New York's Famed Lincoln Plaza Arthouse Theatre

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deadline.com/2017/12/new-york-famed-lincoln-plaza-arthouse-theatre-to-close-in-january-1202228088/


New York's Famed Lincoln Plaza Arthouse Theatre Scheduled To Close In January

EXCLUSIVE: The Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, a temple of the arthouse movie scene in New York for 30 years, is at the end of its lease and is scheduled to close in January, Deadline has learned.

While we have been told that others are exploring ways to step in to preserve the site as a movie theatre, if the influential six-screen multiplex does go dark, it would be a crushing crushing blow to the specialty film business. A long list of films, including Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, began their high-grossing, award-winning runs with exclusive engagements there.

Long operated under a joint venture between Dan Talbot, France’s Gaumont banner and building owner Milstein Properties, Lincoln Plaza has gotten a little scruffy and run-down over the years. One can only imagine what an exhibitor with more resources, anyone from AMC to Alamo Drafthouse, could do with the place.

Located in the basement of a residential building on the corner of Broadway and 62nd Street, Lincoln Plaza still draws solid crowds due to its location and also the taste of its longtime gate-keepers, Talbot and his wife of 68 years, Toby. The Lincoln Plaza is the latest arthouse hit by a historic confluence of forces, including the streaming boom and New York gentrification. Landmark’s once high-flying Sunshine earlier this year said it would close to make way for a high-rise development.

In an interview with Deadline, Toby Talbot seemed resigned to the likely fate of the theatre. She said she and her husband “did everything we could to ask for the lease to be extended.” Milstein, she added “is looking to get everything he can. He’s looking to make money.”

A phone message left with Milstein Properties was not immediately returned.

If the end does come, it will close a major chapter in the legendary film careers of the Talbots, who opened the New Yorker Theater in 1960, and followed it with Manhattan’s Cinema Studio and Metro Theater in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. They also maintained a distribution label, New Yorker Films, which was founded in 1965 and distributed some 400 titles, including Shoah, The Decalogue and Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

As the specialty film business evolved into a potent arm of the movie business, films would debut at the Lincoln Plaza and go on to rack up sizable grosses and awards, with the Talbots determining who made the cut. “We acted as kind of first readers,” Toby Talbot said. “If a film opened at Lincoln Plaza, it had to be worthwhile.”

While the Upper West Side exhibition scene saw changes over the past 30 years, notably the renovation of Lincoln Center and the start of commercial bookings there, Lincoln Plaza remained a coveted destination.

Newer players in New York like Alamo, which just opened in Brooklyn, or the Metrograph on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, have brought new ways to address today’s distracted, luxury-craving moviegoer. For Alamo, that means in-theatre dining and alcohol and a ban on texting, while Metrograph offers a highly curated lineup designed for ultra-cinephiles. Landmark also just opened a cushy new eight-screen complex in the up-and-coming Far West Side, on 57th Street near the Hudson River. Even the Film Forum down on Houston Street, an arthouse as dyed in the wool as Lincoln Plaza, finally acknowledged modern reality and plans to close in 2018 for a multi-million-dollar expansion and revamp.

New York City, not the movie trade, gets much of the blame for the end of the Lincoln Plaza, Talbot said. While the city is thriving by some measures, its commercial real estate market remains a conundrum, with many mom and pop stores being driven out by skyrocketing rents. A surprising number empty storefronts fill otherwise flush neighborhoods across town as landlords hold out for big paydays. “If you go along the Upper West Side, there are vast spaces without anything, and then you’ll see another bank, another Bed, Bath & Beyond,” she said.

Toby Talbot, whose 2009 memoir featured an introduction by Martin Scorsese, said word of the January end date has started to circulate among industry execs and filmmakers, but no notices have been posted alerting customers. She said plans are being made for a formal sendoff on Jan. 21.

While the Talbots were regulars on the festival circuit and were courted by filmmakers and distributors with commercial ambitions, they maintained an old-fashioned zeal for cinema, which governed many of their choices. “We had the luxury of choosing films that we knew were not going to be successful commercially, and we could put them on our screens,” she said. “We were able to do what we wanted them to do.”

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www.indiewire.com/2017/12/manhattan-lincoln-plaza-cinema-close-january-2018-1201908254/

Manhattan’s Beloved Lincoln Plaza Cinema Will Close for Good in January 2018
The Upper West Side institution will join downtown arthouse compatriot Landmark Sunshine Cinema in bowing out.

Lincoln Plaza Arthouse— the first stop for much acclaimed independent and foreign fare since 1981 — will shutter next month when its New York City lease ends, according to Deadline. Occupying an Upper West Side residential building’s basement, the six-screen theater has hosted exclusive engagements of films like “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Certified Copy.” It is operated as a partnership between the founder of the former New Yorker Films distribution company, Dan Talbot; France’s Gaumont Film Company, a mini-major studio; and local real estate investment film Milstein Properties, the owner of the site.

Talbot’s wife of 68 years, Toby, told Deadline that they “did everything we could to ask for the lease to be extended,” to no avail, as Milstein is “looking to make money” and “get everything [they] can.”

Multiple sources told IndieWire that Howard Milstein, chairman of Milstein Properties, had been seeking a buyer for Lincoln Plaza in recent months. Dan Talbot has reportedly been in poor health over the past year; he did not attend this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where he has regularly scouted for films for decades.

The news of Lincoln Plaza’s demise sent a shock wave throughout the independent film distribution community on Friday, as many figures in the specialty business who had relied on the theater to showcase highbrow foreign language films and other major arthouse releases wondered what a new owner might do with the theater. Some speculated that Landmark Cinemas, which recently opened a new location on 57th Street in the wake of reports that its longtime Lower East Side location would close down next year, would be unlikely to acquire the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas without radically changing its business model.

“Landmark doesn’t seem all that interested in preserving independent film,” said one long-time distributor, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointing out that the chain rarely showcasing foreign language films. Another name that came up was real estate mogul Charles Cohen, who recently acquired the Quad Cinema downtown. “If Charles Cohen takes it over, they’ll probably keep it the way it was,” said one insider.

While the Talbots will no longer hold the lease — or act as curators, handpicking works by Federico Fellini, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Robert Altman, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Woody Allen, and others — sources said there is interest in maintaining the space as a multiplex. The couple previously operated three additional, successive Manhattan theaters between the 60s and 80s: the New Yorker Theater, Manhattan’s Cinema Studio, and Metro Theater.

A closing event is being planned on January 21 for the Broadway space, located steps from where the annual New York Film Festival takes place. Lincoln Plaza Cinema’s Lower East Side arthouse counterpart, Landmark Sunshine Cinema, will also close in January 2018. Demolition paperwork was submitted for that site in November, but the Department of Buildings’ final decision has not been announced. Toby Talbot, 89, is the author of “The New Yorker Theater and Other Scenes from a Life at the Movies,” a 2009 memoir with a foreward by Martin Scorsese.

In an interview with The New York Times at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Dan Talbot called the movie industry “not a business,” but “a casino.” He continued, “I don’t think it’s worse or better [today] — it’s just different.”

Lincoln Plaza Cinema is currently showing “Darkest Hour,” “Loving Vincent,” and “Wonder Wheel.”

—Additional reporting by Eric Kohn

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www.indiewire.com/2017/12/losing-lincoln-plaza-subtitled-film-1201908263/

What Losing Lincoln Plaza Means to the Future of Subtitled Film
How the loss of one movie theater in New York could impact foreign-language films across the country.

It’s just one theater, with six screens. But news that the landlord for the Lincoln Plaza Theaters —on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, across the street from Lincoln Center — is not renewing the lease for its present (and only) operators, longtime exhibitors and distributors Dan and Toby Talbot, could be the biggest news in specialized film this year.

Totaling a little over 1,000 seats, Lincoln Plaza has been the most important single theater in the domestic specialized market since its opening in 1981. Though it no longer provides the biggest grosses for most independent and other arthouse releases, it remains the single most vital location for launching subtitled and other high-end titles in the U.S.

Initial reports say the Talbots — dominant forces for over 50 years in the New York specialized film business — were unable to make a deal to continue operation. The landlord, Milstein Properties — has not confirmed that it will continue as a theater.

But assuming it does, it will mean a sea change. A film playing there gained a kind of credibility rare for any cinema to provide. Landmark Theatres, the country’s leading specialized exhibitor, pursued the theater for decades. Any existing location in a high-density area with strong interest in movies is desirable. So even at a more expensive lease, it will have appeal.

But what is hard to imagine is its current programming surviving. Despite rising ticket prices, Lincoln Plaza saw its annual gross fall from $5.5 million a year in 2011 to around $4.5 million in the most recent years. That downturn is directly related to the nationwide drop in interest in subtitled films.

Nearly all leading art house subtitled films opened there, usually with a downtown run, but other theater provided the gross of Lincoln Plaza. The Talbots particularly provided Sony Pictures Classics — the still-dominant provider of high-grossing subtitled films — virtual automatic entree and the expectation of a lengthy run.

AMC’s Lincoln Square Theater, a few blocks north on Broadway, has built a reputation as a significant player in platform exhibition. Top titles like “Call Me by Your Name,” “The Disaster Artist,” “Lady Bird,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “The Shape of Water” and “I, Tonya” all opened there to great grosses. Any business plan to increase the grosses would likely need to include similar titles. That would take commitment of multiple screens and fewer overall films playing — and that would be a dagger in the heart of lower-grossing subtitled films.

The nearby three screens operated by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, though small in total capacity, also could see its access to top films increase. However, that could take away from their needed vital programming of repertory and esoteric films.

Landmark opened its 57 West theater close to the Hudson River, away from subway transportation and not in walking distance of the heavy foot and public transportation-using Lincoln Plaza audience. It though is already becoming more familiar as an event site and is certain to get another look as an alternative.The venerable single-screen Paris Theater will likely see its demand grow.

New York real estate mogul Charles Cohen, whose Cohen Releasing has attempted to cut into SPC’s turf (their “The Salesman” won the Foreign Language Oscar this year and has become a major force in distributing French films), has already gotten into exhibition with his takeover and remodeling of the Quad in Greenwich Village. The respective owners of the IFC Center and Angelika also could be possible operators. But none would like have the same tastes or commitment to heavily favoring the current line up of films at the theater.

But unless someone with a passion for subtitled and foreign film yakes over, it’s hard to see the core initial theater for these films being replaced. Los Angeles has only one such location, Laemmle’s three-screen Royal (whose booking often replicated the Lincoln Plaza’s). And a whole group of titles that thrived there — recently “Loving Vincent,” “Menashe,” “Ida” among non-SPC titles — might not have had their national success without their successful launch here.


It’s a huge development. Those who cherish continued availability of top international and other high-end films will follow closely what happens here — and the commitment to continuing the high level of programming the Talbots brought to New York, and by extension, the rest of the country.

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deadline.com/2017/12/lincoln-plaza-cinema-landlord-says-space-to-stay-a-movie-theater-after-renovations-1202228973/

Lincoln Plaza Cinema Owner: Space To Stay A Movie Theater After Renovations

Milstein Properties responded to the uproar over the news that its longtime tenant, Lincoln Plaza Cinema, will close in January by telling Deadline it plans to preserve the space as a movie theater after vital renovations are completed.

The company today gave no exact timetable for the planned closing and reopening and did not confirm whether Toby and Dan Talbot, widely respected film business figures for more than 60 years, would remain involved as programmers. Even so, the plan to maintain the subterranean indie film temple on Manhattan’s Upper West Side as a place for movies gives both New York cinephiles and the specialty film business some reason for hope during the holiday season.

Here is the company’s full statement:

“Milstein Properties built 30 Lincoln Plaza in 1978, we are long-term members of this community and have played a central role in nurturing this special theater. There is vital structural work needed to repair and waterproof the plaza surrounding the building that cannot be completed while the space is in use, and will begin now that the cinema’s lease has expired. At the completion of this work, we expect to re-open the space as a cinema that will maintain its cultural legacy far into the future.”

Deadline broke the news Friday that the revered film destination was planning to close at the end of January after 30-plus years after the Talbots said they could not come to terms with Milstein on a new lease. Outrage quickly erupted from New York moviegoers and film industry veterans, who are already bracing for Landmark’s Sunshine multiplex on Houston Street downtown to go dark in January. A mixed-use retail and office building will replace the Sunshine, the latest sign of both New York City gentrification and exhibitors’ struggle to stay relevant in the Netflix era.

Located across Broadway from Lincoln Center, the Lincoln Plaza has long been an important launch pad for platform releases. While lacking amenities or polish, it has served as a curator of quality films emerging from the festival circuit and the global independent scene.

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variety.com/2018/film/news/lincoln-plaza-cinemas-indie-films-studios-1202868719/

Lincoln Plaza Cinemas: Theater Chains Vie to Take Over Indie Film Landmark

Dan Talbot, an exhibitor who brought arthouse films to the residents of New York’s Upper West Side, died last December at the age of 91, leaving a void in the cultural life of the neighborhood and depriving studios of one of the staunchest champions of independent fare.

Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, the dog-eared but much-loved basement theater he owned and operated since 1981, has been closed and left vacant since January while Milstein Properties weighs what to do with the space. In an unfortunate twist, Talbot’s death coincided with the end of the theater’s lease.

“For many of us, it was like we had lost our best friend,” said Norma Levy, an attorney and Upper West Side resident. “Lincoln Plaza played films you couldn’t see anywhere else.”

The closure has also been a blow to distributors, because Lincoln Plaza Cinemas was such a reliable source of box office for more off-beat films. Foreign films made as much as a third of their U.S. theatrical revenues from the theater chain, studio executives say.

“It’s been a huge hit,” said Tom Bernard, co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics. “One of the beauties of Lincoln Plaza Cinema was that they kept foreign language films and esoteric films on the screen for so long. They’d be there for four, five, six months, and that sustained the box office for these movies.”

Even as top theater chains pitch the Milstein family on their plans to offer high-end cinemas, a group of local movie lovers is taking action. At a memorial in January for Talbot and for the theater, Levy begin enlisting volunteers to try to find a way to keep Lincoln Plaza Cinema alive, at least in spirit.

Their solution is to create a non-profit film society dubbed New Plaza Cinema. Through the summer the society will be showing films at the Marlene Meyerson JCC, which is located just a few blocks from the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. The group has enlisted former staffers, such as previous manager Frank Rowley, as well as Talbot’s widow, Toby, to help select films to screen. In June, they began showing new indie features such as “The Catcher Was a Spy” and cinema classics like “Goodbye Columbus,” and plan to continue to offer a combination of current releases, old favorites, and discussions with tastemakers and directors. Demand has been high with the 250-seat theater selling out regularly, and the group’s mailing list swelling from 500 people to more than 5,500 in a matter of weeks.

“It’s the sort of thing that’s captured the imagination,” said Jack Willis, a filmmaker and board member. “We’re just hustling to stay on top of it all.”

In the meantime, the likes of AMC, Alamo Drafthouse, iPic, Angelika, and Landmark have met with the property owners about filling the space. There are rumblings that a decision won’t be made until after Labor Day, and some bidders came away convinced that the Milstein family was more interested in tapping a chain that offered a luxury or more unorthodox experience, such as dine-in screenings, than going with a more mainstream brand like AMC.



“We’ve been working it even before everyone else was,” said Hamid Hashemi, CEO of iPic, in an interview last spring. “We’ve known the Milsteins and we’ve been in negotiations with them…They’ve been very tight-lipped, but if they go for quality, we’re going to be it.”

Hashemi isn’t the only one who thinks Lincoln Plaza, with its prime Manhattan location and community of high net worth individuals, would be an ideal location for a new theater.

Landmark Theatres CEO Ted Mundorff would neither confirm nor deny that his company was interested in making a run at the space, but he did indicate that it could be a good fit for his chain, which caters to an audience of well-heeled film lovers.

“We’ve always thought Landmark would be the natural company to inherit Dan Talbot’s vision and to do what’s right for the neighborhood and for the people who loved to go to that theater,” said Mundorff.

Levy, Willis, and other volunteers don’t seem enamored by the thought of another chain taking the place of Lincoln Plaza Cinema. They note that Talbot kept prices low, not just on tickets, but also concessions, because he recognized that many of his customers were senior citizens on fixed incomes. They are also concerned that the new occupant won’t have the same commitment to showing the off-beat or the avant-garde.

When the summer is over, the New Plaza Cinema will have to vacate the JCC because it has to undergo renovations. However, the group has been meeting with other venues to try to secure a more permanent location. Ultimately, they hope to raise enough money to build a new multi-screen arthouse cinema on the Upper West Side, one that offers the latest indies, as well as special events. It’s something they feel will be a civic good.

“We plan to make it an educational and community space,” said Levy. “That’s important. My world is a small one and films open up my mind to a new way of looking at things and of understanding the universe. That’s what we hope to do with New Plaza Cinema.”