First they came for the record stores, then the book stores. Now the movie theaters are going to be eliminated, and fast.
Regal Cinemas, filing for bankruptcy, is closing the Union Square Theater on East 13th St. This follows the shuttering of the Cinepolis, aka Chelsea Odeon Cineplex, over on West 23rd St. And that’s it aside from the small Village East, and Kips Bay Cinema. Anomalies now.
Regal is shuttering a bunch of theaters across the country including some in LA and Boston.
The party is over, my friends. More and more theaters will be closing this year as streaming, digital, Netflix, etc kills off the experience of seeing movies in public. New York is a desert at night aside from Times Square.
People are home. New York is the city that sleeps. This is quite different than the night life of my youth, which was so much fun and culturally important. We saw all the groups, hung out at all the clubs, met all the people we know now. We couldn’t have done that in our living rooms, and we wouldn’t have wanted to.
Live music will be the next to go, I guess. You can just stream a concert onto your phone. No parking, no babysitters, no headaches. No life.
