AMC Classic Bloomington 11, eastside theater, closed for good Thursday
AMC planned to close its theater on Bloomington’s eastside for the last time on Thursday, in part because of the facility’s age and maintenance costs.
The chain will keep its AMC 12, at 2929 W. 3rd St., and employees at the eastside theater said Thursday they would be transferring there on Friday.
An AMC spokesman said via email the chain “routinely reviews the theatres in our circuit, as well as opportunities outside of our circuit and makes decisions based on what will best strengthen the company going forward.”
AMC Classic Bloomington 11 Manager Matthew Bump said the chain made the decision to close the theater in part because of the facility’s age and high maintenance costs.
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The last movie to play in the theater was scheduled to be “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” Bump said the last movie Thursday was to end just before 10 p.m., and the employees likely would leave the building for the last time around 10:30.
Bump, who was with the theater two years, said he would be transferring across town, as would other employees, including one who had worked at the eastside location for decades.
“She took the news well, but she loved this place,” Bump said.
The "AMC" letters had already been removed from the building by early Thursday afternoon.
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The closing of the theater comes at a time that the movie industry is seeing a resurgence — thanks to hits such as “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” — after very tough years during the pandemic. Through Sept. 14, U.S. theaters generated ticket sales of $6.8 billion, up 26% from the same period a year ago, according to Box Office Mojo. And while ticket sales were up sharply from the pandemic years, they still lagged 2019 by 15%.
The closing of the Bloomington movie theater also is in line with national trends: Between 2019 and 2022, the U.S. lost more than 2,000 screens, or about 5.3% of the total, according to The Cinema Foundation’s State of the Cinema Industry report from March.
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Even before the more recent trends, consumers have steadily moved away from movie theaters as TV screens have gotten bigger and less expensive. When “The Phantom Menace” was released in 1999, the line in front of the eastside theater stretched all the way around the nearby Kroger store, according to an H-T staffer.
The future of the site is unclear. National Retail Properties Lp bought the nearly 7-acre property in 2007 for $6.3 million, according to county records. The property’s assessed value has steadily fallen since then and most recently was assessed at just $1.5 million. AMC did not respond immediately to say whether the chain planned to retain, lease or sell the property.
Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: AMC Classic Bloomington 11, eastside theater, closed Thursday
