Arts & Entertainment

Iconic Theater Aims for New Audiences

By Hannah Hur

Spectrum staff 

Since May, Film Forum, one of the nation’s handful of non-profit movie theaters, has been outfitted with tiered stadium seating to give its ticket-buyers more leg room, comfort and better sight-lines. These and other improvements are part of a $6 million renovation that Film Forum directors hope will provide a better environment for its audience.

“Film Forum has had to face the growing number of [mobile] platforms for movie-viewing, an increasingly crowded marketplace and the reality of operating in Manhattan where small businesses close constantly due to rent hikes,” said Adam Walker, the theater’s communications director. “It sometimes seems like bad news all around.”

Christine Choy, a NYU film professor, said the renovation is a good idea. “The problem with Film Forum is, basically, its location … [and] their sound system, size of the screen, plus the terribly uncomfortable seats with columns in between.”

She said Film Forum could get some inspiration from Metrograph, a Lower East Side theater that also shows older and arthouse films. It also has bars in its lobby and its restaurant.

Indie film buff Nishtha Sharma, a senior at the Bronx’s Horace Mann High School, said Film Forum has been a favorite of hers since 2016. “Whether the theater has features like a bar or a restaurant or not, I still enjoy the quality films,” said Sharma, who, of course, isn’t of legal drinking age. “ … If you want drinks or meals, you should just go to either a bar or a restaurant. Movie theaters like Film Forum need to be kept open for the rare works that they have.”

Film Forum isn’t the only movie theater, whether for-profit or non-profit, looking for ways to attract movie-goers. The silver screen continues to lose favor amongst younger, more digitally-oriented viewers. Americans aged 12 to 24 saw 15 percent fewer films in theaters during the first three quarters of 2016, according to Nielsen, which researches the public’s TV and movie habits. The Motion Picture Association of America reported that, in 2013, there was a 17 percent decrease in the number of 18 to 24 year olds who were frequent movie-goers.

As part of its update, Film Forum will get a fourth movie screen; renovated marquee; a new air-conditioning system; improved restroom ventilation; improved box office signage; and digital screens in the lobby for reading movie reviews and other movie-related information.

Theater patrons who answered a Film Forum online survey in 2016 said those were the kinds of improvements they wanted.

When it opened in 1970, Film Forum had 50 seats and screened flicks from a 16-mm projector. For decades, it attracted an audience that mainly was made up of “older white people who live nearby and love the foreign films,” NYU’s Choy said.

“The program,” she added, “is always good but only for those who are film buffs, white, older and NYU cinema students—hardly any other minorities, for sure.”

Walker, the forum’s communications director, said he hopes that the expansion will allow Film Forum to show more films than ever before.

The renovation is being done in anticipation of the theater’s 50th anniversary in 2020. The same architect who designed Film Forum’s first home on Watts Street is overseeing the renovation of its current home on West Houston Street. The architect, Stephen Tilly, along with the late architect Alan Buschbaum, also renovated the current location in 1990.

“A project like this is like a movie,” architect Tilly said. “It’s a big production and you never know what kind of conflicts will arise suddenly. At this point, we’re in the homestretch and we can say we’re better, more confident. The core supporters will come back to not only the films they know and love, but in the presence of great seats.”

Those who want to help secure Film Forum’s future include the Thompson Family Foundation, which has donated $1 million for the new screen, and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, which is providing $400,000 in funding.