Entertainment
How indie theaters are evolving in a new era: “Everybody wants movies in their lives”
Audiences have been enjoying films at movie theaters for decades, but streaming and expensive ticket prices have impacted moviegoing habits. For the owners and operators of independent theaters, survival means getting creative.
Kevin Smith, the man behind cult classics like “Clerks” and “Mallrats,” bought a theater in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, in 2022. It was the cinema he’d gone to growing up. He renamed it Smodcastle Cinemas, and hoped that even as it reeled from COVID-19 shutdowns, he could rekindle the magic he’d loved as a child.
“I learned more about myself sitting in this (theater) than I ever did sitting in a classroom or sitting in church or something like that, and it led me to the rest of my life,” Smith said.
But the reality of operating the movie theater was difficult, even for a celebrity like Smith. They operate as a non-profit, Smith said, because if they functioned as a for-profit business, they “would die.” Smith can bring in celebrity guests for Q&A sessions and other events. The theater also hosts an annual film festival.
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“Saving my childhood theater with my friends? Dream come true, worst financial investment I ever made in my life,” Smith said.
On the opposite coast, film store Vidiots has been bringing new movies to audiences for 40 years. When it opened in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, in 1985, it operated as a traditional video store with an extensive and rare collection of films. In 2023, Vidiots moved to Eagle Rock and expanded into an exhibition space, reviving the historic Eagle Theater.
“We opened to uncertainty,” said executive director Maggie MacKay. “We had no idea if people would come, and they did. And they’ve been coming ever since.”
MacKay said Vidiots has become a touchstone for local kids.
“One of the biggest surprises and the happiest surprises for us and the thing that I think I most wanted to happen here is that young people come here,” she said. “Teens, tweens are getting dropped off by their parents. And because this place is affordable and welcoming and nonjudgmental and safe, they are coming here all the time. We’ve got kids growing up here who call the video store their video store. We have a kid who calls it ‘my video store.’ That kid has no idea that that is a very unique thing to say in the 2020s.”
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Like Smodcastle, Vidiots operates as a non-profit. That isn’t the only path to success for these kinds of theaters, though, as New York City’s Metrograph proves. The two-screen theater in Manhattan’s Lower East Side shows international and arthouse fare and operates as a for-profit. Business is booming, CEO Christian Grass said, with the theater recently enjoying its best summer on record.
“People love going to the movies and people love the experience,” Grass said. The theater also has a bookstore, a magazine, a streaming service, an extravagant concession stand and a swanky bar and restaurant. The establishment has focused on building a sense of community, said Metrograph director of programming Inge de Leeuw, which ensures people keep coming back. MacKay said she’s also found people are looking for connection, community and a place they can go.
“Everybody wants movies in their lives, whether they know it or realize it or not,” MacKay said. “To save this thing, you have to make available every point of access for it. You have to make a return to a social experience.”
While independent theaters are taking different paths to success, they have one thing in common: They want to keep introducing new and classic films to audiences.
“You want to learn something about somebody, sit in the darkness and watch movies with them,” Smith said. “You will learn a lot about a person. You’ll find out if they’re empathetic. You’ll find out what makes them laugh. You’ll find out if there’s a real human being there, if there’s a heart underneath that all, man.”
When We Were Young Festival is hitting pause this year.
Organizers of the Las Vegas-based emo and pop-punk fest announced via Instagram on February 27 that the event will take 2026 off — but emphasised the break is only temporary.
“To our When We Were Young Family,” the statement began. “The songs, the memories, the moments – none of it exists without you. After an unforgettable run in Las Vegas, we’ve decided to take 2026 off to give this festival the care it deserves and to make sure what comes next feels just as special as what came before.”
While no specific reason was given for the hiatus, fans were reassured the festival isn’t going anywhere. “When We Were Young Festival will return to Las Vegas in October 2027… This isn’t goodbye – it’s just a pause. We’ll see you in 2027.”
Since launching in 2022, the Live Nation-produced event has become a nostalgic pilgrimage for millennial music lovers, taking over the Las Vegas Festival Grounds each October. Past headliners have included Green Day, Blink-182, My Chemical Romance and the Killers.
The 2025 edition featured Blink-182 and a reunited Panic! at the Disco, marking a rare return following the band’s 2023 split. In 2024, My Chemical Romance delivered a full performance of The Black Parade, alongside a stacked lineup of scene favourites.
Deon Cole hosted the NAACP Image Award at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on Saturday, February 28, and opened his monologue with a joke about the racial slur mishap at the BAFTAs recently.
The 54-year-old comedian and actor jokingly prayed to God, saying, “Lord, before we go, if there are any white men out here in the audience with Tourette’s, I advise you to tell them they better read the room tonight, Lord. It might not go the way they thinketh. Whatever medicine they’re on, they better double up on it, Lord.
Cole referred to the controversy about Tourette’s activist John Davidson shouting a racial slur while Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presented an award on stage.
The Average Joe star also joked about Nicki Minaj and her recent political alliance with the MAGA movement, saying, “Lord, we want you to bless our sister Nicki Minaj. She’s been going through a lot lately and hasn’t been herself, Lord,” joking that her cosmetic injections have been “affecting her brain.”
NAACP Awards stand for National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and celebrate the arts across different mediums including films, theatre, music, and literature, created every year.
Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jake Gyllenhaal are one of the most famous Hollywood siblings, yet fans are still surprised to learn they’re related.
In a new interview with The New York Times published February 28, the Oscar-nominated actress opened up about reuniting with her younger brother on-screen for her upcoming second directorial project, The Bride — marking their first time sharing the screen in over two decades.
“I remember asking him and tearing up alone in this hotel room I was in, because it meant so much to me. It meant so much for me to interact with him,” Maggie, 48, recalled, noting that for years, she had been focused on carving her own path “separate” from her famous family.
“We’ve never been estranged,” Maggie said of the Marvel star, “but we’ve never been as close as we are now. We’re finally, maybe in the last five years, more and more and more, even each day, really interacting…”
Both siblings began acting as children in the early ’90s with supporting roles in their dad’s films, and the last time they worked together was on the 2001 thriller Donnie Darko. Jake, now 45, quickly landed leading roles in films like October Sky — something Maggie now admits evoked feelings of “envy” towards her brother.
Hence, reaching out to him after all these years felt “honest” and “vulnerable.” The Dark Knight actress told NYT, “I waited until I was absolutely sure that asking him to do this part was the right thing to do.”
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