Title: Saving Small Downtown Movie Theaters

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Brigid Bergen: It'S The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom, filling in for Brian today. For generations, the movie theater was a central part of life in downtown Maplewood, New Jersey. When the pandemic hit, Maplewood theaters, like so many small-town cinemas across the country, closed its doors and it's never reopened. Now, five years later, the old theater sits dark, its fate uncertain and the town is weighing its future. Should the site become housing, retail, a performance space?

Or should it stay what it has always been, a place to see a movie on the big screen with your friends, your kids, maybe on a date? Angela Matusik and Lisa Cohen are the co-founders of the Maplewood Film Society, a group that's been hosting pop up screenings around town and advocating to bring cinema back to the heart of Maplewood Village. They join us now to talk about their efforts and why they believe local theaters still matter in the post-COVID streaming area. Angela and Lisa, welcome to WNYC.

Lisa Cohen: Thank you for having us.

Angela Matusik: Hello.

Brigid Bergen: Listeners, we can take your calls. Anybody want to share a favorite movie memory from the Maplewood theaters? If you aren't in Maplewood, have you lost a beloved neighborhood theater in your own town? What do you think? Is it worth fighting to save small local theaters? Call and tell us about it, 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. You can call or text. Angela and Lisa, by way of introduction, what are your own connections to Maplewood and what drew you to the idea of saving the town's movie theater? Angela, do you want to start us off?

Angela Matusik: Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for having us. We're so excited to talk about this. Lisa and I have both lived in Maplewood for a long time, myself over 15 years. I was an entertainment journalist before I moved to Maplewood. I can honestly say that one of the reasons why I moved to Maplewood was because I could walk to the downtown cinema. It's not even a downtown. It's a small little village with no traffic lights and the theater was right there for us.

After the pandemic, as you mentioned, the theater closed. It has been shuttered for five years and I think we, like a lot of residents, just kept expecting it to open. We heard about a lot of false starts. Then it was about a year ago that Lisa and I, we were just talking to each other and decided we wanted to do something about it.

Brigid Bergen: Lisa, what about you? What's your connection to Maplewood and to the theater?

Lisa Cohen: Okay, thank you for having me. Very similar story to Angela. I moved here about 18 years ago. For those of you in New York City, if you've had your second child, you might be considering a move to the suburbs. That's what we did and a lot of our neighbors. The theater was a big pull for us. Also, we have a great bookshop in town. These things make Maplewood feel very special, considering we only have three blocks to our village.

Each building, each store has a function, and they're all very important. Now that both of my kids are getting ready to go to college, I'm wondering, do I stay here in this town when there's not even a movie theater? A theater might help me stay here. It makes you want to move here and makes you want to stay here.

Brigid Bergen: When the theater shut down during the early days of the pandemic, Angela, did you ever imagine it would stay closed this long? What happened and what's the status of the site today?

Angela Matusik: Sure. Well, no, I don't think any of us thought it would be empty for so long because it is such an important part of our town. You see it from the train station. It's the first thing you see when you get off and you go into the village, and it has a big old marquee and. We had heard that there was a company that was trying to open it. There's lots of rumors going around about why it hasn't opened, what kind of damage might be on the inside of the building.

We don't know much of that for certain, but our town committee, our township committee has put forth something called a redevelopment plan, which is really common, we've discovered, in a lot of towns that are trying to think about repurposing historic sites. They first released this last September, I think it was. When we read it, we were just like, if you read this carefully, it sounds like this building might not still exist.

It didn't just cover the theater, but 2 acres of our little village, which could be developed into a big housing complex with retail and restaurants. The theater seemed like it would be unlikely. It was really that and other movie theaters have closed around us. Now we live in a cinema desert, which is just very sad.

Brigid Bergen: Lisa, the way Angela has described it, I have this mental image of this quaint main street and this marquee that's a central point along the street. When you think about the retail development plans that are now under consideration and that that particular building may not be there, what are they talking about as potential replacements? I think I've read housing, retail, recreational space. What do you think could be there if the movie theater were not?

Lisa Cohen: Well, very good question. The redevelopment plan as it is today just offers a whole bunch of suggestions for uses. It could be retail, it could be a winery, it could be a brewery, it could be office space, it could be residential, affordable housing, of course, and a theater is among one listed, but it is not a requirement. We were just hearing the news how the Bellevue Theater in Montclair is being revived. It was closed for eight years.

It opened up in the early 1920s, and it's just being revived. We looked at that redevelopment plan that Montclair had, and it was mandated that it was going to be a nonprofit theater, that 50% of the land, of that space, had to be a theater. If they can do it, we can do it too. Our redevelopment plan is insufficient. We love movies, but we've had to get a little political, and that's what we've done. We actually have a petition out right now, and we're making our voices heard.

Brigid Bergen: Angela, just quickly, who makes this decision ultimately, and what stage are we at now?

Angela Matusik: Oh, sure, as Lisa said, we're really just movie lovers who have taught ourselves about local politics, but we have elected officials. They're our township committee. They include a mayor and a deputy mayor. I think it's five individuals. Lisa, correct me if I'm wrong with that. They vote. They're elected officials, but they will ultimately choose whether or not the redevelopment plan gets passed.

We're realistic people. We know that you just can't open up the doors to the movie theater and turn it back on and start running it again like it was 2019. The world has changed. The film industry has changed, and the way people get together to watch movies have changed. We're hoping that we can be a part of the conversation for the future of that space.

Brigid Bergen: Well, we have lots of people who want to be part of this conversation with some memories of the Maplewood Theater. Let's start with Suzanne calling from Philadelphia. Suzanne, you're on WNYC.

Suzanne: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Angela and Lisa, I'm sending you hugs and kisses. I lived in Maplewood for 39 years. I taught in the school district for 25. When my husband and I moved in in 1985, we went to the Maplewood Theater for our first date and we saw St. Elmo's Fire. At that point, it was a one screen theater because I believe if we do a little bit more history, I believe it was a vaudeville theater at one point, and they transformed it into a movie theater. When we went up on the ceiling, much like the Broadway theaters in New York City, it had all the beautiful reliefs and angels and delicate trim and it's gorgeous up there and it's still there. They just put the ceilings.

I know it's under there. It's probably under disk repair. It is so definitely worth. Please, please, I will do my part, I'll even write a letter, to keep the integrity. We need that in our downtown, number one, for kids to be able to walk to the theater with their friends on a Friday night. It's wonderful. My kids were able to do that. As a teacher, my principal took us there to see Mr. Holland's Opus as our staff meeting. That was our staff meeting. Walked from Jefferson, now Delia Bolden, down to the theater. It is a treasure and I think it's so worth fighting for, so I say thank you and we need to bring back that local theater. Thank you again.

Brigid Bergen: Suzanne, thank you so much. I said Rachel because I want to go to Rachel in Manhattan next to get one more memory in before I give you a chance to respond. Rachel, thanks for calling. You're on WNYC.

Rachel: Hi, thank you for taking my call, and thank you to both of you for trying to save the theater. It's well worth saving. Some of my nicest memories of growing up in Maplewood were walking to the Maplewood Theater on a Saturday afternoon with all of my friends. We'd have pizza at the Roman Gourmet and watch whatever movie was on the screen. It's like it was a rite of passage when you walked to the village by yourself with your friends and it was a meeting place, a real center. I agree with the last caller that the building itself is so wonderful and so full of detail and maybe the bathroom needed to be redone especially.

I'm 62, so this was a long time ago. I remember seeing Jaws there. I saw my brother. He was trying to get in, cut the line. He was on a date. There are so many nice memories. Once I had kids and we would go visit my parents, my parents would take the kids to see. I remember they saw A Bug's Life. I don't know. It's a terrific space and it's definitely worth fighting for.

Brigid Bergen: Rachel, thank you so much for that call. Some really nice memories there of people who have gone to the Maplewood Theater. Angela, Lisa, I want to get quickly to some of the dynamics that are at play at the Maplewood Theater, but really more broadly, why are so many small-town theaters struggling post-pandemic?

Angela Matusik: Well, as we all know, the movie business has changed, and a lot of screens have closed. People got used to watching things at home. People have amazing systems in their houses. The way we consume movies has changed. The fact of the matter is that people still want to experience things together. The largest movie going population is young people. 90% of Gen Z say that they go regularly to the movies. There's this wonderful thing called Letterboxd, which is a social media app specifically for movie recommendations.

It has 15 million users and half of them are under 35 years old. There's a shift happening right now where a lot of people might say nobody sees movies anymore. I can watch it at home. There's a culture shift happening now and we're seeing more and more independent nonprofit movie theaters opening in small towns that cater to the zeitgeist programming, independent films, documentaries, local talents. You can make them mixed use spaces so you can have it be a performance space for music, stand-up comedy, theater and film at the same time.

Brigid Bergen: I want to sneak in one more caller, Robyn in Bethel, Connecticut. Robin, you've got about 30 seconds, so tell us quick.

Robyn: In my small town they have an old movie theater that went south during COVID. A couple bought it maybe a few years ago and resurrected it. It is an amazing community resource. They sell spots on their billboard for happy birthday wishes. They run movies, they have events. My son did his viola recital there from the local music store. My daughter went to a Taylor Swift dance party there when that movie was out. It was awesome. They served cocktails and little food boxes. It is a wonderful, wonderful community resource. Everybody goes.

Brigid Bergen: Robyn, thank you so much for that. A little bit of inspiration there for you both. Angela, Lisa, just quickly, who owns the theater currently?

Lisa Cohen: Well, it is owned by the just a longtime resident who also owns the pizza place right next door. It is privately owned and there's a real estate deal that is about to happen, or maybe it fell through, or maybe it's going to happen. I don't know the status on it right now, but it is for sale. If anybody out there wants to invest, now is a great time.

Brigid Bergen: Okay, well, we're going to leave it there. We thank Angela Matusik and Lisa Cohen, co-founders of the Maplewood Film Society. We appreciate you being here. That's it for The Brian Lehrer Show today. Stay tuned for All Of It.

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