AMC Entertainment has put a hard date on the exit from its Kips Bay 15 multiplex: Jan 3. The closure ends a Manhattan run that began on May 14, 1999, and it is not a case of weak ticket sales.
A real estate fight, not a box office problem
The trigger is the building, not the audience. Chairman and CEO Adam Aron said in a public letter that NYU Langone Health wants to expand and appears to be buying the property. The current owner has terminated AMC’s lease ahead of that transfer.
AMC says it offered to stay in a smaller footprint or to support a taller building that would keep a theatre in place. Aron wrote that the proposals “have fallen on closed minds.”
The block at 570 Second Avenue also houses a Fairway supermarket and a bank, which are expected to close as well.
Why this multiplex matters
Kips Bay 15 is not a marginal screen. Aron said thousands of guests a day watch movies there, and on several days this past summer it ranked among the 10 most-attended AMC theatres in the United States, out of more than 500.
- Opened: May 14, 1999; AMC has operated it since 2006.
- Scale: 15 screens, the chain’s second-largest multiplex in New York City after Times Square’s Empire 25.
- Demand: Top-10 national AMC attendance on multiple summer days.
- Closure date: Jan 3, with Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part III still to play before then.
What the industry should track
The loss matters because screen capacity in a top market is hard to replace. The closure follows a record domestic summer box office of $4.67 billion, driven by Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Odyssey and Toy Story 5. A theatre running in the top 10 of AMC’s national circuit would normally be a keeper.
Local politicians, residents and a September protest have pushed to save it, and Aron thanked Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assembly Member Keith Powers. But without a change from NYU Langone, Jan 3 is final.
Source: Variety
