Photo: 6sqft.
Manhattan’s East Side has lost another movie theater. Cinema 123 by Angelika closed on Thursday after more than 60 years on the Upper East Side. Reading International, the owner of the theater, agreed to sell the property in September for $41 million. The closure follows the announcement that an AMC theater in Kips Bay would close by the end of the year.
Located on Third Avenue between East 59th and East 60th Streets, the movie theater debuted as Cinema I and Cinema II, the first twin-screen cinema in the country in 1962. The theater later expanded to add a third screen in the 1980s. Reading International is the parent company of the Angelika Film Center brand, which runs other New York locations in Greenwich Village and the East Village.
Last year, the company acquired the remaining interest in Cinema 123 and became the full owner. As Crain’s reported, Reading International first listed the property in April for $50 million. According to MarketWatch, a deal was reached for the property to sell for $41 million in September; the buyer is a limited liability company, 1001 Third Avenue LLC.
According to Crain’s, marketing materials for the property highlighted its location across from Bloomingdale’s and suggested the site could accommodate a mixed-use luxury development.
Reports of AMC Kips Bay 15 multiplex’s closing surfaced in August. Outraged locals and elected officials rallied in support of the movie theater, urging the property’s new owner, NYU Langone, to keep the theater open. AMC CEO Adam Aron said he has asked NYU to get creative in its plans to enlarge its medical facilities at the site.
“We have engaged with NYU Langone, suggesting any number of alternatives — including that it enlarge the current low-rise building to satisfy its desires for a growth of its medical facility but also leaving a theatre in place for you,” Aron said in an open letter to New Yorkers, shared by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal.
“Or alternatively, we offered that our theatre could get smaller, so that at the very least we could leave something remaining in place to continue to serve you. Sadly, any and all variations that we have proposed have fallen on closed minds.”
The lease on the AMC is up on January 3 of next year.
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