Scene One Cinemas has officially re-opened the Market Arcade Theater on Main Street. It brings hope that after several operators over the decades, the upstate New York-based Scene One is the long-term fit.
It was just in December that national chain AMC pulled out of the location after nearly a decade. But they were just a long line of operators who had come and gone from the location.
Scene One CEO Joe Masher said his company’s smaller, boutique model can make the theater more viable, and the excitement is there.
"When I saw that this theater was closing, I looked at the numbers on it, and I was like, 'why is that closing?' It's actually a good theater," Masher said at the ribbon cutting event. "But for a larger circuit who has a big corporate overhead to feed, it really doesn't make sense for them, but it makes complete sense for me. And with the enthusiasm that from the support of Buffalo, it made us really enthusiastic to get in here."
The historic Market Arcade building added a movie theater as part of Mayor Jimmy Griffin’s Theater District revitalization plans in the late 1980s. Bob Golibersuch, who owns the Screening Room Café previously in the Boulevard Mall, was at the grand re-opening. He actually worked for General Cinema when it opened Market Arcade Theater in 1987.
"It did well at first, but again, they didn't do a lot of community support. They didn't do alternative programming," Golibersuch said of General Cinema's tenure. "So what they did only lasted for a short period of time, and the same thing has happened with the other operators."
Scene One will offer that diverse range of programming. In addition to first-run movies, they’ll screen classic, independent and locally produced films.
The company wants to build partnerships within the Buffalo community, which excites Jordan Lema, owner of Lemur Studios on Main Street and producer of the Buffalo 48 Hour Film Project, a film festival.
"We have about 700 people come to screenings a year, and we wouldn't even talk to AMC, because we didn't think that that was something that would work," Lema said. "We didn't think that there was an equation that would fit for us. [Scene One] being open to the community, there's likely a chance that we can have events here, parties here, screenings here."
Scene One at Market Arcade is open seven days a week, with matinee and evening showtimes.
