Let’s all go to the lobby: Two new cinemas to debut next year

A third movie house will reopen with new amenities

Metrograph Spectacle
A rendering of the Metrograph at Ludlow and Canal streets on the Lower East Side and the entrance to the Spectacle at 124 South 3rd Street in Williamsburg

By the time the wave of new and renovated movie theaters hits the city next year, you’ll probably be able to get into Star Wars without waiting in line.Two new cinemas are slated to open in 2016, with a third rebooting after briefly closing.

The Metrograph, a planned arthouse theater with two screens, is set to open its doors first, in February.

The 9,000-square-foot space, designed by Alexander Olch, will occupy a former food-storage warehouse at Ludlow and Canal streets. One auditorium will seat 170 people before a 30 foot screen, with the other seating 50, and projecting onto a 20 foot screen, the Wall Street Journal reported.

It will also contain a bar, a two-story restaurant and a bookstore focused titles related to film.

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The seven-screen Alamo Drafthouse City Point at 445 Albee Square in Fort Greene is part of the 1.8 million-square-foot City Point affordable housing development. The Texas-based chain already operates one location in Yonkers, at 2548 Central Park Avenue.

The chain is famous for its craft beer concessions and its pre-show program of vintage animation and clips from other films.

A third theater, the 30-seat Spectacle at 124 South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, which operates out of a former bodega, will reopen next year after briefly shutting down to raise money to cover a rent increase. The team behind the theater acquired nonprofit status for it and raised $40,000 on Kickstarter, allowing them pay for improvements and keep ticket prices at $5 dollars. [WSJ]Ariel Stulberg