By Noëlle de Leeuw
On Saturday afternoon, a group of Upper West Siders donned hard hats outside the Uptown Film Center on Broadway, between West 99th and 100th streets. They had come for a tour of the former Metro theater, closed for two decades, now being renovated into a new multi-screen complex.
“There’s going to be no surprises to you, because we’re down to the studs,” Ira Deutchman, a leader of the nonprofit reviving the old theater, told the group. “You know, a lot of times when they talk about renovations of an old building, you constantly hear from folks: ‘Once you get into the walls, you never know what you’re going to find.’ Well, there’s nothing here that can be hidden.”
True to Deutchman’s description, as we stood in what will eventually be the complex’s café, we were surrounded by nothing but bare beams and structural steel. Deutchman led the group onward, joined by Beth Krieger and Adeline Monzier, his colleagues from the nonprofit Uptown Film Center
The center is currently wrapping up what is called the schematic stage: the process of developing preliminary drawings for the project, which have been months in the works. Up next is taking these detailed plans and carefully budgeting it all out. “And then, of course,” Deutchman said, “we’ll start cutting things.”
It’s hard to imagine, looking at this stripped, empty space, that Deutchman is standing in what will be the doorway of the center’s second screen. The space is bare now, but will have four floors and five screens, including one that will be able to project 35mm and 70mm film in addition to digital projection. One of the five theaters will be used as an education center, and there will be a café in the lobby. Right now, if you look closely at a hole in the concrete floor, you can peek at what will become the film center’s basement.
The total cost of the project, including the purchase of the building, is $36 million. As of now, the nonprofit is about $23 million away from that goal, according to Deutchman. The group hopes to break ground in 14 months, and, if all goes according to plan, open to the film-going public in November 2028.
That opening would complete the comeback of an institution that has been around for close to a century. The theater first opened in 1933 as the Midtown Theater, and the art deco landmark has lived many lives since, from arthouse theater to adult movie house, under the names Metro Theater, the Cineplex Odeon Metro Twin, the Embassy’s New Metro Twin. Through all the changes, the theater always had just one screen. It closed in 2005 and has been shuttered ever since, the interior demolished.
Little traces of what once was have emerged in recent months: a broken film reel that had been collecting dust for 20 years, or the letter M from the façade. Long believed to be lost, the M turned out to have been upstairs, out of sight, for all those years. In one corner, a small strip of disco-mirrored wallpaper still glistens. “I’m guessing that’s a leftover from the Cineplex Odeon era,” Deutchman deadpanned, “because those guys had no taste.”
The Uptown Film Center has thus far received generous government support, with a $3.5 million grant from Governor Kathy Hochul and $500,000 from the New York State Senate. “This is a neighborhood project as much as it is an arts project,” Krieger said, describing the theater as not just a cultural investment, but also a project that can help reinvigorate the neighborhood’s commercial life.
Krieger explained how the plan for the Uptown Film Center is to become a membership-based theater, much like Film at Lincoln Center or Film Forum. The latter is also a good representation of the kind of programming to expect.
“It kills us to see all the great movies coming out now, because we can’t show them,” Krieger said. For now, the nonprofit is offering pop-up film series, such as Tales of the Immigrant City, currently at the New York Historical and Science on Screen at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater. This summer, too, screenings of repertory films are in the pipeline. Consider it a taste of what’s to come. “We’re keeping tickets very reasonable,” Krieger said, “but we wanted to show what we intend on doing.”
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Too bad it is a landmarked site. It could have been leveled and rebuilt with tons of housing for much cheaper and faster.
I don’t think so.
Just STOP IT!
“..tons of housing? You Kidding? Did you ever look at the tiny size of the footprint.?Much to small for any”tons” of housing….
Forty stories at 3 apartments per floor 120 apartments. And yes, market rate apartments are much needed on the UWS.
NO high rise possible. Air rights were sold long ago. Where do all these right-wing trolls come from? They just make things up.
Tons? A few “affordable” apartments and the rest market-rate to cover costs and profit.
I sure hope that’s sarcasm.
You cant level it and build. Nothing to do with landmarking. The air rights were sold so that the huge residential building next to it could be built.
Cant wait
I’ll take things that are never going to happen for $100, Alex.
Sad that the original interior was gutted
I am so happy it will re-open. I went there in its last iteration, but I believe it had two screens at the time; I don’t remember which film I saw, but the rows were so near each other, my knees were in my chest.
Yes, the last incarnation had multiple screens. It was pretty awful, very steep.
i think you’re right – two smallish screens, i saw what i think was the last screening in one of them in 2005 — was a supernatural//religious thriller of sorts, the name of the movie escapes me… the seats were uncomfortable … but nothing beats a small, neighborhood movie theater
Given that they got state funds, it would be nice if the first thing they did was to eliminate the graffiti eyesore.
Stay tuned!
I can’t wait to see the project finished.
We have been waiting a very long time.
Please bring back the Oscar winning movies.
Like: The Ten Commandments, Gone With the Wind, and many.
Please?
What decade do you live in?
I’m surprised to find that the Metro sign itself is not part of the landmark, and being kept. It is as much a “part” of that facade as any other detail. Why is the LPC allowing them to put up a new marquee instead of renovating the current one so that the Metro sign can be kept?
The facade is landmarked, not the marquee. The original name was the Midtown, reflected on the marquee when first built. The Uptown will recreate the look of the original marquee, and hopefully use the Metro letters in some way (inside). Also note, Metro Private Cinema in Chelsea walked off with the Metro name and mktg assets. So to create a new film center, with a new vision, we have a new name. Hundreds of people have nostalgic memories of the Metro and some of the Midtown–as do most of the board members, who live on the UWS. We hope to build on that and create new memories, new community.
Thank you for that explanation. I’m still sad about it.
Very excited about this project which
will add so much to our UWS community!
Wonderful for everyone who loves movies!
It was a huge loss when Lincoln Plaza Cinema
closed several years ago. We need this!
“a $3.5 million grant from Governor Kathy Hochul and $500,000 from the New York State Senate.” I always find it odd when it is worded this way. The money isn’t coming from Kathy Hochul or the New York State Senate. It is coming from you and me. Reminds me of when I was accompanying my kids on college tours and the tour guides would talk about all the wonderful new activities that “the college” would fund if you proposed them, and I was thinking “it’s not the college that’s paying for that, it’s me.”
Oh, please! Ridiculous argument!
People understand that the money governments appropriate to initiatives like this comes from tax revenue.
Upper West Siders are smart; this concept doesn’t need to be explained in every article.
Hochul and the State Senate chose to allocate funds to this important project that will make a real impact for this stretch of the UWS. Yes we pay for it, and so do corporations taxed by the state. The majority will come from people willing to invest in their community by donating to the project.
I would like to congratulate Mr. Deutchman and company for their refreshing enthusiasm, but sadly, I think they need to face up to the fact that this will never happen.
In essence, what they are talking about is building a brand new building within a building that has been gutted,, has no air rights, so not even an extra floor for mechanicals can be added, and then retain the façade for its “landmark” value. This will cost millions more than they fathom.
The number one issue is that the former owner stupidly demolished the entire interior with hopes of attracting a Gap store to the location, and thus made the entire location uneconomically viable for anything else. (Remember the gym that was going to open there? How about the theater chain from Austin?)
In the meantime, in the 25 years, someone invented a thing called “streaming” which pretty much has put every movie theater out of business. Additionally, the “movie business “ has moved to “series”. Admit it, that’s what most people watch. Personally, I find this distressing and sad, but I’m not delusional nor blind to reality.
As a sidenote, the films that they are talking about screening already do play at a world-class nonprofit facility some 35 blocks away. Even there, at the Films at Lincoln Center, they have a hard time filling the seats they have for most screenings.
Everything this group plans, or wants to do is guided by good intentions and goodwill, however, at best, this was a great idea about 25 years ago, but with the demolition of the entire interior of the building, I think this plan has set sail.
I know this will not be a very popular post, but these are the very real types of discussions we have to have here on the Upper West Side that are based in reality, not fantasy.
Same hold true for the “arts center” at 86th and Amsterdam – not gonna happen.
Welcome to the future.
Unfortunately, clear mountain is right on the mark. Hard to imagine that this multiplex can be profitable or break even. Given the economics of the movie ‘business’ and the closing of movie theaters nationwide I wish them good luck. Just seems even if built it would fail within a few years
The Uptown is planning to remove the graffiti ASAP. The subcontractor has been selected but must be approved by Landmarks, at which point permit has to be obtained and the weather has to be cooperative. We expect it will happen this spring.
Why was the interior demolished?
Good luck but they’re still short 64 percent of the budget and they think they’re breaking ground in spring 2027, to be completely finished and programmed and staffed up and selling tickets to the public for a first movie showing by November 2028? This project may get done on some timeline but not on that one. That’s a fictional timeline intended to attract donors who don’t like to wait.
Also the climate for the movie theater business is not good. financially so this has to be a major consideration
Bring back the lovely caryatids; hope against hope some guys didn’t steal them years ago or destroyed them when the greedy folks hacked the theater into upper & lower levels.
A new Absolute Bagels and a new Metro Theator…or whatever you call them now…we’re all set!
Today is Ira Deutchman’s birthday – just saying🤷🏼♂️
Why isn’t the city and Mamdani giving any money to this project? After all this is his neighborhood he grew up in. The city throws around 10-20 million every time a playground or a statue need cleaning or renovating
Best of luck. Bravo for saving a theater’!