By Noëlle de Leeuw
The art deco theater at 2626 Broadway, between 99th and 100th streets, has had many identities. Throughout the years, it has been called the Metro Theater, the Midtown Theater, the Cineplex Odeon Metro Twin, and the Embassy’s New Metro Twin.
Today, a banner is draped over the marquee with the name UWS Cinema Center. And another plot twist is about to enliven this theatrical tale: a brand-new name will be announced on October 28.
The cinema has been dark for twenty years. Earlier this year, the theater announced it would reopen, revived and revamped, under a new name and with a clear vision. “The goal is not just to reclaim a building,” the website of the cinema center reads, “but to revitalize a neighborhood and reconnect a community.”
The three-story theater is set to feature five screens: two large auditoriums, two smaller ones, and a flexible fifth that could be used as a screening room, classroom, or event space. The programming will contain independent cinema, documentary features, international films, film festivals, restored classics, and children’s programming, inspired by the type of films shown at Film Forum, the Angelika Film Center, the IFC Center, and the old Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.
The theater aims to have a new release every two weeks, and will be open 365 days a year.
In 1933, the cinema first opened as the Midtown Theater — a curious name for a theater on the Upper West Side. In the 1970s, the venue was transformed into an adult movie house, until a new owner took over in 1982. Under its new name, the Metro Theater became a theater dedicated to arthouse cinema. In 1989, its exterior was awarded landmark status. After many tumultuous years, with yet two more name changes and brief closings here and there, the art deco landmark shuttered for good in 2005, following a long legal battle between the owner and lessee. The interior – which unlike the exterior was not landmarked – was demolished a year later.
The doors have been closed ever since.
Reports of takeovers and grand plans for reopenings, have proliferated periodically in the two decades that followed, falling through every time. However, earlier this year, a newly formed nonprofit organization with the name UWS Cinema Center purchased the theater from the estate of its former owner. The organization plans on restoring the façade and marquee. With the interior torn out, the space offers a blank slate to create a new cinema from scratch, without compromise.
On the artistic front, the organization hit the ground running since its purchase. Between May and September, the UWS Cinema Center hosted a pop-up film series, screening films including “Cinema Paradiso,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” and Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo.” All the while, they were raising the funding necessary for the construction, which they continue to pursue.
When the theater is scheduled to officially reopen is yet unknown. The UWS Cinema Center is not saying more until Tuesday, October 28, when it will reveal the new name of the theater and further details, Beth Krieger, vice president of the center, told the Rag when we reached out for an interview. “Until then, it’s all HUSH HUSH!” she wrote.
Check the Rag for forthcoming details.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
Please renovate and open soon.
How long after they open before they have a fundraiser to keep the place open?
Nobody goes to the movie theater anymore. The business model is dying even for the biggest theater brands. I seem to recall that they got some sort of New York City Grant to keep this thing open, which to me seems like an awful waste of taxpayer dollars. But whoever is actually putting their own money into this thing is also likely to lose. There are way too many entertainment options out there and streaming platforms to compete with to make this business work over time. Giving something like this theater landmark status may have been appropriate years ago, but if this business fails that landmark status needs to be revisited.
There’s definitely an urban-suburban divide on this. Since COVID, cinemas in Westchester have been shuttering: the locals would rather stay home and stream than get in the car and go out. OTOH, the Manhattan theatres still seem to draw good crowds. And I know that, if I want to see a movie (or a play or a concert), I want to go out to do it!
Get out more. Reality beats your preconceptions.
I saw OBAA this week. Sold out on a weekday evening
To Trumphatingmod: Conceive, Believe, Achieve, is a much healthier and successful mindset. This is a hugely wecomed long-game investment in the future of the UWS. Lighten up and watch the magic happen!
I’m sorry but maybe you need to get out more. The theaters downtown are packed to the gills when I go to see a film, which is often. Film Forum, Metrograph, Angelika, Quad..even the Paris uptown.
And its not just the folks with gray hair. Gen Y and Z have been a driving force behind the resurgence of all kinds of analog things including movie theatre, film cameras, vinyl records, books etc.
Digital fatigue is real and its a perfect time for the Metro to reopen if they do it right, which based on the plans afoot, they are.
Who’s this “nobody” of whom you speak? I love going to a real movie in a real theater. It’s an occasion, totally different and far more satisfying than slumping on the couch in pajamas staring at a streaming something-or-other on a phone or iPad. I can’t say I love the sprawling local multiplexes with their surreal escalators and their stench of fake popcorn butter. But the experience of watching a movie surrounded by other people in a more intimate venue like Film Forum or Film at Lincoln Center is unbeatable.
Wrong! There are A Lot of people who still go to movie theaters! There are plenty of Movies that Deserve a Cinema Experience and Screen instead of on a much smaller screen and surroundings
I completely disagree! I live within a 3 block radius of this building and walk by the new bustling Silver moon / Butter cup bakery and smile (there are tons of coffee shops / bakeries on the UWS, but in this neck of the woods people are seeking a safe place to gather and enjoy company + eat good food). There is a huge untapped creative market and appetite for gathering / film in this part of town. Symphony space does really well and I’ve been to tons of events there but they do not show indie movies if at all. I think they will also get community from Columbia University’s film program. I grew up going to the Angelika and am super excited for this to open and will patronize often!
I don’t know for sure why it was named the Midtown, but this block is almost exactly at the North/South midpoint of Manhattan.
According to a GeoPandas-based calculation, the centroid of Manhattan is at approximately 40°46’38″N 73°58’01″W — inside Central park, a short walk west of East Drive, and about aligned with 78th Street. So 99th & Broadway is … a bit far from there.
Leave it to New Yorkers to be cynical even about the creation of a new and exciting enterprise in a space that has been unused and then dilapidated for 20 years. We are so looking forward to it. Great for culture, great for the neighborhood. Looking forward to contributing and looking forward to the movies!
To Trumphatingmod: Conceive, Believe, Achieve, is a much healthier and successful mindset. This is a very welcomed long-game investment in the future of the UWS. Lighten up and watch the magic happen!
Twenty years of blight, walking past that crumbling marquee held up by three poles and its rotating collection of crooked signs for Alamo etc. It’s going to be more years before they open. They should have built housing there 19 years ago.
Looking forward to this opening! Although with renovations it’s not likely for at least another year. But it will fill a gap for a theatre on the UWS and Columbia area. Nothing replaces going to see a film in a theatre. We went recently to the NYFF and it was glorious to be part of in-person cinema again.
It Should Stay The Metro!
Wouldn’t be surprised if the new name is something woke. You know, an all-inclusive name to better reflect the diverse nature of our evolving community, LOL!
Excuse me: “awakened.”
As opposed to sound asleep and snoring loudly.
So you’re saying it’s NOT (necessarily) going to be named the Et O? Shucks.
But seriously, why does it need a new name? What’s wrong with the original?
You know what literally makes me sick? The fact that a building could sit there with an empty space for years and years after the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas left.