After 71 years, New York City’s last remaining single-screen cinema, The Paris, has closed its doors.
The 581-seat theaters was one of the oldest art-house cinemas in the country and was the last remaining single-screen cinema dedicated to first-run platform release movies in the U.S..
Social media pics show a goodbye note posted on the theater’s window saying that says the Paris’ lease has ended.
Rumors that the theater was set to be shuttered were circulating this summer.
The theater was a major art house contributor, responsible for nearly 9% of the total domestic gross for its last run film, Pavarotti, the Ron Howard documentary.
The New York Times wrote over a decade ago that the theater’s survival was among the
It’s prime real estate next door to Bergdorf Goodman, across from the Plaza Hotel and Central Park, owned by real estate mogul Sheldon Solow, who took a hands-on interest in the theater after he assumed control in the 1990s. No one knows what the billionaire’s plans are now or exactly what led to the theater’s closure.
Back in 1990, the theater’s managing director told the Times it was “obvious” he wanted to transform it into retail use.
Another Solow-owned theater, The Beekman on the Upper East Side, has just closed too. The farewell message posted on that theater’s window is identical to The Paris, according to Vanishing New York.
So, for New Yorkers, the cliché didn’t hold true:
We won’t always have Paris.
Learn more about the Paris Theatre, which was Manhattan’s last single-screen cinema https://t.co/qO1IKneXzw via @PIX11News pic.twitter.com/dktwLOVjgV
— Summer Delaney (@Summer_Delaney) August 29, 2019
(Photo, screen grab; via IndieWire)
