Another Last Picture Show

April 30th saw the death of another important West Palm Beach landmark, at least for yours truly.  The AMC theater in the retail and residential plaza "The Square", formerly known as "Rosemary Square", formerly known as (and still called by locals) "CityPlace", concluded service last Sunday evening after nearly twenty-three years.  The downtown area no longer has a spot for movie going.  The multiplex opened as a Muvico and was one of the most unique palaces around.  I use the word "palace" as its cavernous lobby more resembled an art museum than any old movie theater.  I always loved to stare up at the ceiling as I entered, feeling as if I had a little facsimile of the Sistene Chapel in my city.

The theater was there from CityPlace's inception in 2000.  Both will forever have a place in my heart as their openings coincided with the meeting of my future wife.  Our first date was at Cheesecake Factory, which is one of a handful of original merchants still there.  We went to see the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy at Muvico in those early years, and countless more films right up to AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER this past January.  I also joined old friends, new friends, and long lost friends for many a show.  I did a fair amount solo, when the movie I was seeing was either at an inconvenient time or of no interest to others.  I fondly recall our smuggling in paninis from Barnes and Noble (also long gone) to one of the Middle Earth adventures.  Never fear, invisible audience; I dropped plenty of coin at the concession stand over the years.

You may recall my my lone 2020 outing was at this theater.

The theater will be replaced by.....two office towers.  City commissioners voted unanimously for the redevelopment plan.   Wasn't there a lot of talk during the darkest days of the pandemic that office space was - in the wake of more and more folks working from home-  no longer such a hot commodity? Guess that's over.  Will we see a glut of unoccupied spaces in the near future?  The pandemic also did a number on movie going in general, aided by the increasing normalcy of streaming at home, often mere weeks or even on the same day as a theatrical release.  Commerce always wins.  Sad, but true.   The same reason in part why drive-ins died; the land on which they stood was just too valuable for dollar movie night (and the trunksful of whipper snappers who got in for free). 

Longtime readers will note my laments over the years of favorite haunts in this town.  I'm sure you have your own.  Each really does feel like a sort of demise, a part of me going away with them.  Each vital to my life in significant ways.  This theater was more than just a place to satiate my movie jones.  It was a place where relationships were furthered, a place where communal appreciations developed.  I tend to speak of movie going as best experienced as a solitary activity, and that audiences are getting more and more obnoxious.  I generally stand by that but the Muvico/AMC was a really beautiful, special place that made the experience feel like the event watching a movie should be, and the asshole quotient was usually at a minimum.  It was fun to observe first timers marvel at the architecture as well. 

There's talk that an IMAX theater will eventually be erected around the new towers.  Hope that's true, but recapturing the experience will be difficult as I bathe in the memories.  Guess I'll be trekking back out west to the Regal on Hwy 441, which remarkably has been there since the '90s.  Or maybe the Cobb in Palm Beach Gardens.  Stay tuned.