Colonial Village Cinema

danpetitpas on October 30, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Kerasotes closing Riverside Blvd., Newburg Road facilities

By Sean F. Driscoll
BusinessRockford.com
Posted Oct 28, 2008 @ 03:00 PM
Last update Oct 28, 2008 @ 07:22 PM

ROCKFORD â€" The region will lose a quarter of its movie screens by next week when Kerasotes Theatres closes its two smallest locations.

Thursday marks the last day of business for the North Towne theater, 890 W. Riverside Blvd. The last day for Colonial Village, 4228 Newburg Road, is Nov. 6, Kerasotes Marketing Director Clair Malo said. North Towne showed second-run movies for $1 or $1.50 a seat on its six screens; Colonial Village showed first-run movies and arthouse fare on its five screens.

Malo declined to comment on why the chain was closing the two locations, but patrons who were catching late-afternoon shows today said they were upset with the move.

“I’m shocked,” said Colleen Poleski, who was seeing “Fireproof.” “It’s the only theater I go to because I like a smaller theater and smaller films.”

Linda Schelman and Kris Lambrecht drove from Roscoe for a screening of “The Duchess.”

“A lot of these things aren’t showing at other theaters,” Lambrecht said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do now.”

The Chicago-based theater chain is the seventh-largest in the country, operating 941 screens at 100 locations, according to the National Association of Theater Owners. It opened a new 14-screen theater on Anjali Way in Machesney Park in 2005 and closed the nine-screen theater in the Machesney Park Mall later the same year. It also operates a 16-screen theater on East State Street in Rockford.

The closings will leave the Rock River Valley without a dedicated first-run arts theater for the first time in decades. Kerasotes started showing art and independent films at Colonial Village in 2001, and the independent Storefront Cinema stopped showing films at the Riverfront Museum Park in 2003.

Storefront currently operates out of EIGERlab, 605 Fulton Ave.; its next screenings are of Betty Boop movies and the uncut version of 1933’s “King Kong” on Nov. 12.

Board President Ron Schultz said the closing is a loss to Rock River Valley movie lovers.

“I think Kerasotes loses out by not offering a greater variety, and maybe they’ll move some of those films into the bigger multiplexes,” he said. “Some of those films are going to find an audience, and they need to be aware that those films that are independents sometimes strike gold and deserve a wide audience. Hopefully they won’t abandon those films.”

Malo said she didn’t know if art films would be shown at another Kerasotes theater in the area.
American Theater Corp. announced plans in May to open a multiscreen movie/dinner theater complex at Riverside Pavilion, at Riverside Boulevard and Mulford Road, in late spring or early summer.

Rosemary Weathers Burnham, a spokeswoman for Paul Hemmer Cos., which owns the shopping center, said American Theater Corp. plans to show first-run shows at the theater.

“They certainly have the ability to meet whatever the market demands there,” she said. “We’ll see what the market demands when it opens.”

Bruce C. on August 12, 2012 at 6:37 pm

This theater closed on November 6, 2008. I just uploaded a recent photo of the closed theater.