The Regal UA Court Street & RPX movie theater at 106 Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn has abruptly shuttered.
Locals on Twitter mourned the theater’s closure, which was first reported by The Brooklyn Eagle. Sources have since confirmed the closure to The Real Deal, but the shuttering came with no warning or explanation.
“We share the community’s disappointment in the sudden closing of the Regal theater. We are in the process of assessing the situation and gathering more information,” a spokesperson for Madison International Realty, which owns the property, said in a statement.
Regal Cinemas did not respond to requests for comment.
The 13-story megaplex has been a cultural mainstay of Downtown Brooklyn for decades. The theater occupied 12 of those stories, including the cellar and subcellar. A two-story Barnes and Noble, located on the building’s first and second floors, remains open.
Several previous customers told The New York Times they were shocked and saddened by the sudden closure of what many regarded as a landmark center of casual viewing and community, particularly among Black audiences.
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The reasons behind the theater’s closing remain unclear, but the shuttered multiplex is a familiar image as the properties have struggled to draw in-person viewers since the onset of the pandemic.
Theaters across the country paid just 38 percent of their rent in October 2020, dead last among retailers, according to a report by Datex Property Solutions. The same year, Cineworld, the owner of Regal Cinemas, announced the temporary closure of its 500 U.S. locations. AMC, staring down bankruptcy, said it would think twice about renewing some of its leases.
However, moviegoers’ interest in attending premieres has swelled in recent months. The new release of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ landed at number four on the all-time box office list, crossing the $700 million mark, despite the Omicron variant spreading across the country.