A defunct theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side will be renamed the Uptown Film Center and may open to moviegoers by early 2028, the nonprofit that bought it said on Monday.
Ira Deutchman, an independent film producer who leads the nonprofit, also announced a $29 million capital campaign to renovate the theater at Broadway and 99th Street. The building was known as the Metro Theater from 1982 until it closed in 2005.
Uptown Film Center will have five screens — one with about 185 seats, another with 150 and three that will hold about 45 each. An architectural rendering of the new marquee lists a 70-millimeter showing of “West Side Story” alongside the 2025 movies “La Grazia,” “Eleanor the Great” and “Orwell: 2+2=5.”
Although the theater’s name is changing, its landmark pink terra-cotta facade is not going away. Deutchman said the nonprofit decided the front of the building should be restored to look as it did when it opened in 1933.
“This part of it is incredibly exciting,” Deutchman said in an interview. “I think that when people see what this place is going to look like, they’re going to be completely thrilled.”
The nonprofit, Upper West Side Cinema Center, bought the building in April for nearly $7 million with the help of state funds. It estimated then that it would need to raise $15 million to $25 million to construct a new interior, replace the marquee and clean graffiti from the facade.
That number has since increased to $29 million. The nonprofit said on Monday that it planned to raise $5 million by the end of the year and begin construction in 2027.
Selecting a new name was not easy, Deutchman said. When the theater first opened in 1933, it was called the Midtown Theater. It was known as the Metro Theater for several decades, but since its closing at least two other theaters with Metro in their name have opened — the Metrograph in downtown Manhattan in 2016 and the Metro Private Cinema in Chelsea this fall.
“I wanted a name for this theater that actually pointed exactly where the theater was,” Deutchman said of Uptown Film Center. “We discussed a lot of different possibilities and finally settled on something that we think actually has a lot of sparkle to it.”
Renderings of the new marquee, lobby and interior by the architecture firm Voith & Mactavish were shown to the public at an event on Monday night. Deutchman said in the interview that the standard for nonprofit movie theaters indicated that five screens was the “sweet spot” for success.
“Fitting everything that we need within the space has been a challenge,” Deutchman said, adding that air rights above the building were sold and the building itself sits on bedrock.
Shortly after the Metro Theater closed, the building’s owner told The New York Times that it was “obsolete” as a neighborhood theater because of the rise of large multiplexes. The building sat vacant for years. A plan to turn it into a Planet Fitness fell through, as did two proposals involving the movie chain Alamo Drafthouse.
Last year, the Upper West Side Cinema Center announced its bid to purchase the building with support from celebrity advisers including Martin Scorsese and Ethan Hawke. Tim Blake Nelson, an Upper West Side resident, later joined the nonprofit’s advisory board.
It bought the building with the help of $3.5 million in grants from Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York and $500,000 in grants from the State Senate. Private donations included a grant from Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg’s Hearthland Foundation.
Deutchman said some Upper West Side residents had expressed disappointment with the failed plans over the past 20 years.
“This will hopefully get them to realize that this time it’s not a drill,” he said. “We’re actually doing this.”
Derrick Bryson Taylor is a Times reporter covering breaking news in culture and the arts.
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