Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
And, of course, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyns polestar for art and repertory programming.
The programming reflected the theaters cast-a-wide-net mandate.
There was the time when a packed house forThe Simpsons Moviesang along with Homers song Spider-Pig.
My daughter and I used to attend double features on weekend afternoons, each picking a film.
she said and high-fived me).
I burst into tears and had to leave the theater because I couldnt stop crying.
I continued in a stall of a mens room that was otherwise unoccupied.
Hey, dude, are you okay?
Yeah, Im fine, I called out.
Its that damn movie thats got me like this.
And now, a whole damn theater.
They lean in to kiss.
Someone in the audience shouted, Dont do it!
Really, only at the UA Court Street would an inoffensive rom-com guarantee audience interaction.
That was a perfect day at the movies.
Ill miss the place a lot.
In turn, her disapproving boyfriend started a fistfight with the stranger, which spilled out into the aisle.
They tripped over an old man whose son (grandson?)
started whaling on both of them.
Twenty minutes later, a popcorn fight broke out.
Aaron Hillis, film programmer
The vibe of the physical space was lame, generic corporate theater chain.
The layout created constant escalator bottlenecks.
What made it fun was all the weirdos who went there.
I remember seeingThe Othersin a completely packed house, stuck in the first or second row.
Theres no fuckin monsters in this??
and angrily stormed out.
Michael Bonfiglio, filmmaker
The Regal Court Street theater was my childhood movie theater.
No one was laughing.
Then came a moment when Wilson utters his signature catchphrase: Wow.
A guy in the theater immediately shouted his best Owen Wilson impression at the screen: Wow.
I echoed back one of my own: Oh, wow!
If that isnt a compliment to the community that Regal Court Street built, I dont know what is.
It was one of few places where customers felt at liberty to act out against corporate America.
It was a free-for-all.
The staff bless their souls seemed to give less than a shit.
Amid the dizzying chaos, maybe youd even get to catch a movie, too.
(For legal reasons, this did not really happen.)
So I was surprised while sitting through a late-night screening ofCrazy Rich Asiansto find the audience relatively mum.
Right up until the wedding scene where the aisle is gorgeously flooded with water for dramatic effect.
At which point somebody yelled, Oh theycraaaazyrich.
Madison Malone Kircher, host of SlatesICYMI
The films were often masked incorrectly, projected out of focus.
The escalators seemed to never work, and every surface just felt … sticky.
Its where I sawThe Witchwith a perplexed, borderline furious audience: The fuck wasthat?
someone yelled at the closing credits.
On the theaters final day, I went with friends to see the newScream.
Of course we were.
Bless Court Street for dying exactly as it lived.
From behind me, a man declared, Now thats what I call shoppin!
and the rest of the theater laughed, me included.
And he was right!
And for years, the Regal UA Court Street theater was my closest therapists office.
The crowd in the theater felt just as rowdy as the one in the film.
Gonzo conversations overheard at the concessions.
And especially, for me, the entrance.
There was a partition when you walked in.
But on a busy night: madness.
More art:
It was a place where the better show was often in the audience.
It was a movie theater that could turn the wrong audience off from ever going to the movies again.
It was also a theater that could gift the right audience one of the best nights of their lives.
