Monday, January 15, 2007

anyone wanna see BLACK CHRISTMAS?

The 8.15 show tonight? It's one of the (if not the) last scheduled showtimes at the Assembly Square cinema in Somerville.

Go ahead, select tomorrow's date. A little bit sad. Granted, it wasn't my top option for moviegoing—I've seen maybe ten movies there in the last ten years—but it's been a competent mainstream outlet.

Keep on keepin on~

* Later that night... Alas, no takers, and I couldn't motivate to make the trip on my own.

6 comments:

Ron Newman said...

I was there for the last show -- but of Night at the Museum.

cabinboy said...

Ron---

Was there any fanfare? Groups of moviegoers there to bid farewell? Any parting gifts for patrons? Or word from the staff on the fate of the theater, its lot, or its equipment/seats/whatnot?

Ron Newman said...

Not really. There were about 30 people at my showing. No fanfare, no parting gifts, except that once I got outside, they were taking all the red letters down from the marquee and handing them out to whoever wanted one.

Judy, the manager, wore a "Sack Theatres" badge on her last day of work. She's been there since 1983. She said the theatre's 25-year lease ends on January 31 and they have to remove everything from the building by then. I assume the seats and equipment will go to other AMC properties or to their warehouse.

She expects that the building will be demolished, but doesn't know what will replace it.

Some of the staff may get new jobs at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. Judy doesn't know if she'll be one of these.

Ron Newman said...

In fact, when I told some of the other people entering the theatre that they were about to see the last shows ever, they had no idea.

AMC forgot to cancel their ad in today's Globe, so I bet a slow trickle of people will continue to show up for a few more days.

cabinboy said...

Thanks for the details!

Leaving their ad in the Globe? Man, that's gotta suck, to show up at the theater to find it shut down. I'd think that Somerville could easily support a plex in the right location. What the right location would be exactly, I don't know... Walkable to Tufts? Or does Davis take the center square...?

O well. Good night, Assembly Square.

Ron Newman said...

Federal Realty's plans for redeveloping their part of Assembly Square include a building that is labelled "cinema". I hope the city can work with Federal to select a local operator, rather than a national chain for this location. In any event, any such development is several years away.

The now-closed Loews theatre building is not owned by either Federal Realty or IKEA, who are the major players in Assembly Square redevelopment.