Sticky Shoes So-Long: Neighbors Invited To Give Pavilion A Sendoff On November 1
Star Wars with sticky shoes.
Frozen with a broken heater.
Batman versus Superman versus bedbugs.
Reviled, despised, and begrudgingly accepted as a local cinema to see first run flicks in the neighborhood, the Pavilion is certainly worth a proper farewell. You’re invited to join in the festivities.
On Tuesday, November 1 between 6m-8pm, Nitehawk Cinema — who will be taking over the theater — is hosting “Nitehawk Pours One Out For the Pavilion.” The event is free, and all you have to do is register here.
BKLYNER received a series of tweets and emails from the community, which spoke to the history of the theater as well as the “love it or hate it” response by neighbors.
@TheStoopBK I’ll always remember it as the only movie theater i could easily walk to but refused to go to. (and regretted every time I did)
— Windsor and Terrace (@TerraceWindsor) October 17, 2016
@SlopeNews Made it feel like an old-school neighborhood. It will be missed.
— Bill Shapiro (@Bill_Shapiro) October 16, 2016
@SlopeNews It will always be the Sanders to me
— D MC (@LMISDMC) October 16, 2016
The first big misstep, in my opinion, was when they cut the huge main screen in half. The sound spill in the two remaining theaters was bad and once during Almost Famous the picture was messed up and it took awhile to fix it … I live further now but the reports of bedbugs and general crappiness definitely steered me to BAM, Cobble Hill and go into the city. I am really pleased to hear that the Nighthawk people are taking the Pavilion over and I hope they can restore it to being a must visit location. — Eve Stahlberger
@SlopeNews | I always appreciated the sticky floors, prevented any chance of falling as you found your seat in the dark..
??— NYCmade (@NYCdisinterest) October 15, 2016
Mostly just mice & them having no popcorn to sell. https://t.co/dLYJeBT5Om
— Selena Coppock (@SelenaCoppock) October 15, 2016
Last September, the Williamsburg-based dine-in film center announced they will open the new multiplex which will replace the Pavilion.
The new “Nitehawk Prospect Park” will have seven movie screens with a total of 650 seats. Nitehawk Cinema’s founder Matthew Viragh told the New York Times the new layout will also boast “two bar areas, a restored atrium overlooking the park, and, of course, in-theater dining.”
The news came as a surprise to many after the developer Hidrock Realty revealed plans to convert The Pavilion Theater into a 6-story building with 24 condos, a subterranean 16-car garage, and 4 movie screens.
That was back in April 2015, and the news was met with a huge community outcry. After much negotiation, an agreement was forged to bring the well-respected Nitehawk in to create Nitehawk Prospect Park, expected in 2017.
“It was getting late, but I felt like I couldn’t back out now … [I] returned to the theater, started back at my half-eaten bag of popcorn and, finally, the movie started, with picture and sound. I feel like that was a fitting last experience at the Pavilion. Not a great one, but memorable upon reflection, and with a casual, but lovable form of incompetence very few places could pull off.” — Adam Matthews, describing the technical difficulties one while seeing Star Wars
The Event Rundown: Nitehawk Pours One Out for the Pavilion
When: Tuesday, November 1, 6pm-8pm
Where: The now former Pavilion Theater, 188 Prospect Park West (near Bartel-Pritchard Square)
What: Explore the space, peek behind the curtains, take pictures. There will be a cash bar, live music provided by the Street Beat Brass Band, and free popcorn
Tickets: Free, but register online.