Dear Greenpointers-With-Enough-Money-To-Open-a-Business,
Yes, I’m talking to all ten of you. Yesterday, while fighting my usual tsunami of Sunday anxiety, I struck the following items from my list of things I might do in Greenpoint on the worst day of the week:
1. Brunch (I’m sick and tired of new twists on egg dishes)
2. Window shop/run up credit card debt on Franklin
3. Watch the Seahawks lose at Red Star
4. Try to convince owner of Diamond Bar to hire me
All I wanted to do was go see a movie. Not in Union Square. Not in Queens. Not in Midtown. I wanted to see a movie in Greenpoint. I would’ve walked all the way to Ash Street from my perch on Lorimer for say, the new Cohen brothers flick. I would have even walked all that way for a Katherine Heigl rom-com! There are plenty of places for a movie theater in the GPT, like where all those practice spaces are near The Gutter. Or deeper, like on Kingsland towards the BQE – someone could fit a theater there. OR why don’t we take one of the TWO Rite Aids that are within TWO blocks of one another (preferably not the one with my insurance info on file) and convert that into a nice little neighborhood brew-n-view???
Please, somebody, read this and get that ball rolling. I know it will take you years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, but I promise you I will go every Sunday for whatever movie you’re screening.
Smooches,
Kea
Anybody know the status of the Cassandra Cinema? That would be Williamsburg, not Greenpoint, but it’s not so far away.
The Rite Aid that used to be Eckerd that used to be Genovese used to be a cinema before it was a roller rink, so this suggestion can surely be implemented.
Justine: You just gotta try Cafecito (Manhattan Ave + Green St). They have an amazing and unique AREPA BRUNCH (No EGGS INVOLVED), but if you still are in the mood for eggs, they also have the most amazing and creative South American recipes…TRY IT!
i thought that the former eckerd couldve been a movie theater at one point. if im not mistaken, there actually used to be a couple of movie theaters on manhattan ave.
Yeah. Even something like the Angelika. It would make a fortune. So you could cover rent.
LL – Yeah the Eckerd used to be the Meserole Theater and the Starbucks used to be the AMerican Theater (and then the Chopin when I was a kid).
There was also a movie theater across from Withrop Park where Met Foods is.
And now we have NONE! I’m with you, I have posted about this before that we have TONS of places we could fit one. And it’s even worse to get to another theater since the G never goes to Steinway St.
My thought was that the Cassandra Theater was going to be sort of an artsy indie film theater. I have no problem with those, but it’d be that much better to have a first run, real movie theater. There’s room in Greenpoint for a state of the art stadium seating 16 megaplex if Regal or Loew’s was up for it…
I’ve tried Cafecito several times for brunch personally and it’s just not something I liked. Not my taste.
I’ve had the “North Brooklyn needs a movie theater” discussion several times.
I was so excited when worked started on the old movie theater right by the Greenpoint train stop, but then oh my was I sad that it turned out to be a chain coffee shop.
As much as I’d like to see it myself, a standard first-run theater in Greenpoint is an unrealistic dream.
These days for these films, the theater operator gets almost none of the box office — the studios get 95% or more. That’s why concession prices are so high: concessions are the only revenue source (it’s also why ticket prices are so high. The studios don’t really care what they are, but to the theater their 2% of $12 is more than 2% of $8). The situation is made worse because less than 10% of attendees spend anything on concessions. Basically, in the view of the operator, 90% of the people attending are there for free.
That means you need to have a big facility with a lot of screens to sell enough to get by. There just aren’t enough people in Greenpoint or nearby to do that. For the same reasons you don’t want to go to Union Square, Midtown, or Queens, people in those places aren’t going to come here.
But if there is any hope, you touched on it in that penultimate paragraph: “a nice little neighborhood brew-n-view.” Nobody wants to pay $7 for a coke to subsidize their movie, but maybe they’d pay that or more for a beer or cocktail…
If only there weren’t already so many new local bars eating into that potential revenue stream!
I wanted to comment again and provide this link: http://www.observer.com/2008/real-estate/starring-northern-brooklyn
Apparently there will be a theater in North Brooklyn soon(ish). 🙂
I was told that the building that Starbucks resides in on Greenpoint/Manhattan use to be a theater. I’d want a theater that plays independent movies anyway not the big budget crap that plays in most places.