Raise the Curtain

Even before the pandemic, movie theaters on the South Fork were having a rough go of it, but there have been bright spots.

As things stand, the Hampton Bays movie theater site is still being considered for a CVS, but the cinema is operating in the meantime and might have a second chance. Hampton Arts in Westhampton Beach has been closed for some time, though plans have been submitted to renovate and revive the twin-screen movie house. The Southampton Village movie theater has been closed since the pandemic, but it could be reopening under new ownership. Something is certainly happening behind all that scaffolding.

Going to the movies is one of the few activities that locals of all ages can enjoy year-round in any weather, so it’s always a shame to see the options limited. That’s one of the reasons that the Sag Harbor community rallied to rebuild the Sag Harbor Cinema after a 2016 fire and turned it into a nonprofit institution, preserving it for posterity. It has become a thriving part of the village’s cultural scene, and the kind of theater, showing exciting films both old and new, that draw crowds.

Duplicating the nonprofit model in Southampton could have achieved the same results, but when filmmakers Ben and Orson Cummings tried to do just that in 2021, the brothers were, unfortunately, rebuffed. Fortunately for the community, they have not given up.

The fate of the Southampton cinema has been the subject of rumors for three years, and when the property sold in November 2022 for $8 million, it only fueled more speculation. At one point, it was said that it was going to be turned into a private club, until village officials indicated to the new owner that the idea was a nonstarter.

The village has made efforts to ensure that the building stays in a community use and is not demolished, by including the space in a new arts and culture district and by landmarking it.

It recently came out publicly — though everyone in the village seemed to be aware already — that the new owner of the Hill Street theater is billionaire real estate investor and developer Aby Rosen. The latest word is that he is renovating the building and will continue its use as a movie theater.

However, Rosen has not announced this himself. His reticence to discuss his plans for such an iconic property publicly is a miscalculation on his part. The Southampton community puts a high value on transparency, and if he comes out and explains that he is preserving this important community resource rather than destroying it, there will only be upside for him. If he has plans beyond a simple movie house, he’d benefit from talking about them rather than holding his cards close to the vest.

That scaffolding has been erected around the now-protected facade, but still no plans have been announced, and even village officials appear to be in the dark. Village residents and cinephiles from farther afield want answers. It’s time for Rosen to raise the curtain, at least a little bit.