Cold winds whipping through Courthouse Plaza didn’t deter moviegoers on Saturday, who stood in lines up to 20 people long to buy tickets for AMC Courthouse 8.
With Academy Award nominations earlier in the week, the theater may have picked up some audiences for three of the eight films showing, “Lost in Translation,” “Mystic River” and “Master and Commander.”
The theater inspires partisan feelings in its audiences. “I love it,” said Sheryl Pinn, waiting to see “Mystic River” with her husband. “I used to work in Rosslyn, and now I live in DC, but I still come here.”
Living in Shirlington, Laurie Seiwert has a theater almost next door. But she too said she preferred coming to Courthouse. “I guess this is the one I always come to,” she said before going in to see “The Butterfly Effect.” “I like this one the best. If you want to grab something to eat, it’s right here.”
But they, and other Courthouse patrons, may have to seek seats in other theaters soon. Rumors have been flying in the Clarendon community that the theater could close soon, and a spokesman for the Kansas City-based theater chain confirms that the theater’s fate will be decided in the next month.
“The situation is, we have a lease that expires later in spring,” said Rick King, vice president of corporate communications.
AMC’s corporate offices are looking at several possibilities for the theater, including renewing the lease, or closure, he said. “We’ll make a decision sometime over the next month — the next 30 days.”
Representatives of Charles E. Smith Commercial Realty, the landlord for Courthouse Plaza, said that they are in negotiations with AMC and hope to keep the movie theaters in Courthouse.
<b>CLOSING THE THEATER</b> would prompt unhappiness in Courthouse fans.
In the Clarendon Chronicle, the Alliance’s monthly newsletter that first noted the possible closing, Alliance executive director Sona Virdi wrote, “Without this theater, where would I go to see a movie on a snowy winter day when everything else has shut down?”
Both Seiwert and Pinn said Courthouse is their theater of choice, and its closing would leave a hole in their moviegoing.
It would also leave a hole in the local business landscape, said Rebecca Tax, owner of the Big Belly Deli in Clarendon and Clarendon Alliance board president. “What the heck would we do with that space?” she asked.
When Tax heard rumors about the risk of losing the theater, she and other Clarendon Alliance personnel asked around among theater staff.
They heard not just about the lease, but about lost business.
“Since the Ballston theaters opened, they haven’t been getting a daytime crowd, and they have to rely on weekend and nighttime attendance,” said Tax.
Courthouse theater staff referred all questions about the fate of the theater to King, who said economics play a decision in any movie market. “Certainly the entire market has become more competitive with the opening of new theaters,” he said.
Redevelopment in Clarendon would seem to put Courthouse cinemas in the catbird’s seat, said Tax. “I think it’s surprising, with the influx of people to the area, that Ballston could have that much effect. Ballston opened, but so did 70 apartment buildings.”