Multiplex Cinemas in Queens closing this week after 25 years

QUEENS - On Tuesday night, when the curtain closes at College Point Multiplex Cinemas, it’ll close for good.

After 25 years of bringing movie experiences to its customers, the theater has posted a message on its website, thanking its customers over the past two and a half decades, saying, in part: "We are sad to let you know that College Point Cinemas is closing. It has been our pleasure to serve the Queens community with great movie-going for many years."

The theater says its closing is a business decision, and the Queens Chronicle is reporting the location will be torn down to be replaced by a logistics center.

Movie industry experts, including Charles Schreger, a professor of marketing at both NYU Stern and Fordham University Gabelli, says the closing is part of a larger trend. 

Schaefer expects more closures across the city and across the country to follow, a result of changes in consumer behaviors brought on by Covid and the actors and writers strikes.

"It went into kind of a tailspin during Covid," Schreger said, "The number of movies has been decreasing. Your rent is staying the same. There are too many theaters in your theater chain. Guess what? When you have an opportunity, in some cases to close down movie theaters, it happens."

While experts say movie theater closures may accelerate within the next two years, there is a silver lining in that the IMAX theaters continue to draw audiences – a bit of good news for the movie industry to cling onto this cliffhanger.