Ren Cen 4 to close tonight

[animatedmartian]

Reason being an inability to expand the theater to keep up with modern day movie theaters. That leaves just three movie theaters within the city limits; two of which that primarily show independent films.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...early-30-years

[313WX]

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...early-30-years

Reason being an inability to expand the theater to keep up with modern day movie theaters. That leaves just three movie theaters within the city limits; two of which that primarily show independent films.

Actually, it's 4 if you include the Alger Theatre.

It has, or is shortly expected to, project a film after several decades of sitting dormant.

[Lowell]

That's too bad but not surprising. I went there last winter. The projection was terrible, dull colors and slightly fuzzy, the theater long and narrow from being cut in two, the sound just decent. But the popcorn was okay.

The path there, like most RenCen venues, is convoluted and even I who know RenCen decently had a some difficulty finding it.

One would think with downtown being populated there would be an opportunity for a first run house. The theaters would need to be redone, so it's a gamble.

[detroitsgwenivere]

Last few times I went to RenCen4 I was one of maybe 5-10 in attendance. And it's not the easiest place to find if you don't know where your going inside the complex.

[Hypestyles]

There should have been a facebook campaign for a final week of movies, to boost attendance.

So how do you convert a movie theater that's inside a skyscraper into something else entirely? How much money does that take?
what are the options for a first-run movie house in the downtown vicinity? The MCS building?
What about the state fairgrounds proposal? does that include a movie theater?

[313WX]

What about the state fairgrounds proposal? does that include a movie theater?

It's in the article. There are "talks" of building an Emagine Theatre there.

[detroitbob]

Always a bad location thru the maze like upper level, old, dated auditoriums, non digital, and "2nd run" scheduling. One might expect some multiplex to open in the next few years, possibly as part of the "District"---perhaps Magic Johnson?

[Dan]

The uptown theatre at the ren cen opened circa 2008. Yes, there's been a theatre in the building since the 70s, but the article implies it's been the same operator.

i bet someone will step up to reopen it

[DTWflyer]

The complete lack of signage and marketing of the theatre likely led to its demise.
So many people who live or work downtown had no clue there was a theatre.

I'm shocked it lasted this long. There never seems to be anyone there. The entrance is in an obscure location on Level 3 by the entrance to the Tower 200 elevators behind the CVS. Nowhere near any of the other restaurants in the facility.

A big sign on the podium might help, or better signage in from the Riverwalk or Jefferson.

[canuck]

The complete lack of signage and marketing of the theatre likely led to its demise.
So many people who live or work downtown had no clue there was a theatre.

I'm shocked it lasted this long. There never seems to be anyone there. The entrance is in an obscure location on Level 3 by the entrance to the Tower 200 elevators behind the CVS. Nowhere near any of the other restaurants in the facility.

A big sign on the podium might help, or better signage in from the Riverwalk or Jefferson.

Shhhh! Did you not consider it may be a front for another business?

[DTWflyer]

Ha, I always see the concession stand open. Not too long ago they started serving beer & wine I believe.

A few years ago, my office rented out one of the theaters for a morning to have an all-office meeting. We don't have any meeting rooms in our office large enough for everyone so we rented the theater to do large-group meeting and presentations.

[Mackinaw]

Clearly poor design [[of both the ren cen and the theaters) and marketing. Not meant to be-- too bad.

Downtown is BEGGING for a proper theater. I'd bet a nickel that Bedrock will take care of that within 2-3 years. I am guessing it will be a component of the Hudson Block development.

[detmsp]

Meh... movie theaters are all struggling. It just doesn't have the draw it once did now that everyone has a big TV and netflix. Downtown Minneapolis [[which has something like 10x the population of downtown Detroit) doesn't have a theater either, so I wouldn't expect a new one to open.

[313WX]

Meh... movie theaters are all struggling. It just doesn't have the draw it once did now that everyone has a big TV and netflix. Downtown Minneapolis [[which has something like 10x the population of downtown Detroit) doesn't have a theater either, so I wouldn't expect a new one to open.

And if one did open, it'll probably be another small multiplex [[say, 4 screens or so).

The issue with the Ren Cen was not its size, but that its infrastructure was outdated.

[southen]

Clearly poor design [[of both the ren cen and the theaters) and marketing. Not meant to be-- too bad.

Downtown is BEGGING for a proper theater. I'd bet a nickel that Bedrock will take care of that within 2-3 years. I am guessing it will be a component of the Hudson Block development.

My thoughts exactly. Dan has been mum on what else will go into that block other than residential and some retail. I think a 4-6 screen cinema would fit with everything else he is trying to accomplish downtown.

[DTWflyer]

I wouldn't be surprised to see an Emagine-style theather incorporated into one of the new mega-developments downtown.

[Marlon_JB2]

I'm going to be 100% honest.

From 1987-2007, I had no clue that there was a movie theater in the Renaissance Center.

Then I started working there as a valet driver, wouldn't be surprised if some of you might know me, I worked there for 6 years. Someone told me that they were going to "the movies" and my first question to them was... "There's a movie theater in here?"

There's no advertisements.
There's hardly any signs.
Afterwards, I found out that there were only 4 screens.

We used to get a few parking ticket validations here and there, so I always figured it was fairly popular.

I thought that people just didn't know about the validation...

I guess it was unpopular after all.

To this day, I've only been up there once, but never seen a movie there. Now, I wish that I had.

That popcorn though.... oh boy.

[canuck]

I re-read this thread and the more I think about it, I come to the conclusion they didn't want it to be popular.

There is no way Detroit's downtown can't support a couple of multi-screens of that size. No way.
And the Netflixes of this world don't change this.

The Scotiabank megaplex in downtown Montreal plays the new Terminator movie on 4 different screens alone. There are standard, 3D, Imax 3D and AVX3D versions available in the same theatre.

[GPCharles]

When I attended law school across Jefferson at U of D in the mid-70s, the theater was somewhat crowded in the afternoons. We were in a recession at the time and many of the stockbrokers in Ren Cen would catch the afternoon movies.

I know, so what was I doing there? Can't study all of the time...

[swingline]

The Uptown folks created an excellent movie going experience at the Ren Cen. Decent concessions, clean theaters and bathrooms, and good price. As others have commented, the location was kind of challenging. But I also think that better signage and some creative marketing could have solved those problems.

Biggest problem I observed was the operator's choice of films to exhibit. With only four screens, choices needed to be tailored to the most likely demographic to attend at that location. The typical film choice at Ren Cen for the past 6-8 years was geared toward the male age 16-24 crowd which I think was misguided. [[E.g., action hero, horror, violence). Yet it would seem that with the strong residential growth of the downtown/midtown community in the last decade created primarily by college educated young adults and college educated empty nesters, film choices geared more toward this demographic would have been desirable. [[E.g., epics, romance, drama, Sundance/Cannes/Oscar nominated, etc.). Sounds snobby, I know, but these locals are not exactly an X-Men, Avengers or The Purge: Anarchy crowd.

[downtownguy]

Meh... movie theaters are all struggling. It just doesn't have the draw it once did now that everyone has a big TV and netflix. Downtown Minneapolis [[which has something like 10x the population of downtown Detroit) doesn't have a theater either, so I wouldn't expect a new one to open.

I agree with detmsp. Yes, the Ren Cen is a maze, but if that was truly a reason for it to close, why did it last 40 years?

[mtburb]

I agree with detmsp. Yes, the Ren Cen is a maze, but if that was truly a reason for it to close, why did it last 40 years?

Didn't the theater close for a while in the early 2000's?

[animatedmartian]

I agree with detmsp. Yes, the Ren Cen is a maze, but if that was truly a reason for it to close, why did it last 40 years?

Lack of competition [[or rather, being able to keep up with whatever competition there was). As another poster mentioned, movie theaters these days have IMAX, 3D, etc. The average rate of attendance might have been slowly trickling downward over the years and it's just now gotten to the point where revenues probably are close to being overtaken by expenses. And like the news article says, the location and design of the Ren Cen doesn't exactly make it favorable for a decent size expansion.

[G-DDT]

Downtown is BEGGING for a proper theater.

I'm hoping so. It'd be nice to see more of a movie-going experience situation in Detroit other than the DFT or what the State [[I'm sorry, Fillmore) used to do with Monday $1 Movie Nights.

[313WX]

I'm hoping so. It'd be nice to see more of a movie-going experience situation in Detroit other than the DFT or what the State [[I'm sorry, Fillmore) used to do with Monday $1 Movie Nights.

There's still the first-run, modernized theatre at Bel-Air Centre.