There’s a bit of a battle going on in my neighborhood over the recent closing of a two-screen cinema on 99th and Broadway- always sad to see a movie theater close, especially when it’s to make room for a Gristede’s supermarket identical to the one already across the street- indicative of the gentrification that causes the northern border of the Upper West Side to rise two or three blocks each year.
As a result of the closing, Upper West Siders and Morningside Heighters (?) looking to enjoy a picture will now have to either walk south to the multiplexes on 84th and 68th Streets, or north to the Magic Johnson Theaters on 125th Street in Harlem. Knowing what I know of them, I’m thinking they’ll be going south.
Sorry to turn for a second into that uptight New York journalist type who thinks the goings-on on a single block of the Upper West Side are of prime importance to the rest of the universe. But similar things are happening all over, preventing us from enjoying our favorite movies.
Take my old neighborhood, for instance. Sheila reports that Take 3, a video store in Hoboken that’s about a block from where I used to live, has morphed into “Romantic Depot”- a video store that stocks romance-based movies exclusively. Among other genres, they’ve cut out both old movies (Sheila’s favorite) and porn (uh, other people’s favorite). Looks like I got out of town at exactly the right time.
Even if this store weren’t two blocks away form a multi-leveled Blockbuster, this would still be the worst business-model decision in the history of the Eastern seaboard. “Hey, I know! Let’s cut out 90% of our inventory! And in the process, pretty much banish males from the store!” If Romantic Depot is still in business next Valentine’s Day, I’ll be shocked.
Posted by Stephen Silver at September 14, 2004 01:09 AMThis news is in the "kinda sucks" / "kinda doesn't" category. That theater was ridiculously uncomfortable...broken seats too close together, sticky floors, etc. That said, I did see Episode II there, so that's a memory. And as someone who's an 80s girl, this news doesn't impact me as much as you'd think. Of course, the 84th Street theater usually has movies that suck, so most of us usually end up at 68th or Times Square anyway.
Posted by: Esther at September 14, 2004 08:57 AMwhat is it you know about the? The Magic Johnson theaters are state o the art.
Posted by: dawn summers at September 18, 2004 10:34 AM