Discover Movie Theaters

New Yorkers craving a luxury cinema experience need search no further than LOOK Dine-In Cinemas on W57th Street. The new state-of-the-art theater, located in the award-winning Bjarke Ingels-designed VIA 57 building, offers laser-projected movies on eight screens with surround sound and heated leather reclining seats. Additionally, moviegoers can enjoy a full menu of snacks, cocktails, and meals, from crispy flatbread pizzas to beef and Impossible cheese burgers, all served by "Ninja Servers" who wear all black and pop in quietly to bring whatever you need. LOOK Dine-In Cinemas also has seasonal menu items, including street tacos and signature cocktails, to appeal to local palates. LOOK Dine-In Cinemas aims to create an all-in-one entertainment spot easily accessible to Manhattanites, and it is the only one of its kind near Midtown. The dine-in cinema is one of just a handful of similarly structured movie houses in the city. However, LOOK stands out with its innovative technology, which allows customers to order and pay from a QR code on their phones, ensuring a seamless and uninterrupted movie experience. LOOK Dine-In Cinemas has plans to become the next New York venue for many of the city's annual festivals and will regularly host filmmaker talkback sessions. The theater shows a wide range of titles, from action to horror to independent films, to ensure there is something for everyone. With the summer movie season now underway, LOOK Dine-In Cinemas is poised to become a go-to destination for New Yorkers seeking a night out at the cinema.

Now an AMC movie theater, this building was born in 1912 as the Eltinge 42nd Street Theater, named for the highly acclaimed actor of the time, Julian Eltinge. When hard times hit during the Depression, the theater entered the salacious world of burlesque and ultimately the perhaps tawdrier world of cinema. In 1954, the theater was renamed Empire Theatre, giving it recognition once again. Due to the decline of the area, the theater continued to face opposition as a "second-run movie house, " and was ultimately closed in the 1980s. Because of its New York City Landmark status, however, when real estate mogul Bruce Ratner began implementing his plans for a large redevelopment project in 1998, he was essentially forced to move the building, in tact, seventy feet to the west. Today, the elaborate Egyptian decor remains inside a mega cinema complex with almost 5, 000 seats.

Opening in 1948, the Paris initially show-cased French cinema on its single screen. Today, the theater continues to include foreign films as a core element. The theater seats 586 people, and features a balcony, which is a rarity in modern cinemas. With no ads preceding the start of a film, the Paris Theatre opens up the curtain and offers a more classy and classic movie watching experience.

Inside this renovated 1920's courthouse is a mecca for the art of the moving image. Since the 1960's, Anthology has "paved the way for contemporary understanding and appreciation of film as a premier art of the twentieth century, in all its forms. " As an "international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, " Anthology is a renowned cinema museum offering screenings and programs all year long with weekly artist appearances. In addition, they host international film festivals and on our recent visit with Robert Haller, the director of Library Collections, we learned that they have the largest library dedicated to the history of film in the world. Mr. Haller is absolutely passionate about the collection he oversees. One and a half million still production images, reviews, publicity correspondence and so much more are available to film aficionados. The center presents films on 16mm and 35mm film, and also has state-of-the-art digital and video projection in their two movie theaters that are open to the public and available for rent.

Since 1972, the Kanbar family has run this historic four-screen theater. It boasts about being New York’s first multiplex and a hotspot for independent, foreign, and documentary premiers since the 1980s. They take their role as a community movie house seriously, offering rentals to artists and filmmakers seeking a place to show new work. Andy Warhol was a regular for a while, bringing in his fans and followers, and to this day the Quad has a large cadre of usual patrons.

Established in 1963, Cinema Village has been committed to showing films that can rarely be found on the big screen anywhere else in the city. In its earlier years, this converted firehouse only had one screen and would show double-features of classics, for which the selection changed every few days. As the video revolution set in, Cinema Village moved away from showing classics, which had now become far more accessible. Today, the theatre has three screens and prides itself on presenting independent and foreign films that tend to be overlooked by larger commercial theaters. Along with the rarity of the films themselves, Cinema Village has kept its vintage flare for the double-features.