    Private Sub form1_Shown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Shown
        carica_ult_config()
    End Sub
End Class
Ps: forse si potrebbe cambiare il titolo del thread in: [VB 2010 win form] caricare file.dat in fase di apertura