LPF Studio Cinema
296A Cabot Street,
Beverly,
MA
01915
296A Cabot Street,
Beverly,
MA
01915
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ONE MORE clarification…after Sandy Hook, we received a phone call (from a division of the State Police I believe - there is probably specific info in a Facebook post from around that time) warning of a threat made against theaters in MA during or fairly close to the times that It’s a Wonderful Life was supposed to screen. THAT, Sandy Hook, and our attendance issues resulted in cancelling the screenings. We probably would’ve resumed in 2014 but there seemed to be limited interest.
We loved doing it but the empty seats were discouraging.
One more correction to Sarah B’s comment’s above. The fee for LPF STUDIO CINEMA CLUB was $60 for an “annual membership fee” to cover licensing and operating costs - not a monthly fee. We were hoping for at least 40 people to join and help pick films to watch for the next 12 months.
Hey Mods, please be careful how you display the order of comments. I was replying to Sarah B’s comment, trying to give a more accurate account - I should know because I’m the owner ;) The way it displays the order makes it appear that Sarah is correcting the information that I’m providing. I appreciate the mentions but would also appreciate an accurate account of facts.
Thanks!
It’s A Wonderful Life was supposed to be screened there on December 14 & 15th 2012, but it was cancelled due to the sandy hook school shootings. Closed unexpectedly. Planned to reopen in spring 2013 with one movie a month at $60, but that never happened. Signage removed in Spring 2014.
Regarding the “Movie Club” we considered, that never came to fruition and with streaming becoming more popular, it was difficult to generate interest. I don’t recall what the proposed cost was but it could have been $60 for a membership as Sarah B mentioned.
Closing the theater wasn’t quite “unexpected” though. We’d talked about it for more than a year since since attendance wasn’t what we hoped it would be. We just thought it was cool and fun to do it so we absorbed the losses. Sandy Hook definitely caused us to re-evauluate that.
We miss the space and we miss screening films so it’s not out of the question that we return somewhere down the line.
Thanks for your interest. Sarah B is correct that we did cancel screenings of It’s a Wonderful Life after the Sandy Hook incident. We then considered showing films less regularly but as Roger mentioned above, attendance was a regular issue and I’m sure we could’ve done a better job with advertising and promoting the theater to the community. We also have an AV/Video Production business that’s our main focus and we were especially busy with that in 2014.
Signage was removed in April 2014 and we subleased the space shortly after. All operations were moved to the Cummings Center in Beverly, where we stayed until January 2020. We DID consider buying the nearby Cabot Cinema when it was for sale but that never happened. We’re still in business doing AV and Video Production BUT the film screening portion COULD pop up somewhere in the future. If/when that happens I will let it be known here.
In the meantime, The Cabot and Cinema Salem are doing more revival type screenings in addition to newer films and getting better all the time in my opinion. I recommend checking them out if you haven’t already.
The LPF Studio Cinema at 296A Cabot Street in Beverly is still listed every week in the “Movie Guide” in the Boston Sunday Herald. It was listed there last Sunday, Feb 9th with the notation “Call theater for showtimes”.I take it that this is obsolete information which has been carried for over a year, if the cinema is closed!
The cinema portion of LPF Studios closed at the end of 2012 due to lack of attendance.