Classic movie theaters are making a comeback around Philly

Brick-and-mortar theater owners in South Jersey, Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania suburbs, and Delaware view the death of moviegoing as greatly exaggerated.

“No one is going to the movies anymore? That’s something Netflix is trying to tell you,” said Art Helmick, whose company operates the Main Street Movies 9 in Newark, Del., and several other multiscreen cinemas in the Diamond State.

His firm is also behind the proposed $15 million Deptford multiplex on Clements Bridge Road. The final site plan is set for review by the township’s planning board on April 29.

“We are going to build a movie theater that offers an immersive experience people can enjoy together,” Helmick said. “It won’t be the kind of experience you get watching a movie on your phone alone.”

In South Philadelphia, builder Bart Blatstein plans to redevelop the Riverview on Christopher Columbus Boulevard, which closed during the pandemic. The proposal includes a 17-screen theater, as well as two new restaurants and another entertainment space.

And in January, the AMC Theater at the Fashion District on Market Street survived the threat of demolition after Sixers owners dropped their Center City arena proposal.

Said Chris Collier, executive director of Renew Theaters in Doylestown: “Everybody’s always talking doom and gloom, but our attendance was up last year.”

“Streaming is its own thing, and it’s not going to stop,” said Collier, whose nonprofit operates the County, Ambler, and Hiway theaters in Philly’s collar counties, as well as the Garden Theatre in Princeton, N.J.

“What really matters is bringing people together and capturing the excitement of a classic moviegoing experience,” he said.

Single-screen movie theaters in urban downtowns and on small town main streets began closing nationwide in the late 1940s with the advent of television. This cultural shift also was driven by competition from new theaters near or inside suburban malls and shopping centers.

“In the 1980s and ‘90s, movie theaters helped generate foot traffic for suburban malls,” said Daniel Loria, a senior vice president at the film trade publication Box Office Pro.

The launch of online movie streaming platforms — Netflix was first in 2007 — as well as the pandemic kept away people who otherwise would have watched movies in theaters.

According to the most recent data available from the Cinema Foundation, the number of screens in the United States declined from 41,172 in 2018 to 39,007 in 2022.

The 2004 opening of the nonprofit Bryn Mawr Film Institute in the former Bryn Mawr movie theater in Lower Merion preserved screens and demonstrated that a mix of classic films, film series, classes, and current movies could breathe life into old theaters.

”We’re not simply taking what Hollywood is giving us, like a ‘Despicable Me 10,’” said Collier, whose theaters are in the center of Doylestown, Jenkintown, Ambler, and Princeton, NJ.

“Movie theaters are now boosting foot traffic for restaurants and coffee shops in local downtowns,” said Loria.

Adventurous local theater operators like Town Square Entertainment are seeing opportunities in struggling or closed local movie houses — including the Ventnor, in Atlantic County, which had been shuttered for years.

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“During COVID, everybody was saying the movie business was done,” said Brett DeNafo, who with business partner Clint Bunting, owns Town Square Entertainment.

“But during COVID, the studios were streaming everything, and it wasn’t making them money. They realized that without the theaters, they are done,” said DeNafo, whose company also owns theaters in Stone Harbor, Northfield, Ocean City, and Rio Grande.

“We’re doing things right,” he said. “We are a local-run company. We know the community. We’re part of the community.”

In Deptford, a 17½-square-mile Gloucester County township of about 32,000, the mall has been the de facto center of town since it opened in 1975.

“We set a goal of surrounding the mall with a variety of retail businesses, restaurants, entertainment [venues] and medical offices,” said Mayor Paul Medany.

“That area near the mall has been zoned commercial forever,” he said, adding that “it would be impractical for the township to buy it for open space because the land is just too valuable.”

“We’ve been dealing with the theater proposal for years, but now it’s moving forward,” Medany said. “The theater will be another entertainment option and a fantastic addition to our economic base.”

Irv Slifkin, a film historian who teaches at Temple University, said he was surprised to learn about Helmick’s proposal to purpose-build a new movie theater in Deptford.

“It’s a very enterprising idea, and I wish him luck,” Slifkin said.

He noted that “there have been success stories” among independent theaters in the region, such as the Penn Cinema chain, which has theaters in Huntingdon Valley; Wilmington, Del., and Lancaster County.

A multiplex “that isn’t showing Spiderman on nine of its 10 screens and offers movies people can’t see anywhere else” could work in South Jersey, Slifkin said.