Stacy Spikes grew up at the movies. When he was a child in Houston, his mother would give him and his brother $5 each, drop them off at the theater — the manager knew them by name — and come back hours later. “She’d probably be arrested today,” he said. “It was a different time.”
But that time at the movies was formative for Mr. Spikes, 56, who in 1997 founded Urbanworld Film Festival, a five-day festival in New York that showcases Black and multicultural films. In 2011, he co-founded MoviePass, a subscription-based ticketing service, which he later sold and then bought back in 2021.
“Seeing Disney films and being dropped off at the theater, that was a form of escape for us, but it was like our babysitter,” Mr. Spikes said. “I saw ‘Blade Runner’ when I was 13 years old and I knew I was going to work in this area.”
The movie industry has evolved in recent years, but Mr. Spikes remains a film buff. Recently, he saw “Sinners” three times in three different types of theaters.
“I knew it had great music so I saw it the first time in Dolby Atmos, which focuses on the sound,” he said. “The second screening, I saw it in IMAX, and now you’re really focused on the picture and that part of the experience.”
The third screening was just because. “It’s one of those once-in-a-generation films that you don’t want to say, ‘I wasn’t there,’” he said.
Mr. Spikes splits his time between Long Island and a studio apartment in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan that he’s owned for 25 years. He lives with his wife Marianne Spikes, their daughter Ellery Spikes, 19, and two dogs, Luna and Sky.
“In the West Village, you have low buildings, more sunlight, more trees on the streets, and on certain streets you still see cobblestones,” said Mr. Spikes. “I also love living in the backdrop of such a creative community.”
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
OFF AND RUNNING On weekdays I wake up around 5:30 a.m., so on Sundays I sleep until 7:30 and then I’m out running. I haven’t missed a day of running for 11 years. I ran through Covid, I ran through my torn Achilles. If I land in Dubai in 104-degree heat, I still go running. Saturday and Sunday are the two days I do my longer runs, about three or five miles. I tend to run towards the water, down to Battery Park, to the very end of Manhattan where you can see the Statue of Liberty.
ON THE LEASH When I get home from running, I have an electrolyte shake and then I walk my dogs: Luna, a 7-year-old shepherd hound mix, and Sky, a Border collie, who is 15 and a little old man. Sky’s back legs are kind of giving out on him so he uses a wheelchair. I’ll walk Luna, then I’ll put Sky in his wheelchair and get him some exercise. People love stopping and seeing him.
SHOWTIME I live in cinema heaven. I live near the Film Forum, and then you just hop on a train and it’s a few stops down to Alamo Drafthouse in the financial district. Then the Angelika Film Center & Cafe is also near me and you have the IFC Center around the corner. I see two movies during the weekend. Saturday is usually a big movie with popcorn and I’m going uptown, like the AMC Lincoln Square. Then Sunday is something downtown and it’s a great “meal” that’s going to make me think and really resonate with me over the weekend. For example, I recently saw the Korean film “A Normal Family” at the Angelika and it was so riveting, very Hitchcock.
PITTI PARTY I only have one meal a day and for the most part it’s lunch. On Sundays, my family and I like to go to Bar Pitti where Bleecker Street meets Sixth Avenue. I always get the chopped spinach, sometimes the salmon and the rigatoni pitti with a cream sauce. I’m in heaven.
SOUND OF SILENCE I like to people-watch in Washington Square Park, but I sit at the edges of the park. There’s a lot of drama in the main part by the fountain and I don’t like to sit too close to the chess tables. I’ll pick a spot and then turn my noise canceling headphones on with no music. So you just turn off the sound of the city and you take it in. It’s like if you’re watching a movie and then all of the sudden, for dramatic effect, they take the sound away. When you turn it back on, New York’s back.
CHECKING IN Sometimes, before I do my weekly grocery shopping, I’ll stop by the office to look at grosses and see what the reporting was. If it was a quiet weekend, I’m not as worried, but if we had higher tickets in customer service or if there was any type of outage, they’ll alert me. I like getting a jump on the day so that Monday I’ve already developed my questions for the team.
STOCKING UP I do my grocery shopping at Brooklyn Fare. My wife and I have a grocery list that we both share in the Reminders app on our phones. We live in a third-floor walk-up and I don’t want her to have to carry the bags upstairs. Then my wife and daughter cook dinner and I’ll sit at the table with them and talk.
END SCENE I get in bed around 9:30 p.m. and try to stay off social media a couple of hours before bedtime. I have a meditation practice where I read the same part of a book in the morning and again at night — right now I’m reading “The Daily Stoic” by Ryan Holiday — and it lets me see the day in bite-sized pieces. Then I just let that sink in.
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