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Friday, March 29, 2024

The Demise of NYC’s Old Movie Houses and What Comes Next

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Many years ago, New York was the home of majestic movie houses with lavish decoration, showing a single movie to a room with approximately 1,800 seats. Each neighborhood strived to have one of these places, and it served as the social anchor of the communities. Over time, however, televisions presented a hard hit to the allure of the movie houses and in the 1970s the financial crisis made things worse. Of late, the high cost of modernizing theaters for digital projection, coupled with the rising value of real estate dealt the final blow. Now, we have multiplexes, home entertainment systems, and of course streaming on cell phones and tablets. We also have the large abandoned buildings that used to serve as theatres, but are now empty.

As reported in a recent article by Crain’s NY, over two dozen movie palaces that were built between 1910 and 1932 have been closed down or demolished. Of the buildings still erect, many were reimagined into retail stores, gyms, ballrooms, or quite commonly churches.

The trade-off has not always been appreciated by the community members. In 2013, when the American Theater in Parkchester closed, it left the 1.4 million residents of the Bronx with a new Marshalls, and just two multiplexes in town. The same thing is happening at the Coliseum at West 181st Street in Washington Heights. The 1920s building has been vacant since 2011. Now, BLDG has proposed to raze the building a make a new shopping mall. Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez is less than thrilled. “We don’t need more Marshalls and Targets,” Rodriguez said. “They [BLDG] did not respond to or reach out to the community board, the BID or our office to discuss their plans. This is not the best way to enter a community. They need to be responsible to their investors but also to the community. They are not respecting us.”

What politicians and community leaders would like to see is an about-face such as the one at Loews Kings Theatre in Flatbush. It was shuttered in 1977 and remained so for decades, but the city, which owned it, aligned with a private developer to make a sweeping $95 million renovation. The palace reopened in 2015 as a performance space for live shows. Its success has triggered a neighborhood revival, with a new gym and a hotel opened up nearby. “You need to have places for people to gather and share experiences, to celebrate music or culture in a positive environment, whether it’s a movie theater or something else,” said Tyler Bates, the venue’s general manager.

The future still remains a question for many more movie houses, among them the beautiful, old, art deco movie house in the Upper West side. Metro, opened in 1933 on Broadway between 99th and 100th streets, with a stunning display of glazed medallions and Greek symbols. In its prime, it presented Marx Brothers comedies and romances starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. At a low point in the 1970s, it became an adult-only film theater. Since 2006, it has just sat dark and empty, shuttered to the world.

Albert Bialek, the theater’s owner since 1989, has had offers over the years. Prospects included Urban Outfitters, an arts nonprofit, an Alamo movie theater, a Blink Fitness and, most recently, a Planet Fitness, but the deals always fell through. Now the owner has announced that the Metro is on the verge of revival. Bialik did not yet disclose the details, but has said that he is close to signing a deal to sell the partially landmarked building to nonprofit, and that the building will once again serve to improve the quality of life for the local community. The Big Apple awaits.

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