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

[Scott Jentsch]

First the good news about theaters opening:

Articles about theater openings at: https://www.bigscreen.com/journal.php?keyword=27

The movie theater in the Southbridge Mall in Mason City, Iowa will be reopening after many years. The theater's name will be Southbridge Theater. and will be an independent theater showing second-run movies when it opens in May.

The Revival Cinema in Keokuk, Iowa celebrated its grand opening November 15, 2025.

The Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs, California reopened in December 2025.

The J-PAL Cinemas in Ashtabula, Ohio opened in December 2025.

The Maya Cinemas Chino 8 in Chino, California opened December 18, 2025.

The EVO Entertainment - Forney in Forney, Texas had its groundbreaking earlier this month and is slated to open in Fall 2026.


The closures:

Articles about each of these can be found at: https://www.bigscreen.com/journal.php?keyword=26

The Cinemark Movies 8 - Chino in Chino, California closed in November.

The AMC Market Arcade 8 in Buffalo, New York is closed at the end of the year.

The Court Square Theater in Harrisonburg, Virginia has closed.

The LOOK Dine-In Cinemas - W57th New York in New York City's Hell's Kitchen has closed. Its last day of operation was January 4, 2026.

The Metro Movies 12 in Middletown, Connecticut has closed.

The B & B Park West 14 in Morrisville, North Carolina has closed.

The Regency Calabasas Commons in Calabasas, California closed December 28, 2025.

The NCG - Battle Creek in Battle Creek, Michigan closed January 6, 2025.

The Showcase Cinema de Lux Patriot Place in Foxboro, Massachusetts has closed. According to a press release issued in December, Michigan-based Phoenix Theatres is planning to reopen the theater this summer.

The Coalinga Theater in Coalinga, California closed at the end of 2025.

The BTM Movieland in Carbondale, Colorado has closed.

Three theaters in Illinois comprising the entire Eagle Theaters chain. The Eagle Theater in Robinson, the Clintonia Eagle in Clinton, and the Streator Eagle 6 in Streator closed January 4, 2026.

The Baxter Avenue Filmworks in Louisville, Kentucky has closed.

The RED Cinemas in Greensboro, North Carolina has closed.

The Beacon Drive-In Theatre in Guthrie, Oklahoma didn't reopen for the 2025 season, and a recent news article states that the property has been purchased with plans that do not include showing movies.

[Leo Enticknap]

The Laemmle in Claremont, CA has closed temporarily following its sale to Regency. Regency plan to re-open it in May after "an overhaul to add recliners, tables, and more food options."

[Ed Gordon]

Shit, I walked past that one on both my trips to Seattle recently! Considering the SIFF also abandoned the Egyptian near Cal Anderson Park... lots of unfortunate Seattle single screen news.

The last show is Friday. The Varsity is a three screen operation. The original (1940) auditorium of 400+ seats plus two small screens added on the second floor. This is the last theater in the University district which includes the University of Washington main campus. Five years ago that area had more than 15 screens . The big hit was the closing of 10 screen operation ran by AMC.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Varsity Theatre in Seattle’s University District is closing

Shit, I walked past that one on both my trips to Seattle recently! Considering the SIFF also abandoned the Egyptian near Cal Anderson Park... lots of unfortunate Seattle single screen news.

[Ed Gordon]

Varsity Theatre in Seattle’s University District is closing

Jan. 13, 2026 at 3:16 pm
By Nicole Pasia
Seattle Times features engagement reporter

The Varsity Theatre is shutting its doors this week, after playing movies for over 80 years in Seattle’s University District.

Jeff Brein, managing partner of Far Away Entertainment, a Bainbridge Island-based company that operates a handful of cinemas around the state including the Varsity, said Tuesday the venue would close Thursday. After that, there will be no more movie theaters in the U District.

“Declining revenues over the years, increasing operating costs and less studio releases with much shorter theatrical windows — the time between theatrical release and movies available on streaming and pay-per-view” — all contributed to the closure, Brein said in an email Tuesday afternoon.

“We have never fully recovered from the pandemic when we were forced to close for almost a year,” Brein said in a Tuesday news release in which he cited additional reasons for the closure, including a series of Hollywood labor disputes, complying with the city of Seattle’s minimum wage, increased utility and food and beverage costs, shared revenue with studios and greater competition from streaming services. All of that has “made it increasingly difficult to operate the Varsity as a viable business,” he said.

Far Away has worked with its landlord, University District Property Associates since the pandemic to preserve the theater. “Our landlords have bent over backwards to help and support us but at the end of the day the revenue we both needed simply wasn’t reliably there,” Brein said in the release.

With bright red letters spelling out “Varsity” on a yellow background and flanked by two marquees, the theater on University Way has long been a fixture in the U District landscape. The cinema first opened on Oct. 2, 1940, as a single-screen theater and added two additional screens upstairs during an expansion in the 1980s. Far Away took over ownership of the theater in 2015 after it was closed by Landmark Theatres and has since shown a blend of new releases and other programming. Current films running at the Varsity through Thursday are “Primate,” “Marty Supreme” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

The Varsity was the last movie theater holdout in the U District, once a moviegoing hub. The Seven Gables, a former American Legion hall built in 1925 and turned into a movie theater in 1976, closed in 2017 and the building was destroyed by fire in 2020. AMC 10 closed its 10-screen movieplex in January 2025 after 35 years in business. The 50-plus-year Grand Illusion Cinema closed its U District location in February last year, though it’s still operating through Northwest Film Forum and hopes to reopen at a new location. Nearby, Neptune Theatre still stands, but has operated primarily as a live performance venue since 2011.

Brein confirmed the other Washington theaters under Far Away are not slated for closure. They include the Admiral Theater in West Seattle, Bainbridge Cinemas and the Lynwood Theatre on Bainbridge Island, Anacortes Cinemas in Anacortes and Stanwood Cinemas in Stanwood.

Though the Varsity will close its doors, Brein said in the news release they will leave all their operating equipment behind “in the hope that the theater remains available to show digital movies with digital sound. We are anxious to identify any interested parties who may want to exhibit film, live entertainment or special events.”

[Leo Enticknap]

Ughh ... that one hits hard.

Another very sad piece of news is that the Reel Time theater in Coalinga, CA, closed down at the end of business on December 31 last year. Members of this small farming community in California's central belt now have an hour's drive to see a movie properly, either to Paso Robles to the west or Hanford to the east. The owner had worked heroically to keep the theater alive since covid and the post-covid headwinds we're all aware of hit independent for-profit theaters away from major metros especially hard. It seems that theaters are the most vulnerable where they matter the most.

[Jeremy Weigel]

The Beacon Drive-In in Guthrie, OK is coming down....although I went to grade school and graduated from Guthrie I never actually saw a film a the Beacon.

https://guthrienewspage.com/beacon-d...cy-in-guthrie/


Beacon Drive-In sold; after more than 70 years, leaving lasting legacy in Guthrie


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January 5, 2026




For more than seven decades, the glow of a movie screen under the Oklahoma sky made the Beacon Drive-In Theatre a cherished part of life in Guthrie. Now, after serving the community for over 70 years, the iconic drive-in has been sold and will be replaced with Communication Federal Credit Union, set to build a new bank at the longtime location along S. Division St.
Ron Gary with Thomas Lay, Realtors, a commercial real estate company, said the property sold for $2.2 million late last week. However, negotiations had been ongoing for months.
According to the Beacon Drive-In Facebook page, the outdoor screen was Oklahoma’s longest-running drive-in.
Established in 1950, the Beacon was far more than a place to watch a movie. It was a rite of passage, a date-night destination, a family tradition, and a reminder of a slower, simpler time. Long before streaming services and multiplex theaters, the drive-in offered something unique: neighbors gathered together from the comfort of their cars, lawn chairs, and pickup beds.

Owned and operated by the Powell family for generations, the Beacon stood as a symbol of Guthrie’s connection to classic Americana. In a 2008 interview, third-generation operator Marsh Powell reflected on why the drive-in endured while so many others disappeared. Customers, he said, appreciated that time seemed to stand still. The multicolored metal chairs outside the snack bar had been sat in countless times, and the snack bar itself saw little change after a 1970s remodel.
The Beacon’s original projector dated back to the 1940s and, though updated over the years, remained part of an aging but functional system that felt like a living museum. On some nights, even the projection room became an attraction of its own.
The Beacon welcomed generations of moviegoers. Families brought young children, high schoolers filled the lot on summer nights, college students from OSU and UCO made the drive, and grandparents returned for dates reminiscent of their own youth. Few places offered an experience that bridged generations in the same way.
The drive-in’s cultural footprint reached beyond Guthrie when it was featured in the 1996 film Twister, further cementing its place in Oklahoma history. Despite opportunities over the years to sell the property, Powell often spoke of the Beacon’s importance to the community and to the state.
With the drive-in now closing, the property at 2404 S. Division Street will transition into a new chapter.
Communication Federal Credit Union plans to construct a bank at the site, bringing new development while marking the end of an era for the historic theater. The credit union serves communities across Oklahoma and Kansas with a range of financial services.

[Ryan Gallagher]

We went public today with our renovation and restoration plans and public facing capitol campaigns, So add my theatres to the list of those that will have temporary closures.

The Paramount Theatre, Austin TX
The State Theatre, Austin TX

Shine On - Paramount Theatre (if you feel like reading or donating)

Not going down concurrently. Paramount historic restoration is first slated to start June of 2026, some time after the State re-imagining re-build will start, if all funding lines up of course.

[Scott Jentsch]

It's so much better to write about theater openings, rather than the closings...

• The former Regal Santa Fe Stadium 14 in Santa Fe, New Mexico closed in 2023 and is expected to reopen soon as the EVO Entertainment + EVX + IMAX - Santa Fe (a Family Entertainment Center).
• The former Regal Tall City in Midland, Texas will be reopening in mid-December as the Cinergy - Midland Tall City (another Family Entertainment Center).
• The VIP Mattoon 10 in Mattoon, Illinois has reopened after closing in August as an AMC location.
• The BarnZ's North Conway Cinema in North Conway, New Hampshire opened November 15, 2025. The movie theater closed in October 2024 as the Mountain Valley Mall Cinema 7.

Only one closing to report on:

• The Boardman Movies 8 in Youngstown, Ohio will be closing at the end of the year.

[Scott Jentsch]

After more than a year without a movie theater, moviegoers in Londonderry, New Hampshire have reason to rejoice with the reopening today of the O'Neil Cinemas - Londonderry. It's the third location for O'Neil Cinemas, who previously operated the location before it became a Carmike location in 2014.

The Cranford Theater in Cranford, New Jersey closed temporarily in September 2025 for a renovation project, and it announced recently that it will be reopening November 25, 2025.

The Film Alley Breckenridge in Little Rock, Arkansas is opening Thursday.

[Scott Jentsch]

The Vali Twin Cinema in Powell, WY is closed "temporarily" but has been down for 3 months. They want to reopen for the holidays but are blaming the lack of good movies for a 75% decrease in their business since 2019.

The Vail Twin Cinema is opening November 14:

https://www.bigscreen.com/theater/10809/Vali-Twin-Cinema-Powell-WY/

[Ed Gordon]

It's my understanding that blu-ray firmware is updated and some/all of the keys could be revoked when you play a newer disk in your player.

So merely keeping the disks might not be of much value unless you rip them to an unprotected format while the keys are still valid. And then there's no reason to keep the the disks after that point.

If you are using Makemkv and you have updated the bluray drive in your computer to use LibreDrive, this will not be an issue for you.

A LibreDrive is a mode of operation of an optical disc drive (DVD, Blu-ray or UHD) when the data on the disc are accessed directly, without any restrictions or transformations enforced by drive firmware. A LibreDrive would never refuse to read the data from the disc or declare itself “revoked”. LibreDrive compatible drive is required to read UHD discs.

Source: https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18856

[Frank Cox]

It's my understanding that blu-ray firmware is updated and some/all of the keys could be revoked when you play a newer disk in your player.

So merely keeping the disks might not be of much value unless you rip them to an unprotected format while the keys are still valid. And then there's no reason to keep the the disks after that point.

[Mike Blakesley]

All this is why it's important to hang on to those blu-rays!

[Frank Cox]

It's an upside-down world where pirated content is in many ways superior to legitimately purchased content due to the added value it provides in terms of fewer restrictions.