What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about?

[Dennis Benjamin]

Scott,

With the articles you mention, I'm sure some of them mention more than one location closing. For example: The 5 or 6 that just closed in Texas with the Alamo Drafthouse announcement. Also, how many locations have closed and were never mentioned in a news article?

Those June 2023 to June 2024 active theatre numbers are gut wrenching.

[Scott Jentsch]

159 days into the year 2024. I don't have the exact numbers, but I had been keeping track and lost count at 100, - but I'm fairly certain that at least 150 movie theatres have closed in the United States so far this year. Possibly more? Maybe even as many days as there are in the year so far.

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I've been trying to keep up with the closings here:

https://www.bigscreen.com/journal.php?keyword=26

I count 62 articles since Jan 1, so there's at least that many that have closed. I'm sure there are some that I have missed, or just didn't have time to document other than closing their entry on our site.

On June 27, 2023, we listed 5,451 active theaters in the US showing movies and now there are 5,196 (-255).

In October 2019, that number was 5,849.

[Max Fetter]

Angelica Film Center in Plano, TX has closed.

https://www.angelikablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/PlanoClosure.pdf

[Ryan Gallagher]

I was gonna share the Alamo story, this one made it sound like it was more Austin centric, but really it's about the Dallas/Woody franchise too.

https://www.kxan.com/news/business/6...uld-come-back/

Financially I think the Alamo situation is mostly about their franchised chains.

although there is also the resurgence of a unionizing effort at many Alamos too:

https://youtu.be/3Fmfuvo8UIs?si=9bvoy7lT7_nNe2qa

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Jim, Go figure... An interesting announcement tonight on Linkedin from MIT is they were awarded a multi million dollar contract from Alamo to equip a new Alamo Draft House in Indianoplis... So is Alamo actually hurting? Or just closing under performing sites?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

159 days into the year 2024. I don't have the exact numbers, but I had been keeping track and lost count at 100, - but I'm fairly certain that at least 150 movie theatres have closed in the United States so far this year. Possibly more? Maybe even as many days as there are in the year so far.

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There's gonna be a glut of used gear auctioned off from the bankrupt locations... hopefully some laser projectors in the mix. I remember the auction of equipment at the theaters next to the Cinerama Dome when all that shut down, it was a lot of stuff. Mostly Series 1 projectors though...

[Dennis Benjamin]

159 days into the year 2024. I don't have the exact numbers, but I had been keeping track and lost count at 100, - but I'm fairly certain that at least 150 movie theatres have closed in the United States so far this year. Possibly more? Maybe even as many days as there are in the year so far.

0_0

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Quoting Scotty Wright- "All Five Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Locations In Dallas-Fort Worth Close "
--> Alamo also announced today their Woodbury MN location would be closing also.

Probably not related but it was exactly a year ago this week Alamo fired most of the projection staff members at many of
their locations, especially if they were in the union (IATSE) or seeking to unionize. I know know what you're thinking--
-- that this sort of thing is illegal- - - but there are all sorts of sneaky legal loopholes corporations use all the time to get
around this. I've worked for several large corporations in my so called career, and have seen this many times. It's my
understanding that complaints were filed with the NLRB, but those can take years to wind their way through the courts,
and in the meantime those affected wind up laid off in unemployment limbo, like several people I know who got canned.

I will have to say that sort of the opposite happened to me when I was in Local 110 and working as the day time operator at The Logan Theater.. In my case both General Cinema's and Cineplex's contracts expired at midnight on the same day. They refused to sign new contracts with the Local, and I had gotten wind of what was going to happen a few weeks before it did... Hence it pretty much eliminated about 400 some members overnight, some of them very long time members, service tech's, etc. Since I was a fairly new member of about a year, I knew I'd be one of those let go. So instead I left the union and went on my own. Today Local 110 still exists as a fraction of what the Union once was, but now they mainly cover shows and special events. When I was working on movies I still paid my IA dues and fees as though I was a member, even though I was not a member of any particular Union.

Below is a link to an interesting article about Local 110...

https://deadline.com/2015/09/mob-relatives-drawing-pensions-chicago-iatse-projectionists-endangered-plan-1201504406/

[Jim Cassedy]

Quoting Scotty Wright- "All Five Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Locations In Dallas-Fort Worth Close "
--> Alamo also announced today their Woodbury MN location would be closing also.

Probably not related but it was exactly a year ago this week Alamo fired most of the projection staff members at many of
their locations, especially if they were in the union (IATSE) or seeking to unionize. I know know what you're thinking--
-- that this sort of thing is illegal- - - but there are all sorts of sneaky legal loopholes corporations use all the time to get
around this. I've worked for several large corporations in my so called career, and have seen this many times. It's my
understanding that complaints were filed with the NLRB, but those can take years to wind their way through the courts,
and in the meantime those affected wind up laid off in unemployment limbo, like several people I know who got canned.

[Scott Jentsch]

Openings:

• The Greenport Theatre in Greenport, New York reopened as the North Fork Arts Center - Sapan Greenport Theatre on May 24
• The Eton Square 6 Cinemas in Tulsa, Oklahoma reopened May 24
• The Downer Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has reopened under new management after Landmark Theatres closed it in September
• The Phoenix Theatres - Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted, Ohio will be opening June 13 (closed as the Regal Great Northern Mall & RPX in Jan 2023)
• The Premiere Cinemas - Texas City PREMIERE LUX Cine 12 in Texas City, Texas is now open

Closings:

• The Kearney Cinema 8 in Kearney, Nebraska closed May 16
• The Marcus College Square Cinema in Cedar Falls, Iowa closed May 23
• The Regal Cinebarre Boulder in Louisville, Colorado closed May 23 and is being turned into housing for CU Boulder
• The Towne Square Cinema in Winchester, Indiana closed June 1
• The AMC Classic Fashion Square 10 in Saginaw, Michigan has closed
• The Metropolitan Redstone 8 Cinemas in Park City, Utah has closed, but is being taken over by Larry H. Miller Megaplex Theatres, which plans to upgrade the the theater and reopen by the holidays

[Scotty Wright]

[Scotty Wright]

[Henry Atkinson]

West Boylston Cinema in MA is closing:
West Boylston.png

[Scott Jentsch]

Some recent openings:

• The Strand Theatre in Tiptonville, Tennessee opened today, May 17
• The Apple Cinemas - White Plains City Center IMAX in White Plains, New York opened May 16
• The District Cinema at Lycoming Valley opened May 10
• The VIP Rialto Cinemas in Macomb, Illinois reopened after having been closed since January
• The Star Cinema Grill - CityCentre in Houston, Texas opened April 25
• The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema - Naples opened April 29
• The Apple Cinemas - Brass Mill opened April 26
• The Scene One Spectrum 8 Theatres in Albany, New York opened in April
• The Atlas Cinemas Barrington 10 in Aurora, Ohio opened in April
• The NCG - Citrus Park opened in March
• The Silver Star Cinemas in Warren, Pennsylvania opened in March

More articles at: Theater Openings & Improvements

Recent closings:

• The Paragould Cinema in Paragould, Arkansas closed yesterday, May 16
• The All Saints Cinema in Tallahassee, Florida closed after a tornado ripped off its roof on May 10
• The Chunky's Pelham Cinema & Pub in Pelham, New Hampshire and Chunky's Nashua Cinema & Pub in Nashua, New Hampshire closed in May.
• The Sunset Drive-in in Hartford, Michigan will not reopen for the 2024 season.
• The 5 Mile Drive-In in Dowagiac, Michigan will not reopen for the 2024 season.
• The Greater Huntington Park Place Stadium Cinemas in Charleston, West Virginia closed May 6
• The AMC Classic Churchville 7 in Bel Air, Maryland closed in April, but it is coming soon as a Flagship Cinemas location.
• The North Shore Tower Cinemas in Floral Park, New York closed May 1.
• The Point Drive-In in Northumberland, Pennsylvania will not be reopening for the 2024 season.
• The AMC Classic Fort Smith 14 in Fort Smith, Arkansas closed in April.
• The AMC Classic Allentown 16 in Allentown, Pennsylvania closed in April.
• The Apple Cinemas - Waterbury 10 in Waterbury, Connecticut closed in April.

More closings at: Theater Closings

Tracking the closings is depressing work. Even though I listed above the openings since March, I stopped at just the April and May closings. It's difficult to read the messages from people bemoaning the closing of a favorite theater, and there are trends on the reasons given by the owners. I'd go back into our records to see how many less theaters we have than we did just two years ago, but that would be disheartening. We've lost more than we've gained, to be sure.

[Jill Mobley]

Paragould Cinema 8
Paragould, AR

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