More examples of cinemas

This article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "Uptown movie theaters were once about facades, ceilings. Now they are about luxury chairs, cocktails," makes the interesting point that the focus of modern cinemas has shifted from a focus on the exterior of the building, to the experientially-oriented benefits package offered to the movie-goer or the interior experience.  Also see "Is there a future for neighborhood theaters in the Twin Cities?," which makes the point that if you don't patronize local theaters they can't survive.

The Los Angeles Times writes about the rise in retro movie showing and going ("Retro movies are hitting big at the box office. Why cinephiles and theaters are going back in time").

1.  In the past, I've written about multi-site nonprofit groups running cinemas in Seattle and how this is a model to keep places open ("Seattle preservation: Pike Place Market, Neptune Theater, and the Cinerama," 2021).  Apparently, it's not working out for the Seattle International Film Festival, which bought the historic Cinerama from the Paul Allen estate ("SIFF lays off staff amid financial challenges," Seattle Times).

I think it's partly because of a post-covid drop in people going out more generally, plus past problems with order in Downtown.

2. "Saving the Garden movie house in Greenfield," Boston Globe


The cinema, a key anchor of the community's downtown, is owned by a resident couple and run as a for profit. Necessary renovations and the $500,000 cost to accommodate digital delivery of movies have been significant costs.

3.  Expansion of the Coolidge Corner Cinema, Boston ("Coolidge Corner Theatre unveils $14m expansion that’s nothing short of cinematic," Boston Globe).

These are just some of the expansion’s marquee features: a pair of theaters that offer an additional 200 seats, an indoor lobby where moviegoers can buy popcorn and beer at the same time, and a third-floor education and events center with sweeping views of Brookline and beyond. 

All told, the $14 million, three-story addition to the rear of the original structure gives the Coolidge six working theaters. The generously proportioned lobby, with sly Art Deco nods to the original building, houses the new box office, so guests no longer have to wait outside in bad weather. Plentiful bathrooms offer amenities on every floor, the education center doubles as a screening room, and projectionists no longer have to clamber up the fire escape to bring film cans to the upper booth. 

Less obvious, perhaps, is that the 14,000-square-foot expansion is the brick-and-mortar embodiment of the Coolidge’s twin ambitions: It promises to secure the art house’s financial future by strengthening its earning potential, while also burnishing the theater’s reputation as a leading regional center for film and culture. 

“This really brings us into that next level,” said Katherine Tallman, executive director and chief executive of the foundation that operates the nonprofit Coolidge. “There won’t be a better place to see a movie.” 

The theater leaned into its repertory programming after it reopened during the pandemic, showing old classics, foreign films, midnight movies, and more. The result: The Coolidge is less dependent on new films than most theaters, last year garnering some 30 percent of revenue from this type of programming. 

But people will only pay so much for a movie ticket. And with four theaters, the Coolidge could only fill so many seats, even as demand (and expenses) continued to rise. “We’re revenue-capped in the current space ... Two additional theaters will not only mean more seats, she said, but will also allow the theater to offer more diverse programming, enabling it to fulfill its daily screenings obligations to distributors, while also beefing up its repertory offerings. 

The Noyo Theater’s neon is a mainstay of Willits’ evening ambiance. Photo taken in December 2024. Matt LaFever/SFGATE

4.  The Noyo Theater in California's North Coast ("A movie theater clings to life in California's 'Gateway to the Redwoods'," San Francisco Chronicle).

Hutchins laid out the theater’s financial reality six months into the endeavor: “We paid $650,000 for the theater. Right now, we’re losing about $9,000 a month. The building’s old and expensive to heat and cool, plus California’s minimum wage is $16.50. What people don’t realize is 60% of ticket sales go directly to the studios. Hard to make money under that model.” 

Devine has bold ideas for boosting revenue. In October 2024, they hosted a successful John Carpenter horror film festival and plan to organize more. Last fall, the theater proved its potential for live events by hosting a comedy show, further expanding its entertainment offerings. With its versatile space, the venue could become a hub for concerts, theater performances and community events.

The Guild 45th Theatre, in Wallingford across the freeway from the U District, closed in 2017. (Peter Liddell / The Seattle Times, 1982)

5.  U District Seattle as a hub of cinema on the decline ("Seattle’s U District no longer the moviegoing hub it once was," Seattle Times).  From the article:

Of course, movie-loving University of Washington students these days don’t need to go out to see “Moonstruck,” or any other title, like we did in the ’80s and ’90s, and that’s in large part why these once-magical spaces are gone. We stay home and stream, where it’s comfortable and there aren’t strangers sitting next to us texting at inappropriate moments. And for most of us that works just fine. I thought it worked fine for me, when I stayed home watching movies for 15 months during the pandemic — but when I finally saw a movie in a theater again, I suddenly remembered why I’d missed it: the bigness, the darkness, the place where I could lose myself and once again be that very young woman dazzled by movies. In a column I wrote in 2021, after that first screening back, I noted that there isn’t a practical justification for going out to the movies, “except that it’s wonderful, and maybe that’s enough.”

6.  A mayor threatened a local cinema for showing a film from the Palestinian perspective ("Miami Beach mayor drops proposal to evict O Cinema for ‘No Other Land’ screening," Miami Herald).

7.  "Classic movie theaters are making a comeback around Philly," Philadelphia Inquirer.  Like the article from the LAT, retro programming is a point of differentiation in a declining market.

Single-screen movie theaters in urban downtowns and on small town main streets began closing nationwide in the late 1940s with the advent of television. This cultural shift also was driven by competition from new theaters near or inside suburban malls and shopping centers. 

“In the 1980s and ’90s, movie theaters helped generate foot traffic for suburban malls,” said Daniel Loria, a senior vice president at the film trade publication Box Office Pro. The launch of online movie streaming platforms — Netflix was first in 2007 — as well as the pandemic kept away people who otherwise would have watched movies in theaters. 

According to the most recent data available from the Cinema Foundation, the number of screens in the United States declined from 41,172 in 2018 to 39,007 in 2022. 

The 2004 opening of the nonprofit Bryn Mawr Film Institute in the former Bryn Mawr movie theater in Lower Merion preserved screens and demonstrated that a mix of classic films, film series, classes, and current movies could breathe life into old theaters. ”We’re not simply taking what Hollywood is giving us, like a Despicable Me 10,” said Collier, whose theaters are in the center of Doylestown, Jenkintown, Ambler, and Princeton.

“Movie theaters are now boosting foot traffic for restaurants and coffee shops in local downtowns,” said Loria.

The Gap Theatre opened in 1949 in the town of Wind Gap. It shut down in January 2020, reopening in March. Photo: Stephen Silver

8.  "The hottest ‘new’ movie theater this summer is a two hours’ drive from Philly," 

In a Northampton County town of fewer than 3,000 people — about two hours’ drive from Center City — a newly restored movie theater is drawing crowds with an ambitious programming schedule that rivals many urban repertory cinemas.

The Gap Theatre, in the town of Wind Gap, first opened in 1949. After operating as a first-run theater for a time, it closed its doors in January 2020, shortly before the pandemic. Revived in March, it now shows all kinds of older films, from acclaimed classics to genre films to rarities, six days a week, with more than 50 films a month. And that includes plenty of double and triple features.

... “What Harry, Michael, and Kaitlyn have done is not only bring NYC-style repertory programming to a nonurban space, but also revitalize a small-town cinema — giving it a second life when it might easily have sat vacant, eventually sold off to developers eager to turn it into a parking lot or something equally soulless,” said Santelli, who long worked at Ardmore’s Viva Video and now programs at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville.

Eltrym Theater.

9.  When traveling to the Oregon Coast, came across this cinema on a street parallel to the main street.  

Photo in the daytime.

I'm sure it's well known to residents, but would be missed by travelers unwilling to explore ("Secret Screens: Your Guide to Oregon’s Best Unsung Movie Theaters," Willamette Week). 

They offer a loyalty program which provides various types of awards, including free admission, based on patronage.

10.  "Reinvigorated as Row House Hollywood, an old Dormont theater is almost ready to 'bring some energy'," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

With the former Hollywood Theater’s grand reopening only two months away, Dormont businesses and residents are gearing up to once again have a cinema in the heart of their community.

The theater on Potomac Avenue has shuttered a few times in recent years, including in 2008, again in 2010 and, most recently, in 2023. Rebranded as Row House Hollywood, it is slated to open to the public on Nov. 6, with a film nearly as old as the theater itself — Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent classic “Metropolis.”

Owner Brian Mendelssohn, who also runs Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville, estimated the theater will bring anywhere from 300 to 1,000 people to Dormont daily, and that has some residents and surrounding businesses excited for the expected impact on the area’s vitality.

The tough thing about cinemas and commercial district revitalization is that a lot of the patrons only want to do one thing, see the film.  Perhaps the cinema could work with restaurants to provide meal + cinema promotions and deals.

Fitting in with the LAT article on retro cinema, the operator, Row House Cinemas, says it's focused on providing experiences, not just a film showing, so there is potential.