July 19, 2007
Uptown Theater Not Closing, Despite Rumors
A flurry of frantic, angry emails began around 6 p.m. last night on the Cleveland Park Listserve and moved seemingly all over town by 8 p.m. It was the end of civilization as we know it! A catastrophe of epic proportions! Alert the National Guard! The Uptown Theater might be closing!
Thankfully, cooler heads have now prevailed. Turns out the rumor got started because the Jews for Jesus outfit McLean Bible Church put up a page on their web site advertising the new "community campus" they will begin in January at the theater -- meaning the church group will be renting space at the Uptown on Sunday mornings to hold services. But freaked out Cleveland Park residents, including Advisory Neighborhood Commission member Bruce Beckner and DCist Flickr contributor extraordinaire and local book publisher Bill Adler began posting to the neighborhood listserve that the Uptown had actually been sold to the church and would be closing, getting everyone in a tizzy. A comment thread at Drinking Liberally provided the first call back to sanity last night, when Mike Hurt, the church's Director of Community Campus Development, jumped in to explain the reality of the situation.
Churches renting out movie theater space is actually a growing trend across the country, as theater owners search for ways to increase revenue in the face of declining ticket sales, and churches increasingly have trouble owning big buildings in expensive urban areas. The National Community Church already holds its services in the AMC Union Station 9 movie theater.
Clarification: We originally wrote that McLean Bible Church is affiliated with Jews for Jesus, when instead the Church only hosts a Jews for Jesus Bible Study group on Thursdays.
Photo by truenotes
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Could someone go into graphic detail about what an alaskan fire dragon is?
If this cuts down on the number of commercials they show before movies, then praise Jebus!
(Seriously, at Harry Potter the other day there must have been about eight commercials and five or six movie trailers.)
After moving into Cleveland Park this spring, I was looking forward to attending many a film at the Uptown.
Then I learned how much the Uptown sucks.
They showed Spider-Man 3 for three weeks, and then Pirates of the Carribean 3 for SEVEN WEEKS. After the first week saw lines going out the door and around the corner of Newark Street, the scene was TOTALLY EMPTY for the following six. The same has been true about Harry Potter playing there now. It was busy last week, but desolate so far this week.
Why can't they just play every summer blockbuster (especially since they missed out out Die Hard, Knocked Up, and Transformers, all which grossed well and got great reviews) for a two-week run each? They'd make a LOT more money that way.
I say close it down and replace it with a seated concert hall of some sort.
wow, comment #4 is going to get wiped, i can feel it coming.
I really like the church-in-theater idea; leave more real estate in the tax base, use a big air-conditioned space during the day that would otherwise go to waste move more daytime folks past a neighborhood that is set up to get some value from foot traffic, get a big space perfectly set up for church - wins all around.
Would be 0% surprised if they start *designing this in* to new theaters - that they would be afternoon / evening theaters, morning big churches - and that the savvier congregations might get a handle on the multimedia tech that comes with that.
3d Cavalry, y'all.
I practically lived at the Uptown when the Lord of the Rings movies were being shown there. It's a shame that the latest run of blockbusters aren't as good (or as moneymaking) as those movies were.
Anyway, I'm glad to hear that the theater won't be closing.
Just goes to show what a public menace neighborhood listserves are!
guest 3, easy solution: get over it. Now i'm with you, paritially. I'd've loved to have seen Transformers there. Most blockbusters are better at the Uptown, but part of what makes it special is that it only has limited offerings. Now, if they have unsound business practices, that's their business.
...but seriously, chruch in a theater? entertainment is too much of our lives anyway, but praying next to movie posters? distracting.
#3 - That's really not the Uptown's fault. The way film disribution agreements work, if you want to get the blockbusters, theaters have to sign an exclusive agreement: no other films. Not really a problem with cinema googleplexes with multiple screens, but if you've only got the one, there it is. And if the disributor says you're showing Transformers or Indiana Jones or I Know What Your Rack Did Last Summer for a 4-week run, the theater (and conversely, the audience) is basically screwed. Nothing to do withe The Uptown, they don't even make any money off the ticket sales. They make all their money off concessions.
Poster #3: the reason that the Uptown has such weird runs for its films is part of the reality of modern movie distribution.
Movie distributors (e.g. 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, etc.) lock in specific engagement lengths per location for a film when a theatre group signs the performance contract. This really can screw over single-screen locations, like the Uptown, because there's no smaller screen that the film can be moved to once ticket sales subside. Thus, you see things like the 7-week run of Pirates 3, or the 10-week run of Revenge Of The Sith - and I'm sure you'll see something similar for Order Of The Phoenix. Yes, the ticket sales will be brisk for the first week or two, then they'll drop down and the Uptown will lose money due to the paucity of sales. My guess is that the Uptown needs to sell at least 700 seats per screening (on average) to break even - something easy to do with a blockbuster film in its first fortnight, but tough to pull off with an under-performing title (e.g. Spiderman 3 or Pirates 3).
So the distributors are part of the equation. But some of the blame can be placed on the fact that AMC/Loews doesn't put a lot of effort into the upkeep of the Uptown. To them, a single screen location is a pox: bound to lose money, with antiquated seating and high costs of operation (e.g. HVAC and utility bills). Yes, they try to get the blockbusters in when they can, but they don't make any effort to keep a regular turnover of shows. And the facility has gotten increasingly shabby over the years - not surprising, given that AMC/Loews gets better ROI on places like Georgetown or one of their suburban multiplex locations.
And there are rumors swirling around that AMC/Loews will not renew the lease of the Uptown when their current contract expires next spring. If that's the case, it's truly shameful. Perhaps the Washington Film Society can finally act like a real film society and take over the place (as has been done by similar groups in Utah and Texas), turning it into a fun repertory cinema. They could show different titles for matinées, evenings and late nights. And if the WFS couldn't pony up the money, perhaps they could partner with AFI or a similar arts organization to give the Uptown a proper treatment.
Thus, the leasing of the facility to a church group, as odd as it seems, is a way for AMC/Loews to recoup some of the lost revenue from crappy distribution models.
(And I thought about Landmark as a manager, but part of Landmark's success is that they have multi-screen complexes: they can move films around to different size screening rooms based on demand. The Uptown wouldn't allow this - but it could be their "crown jewel" theatre, if that's a route they'd consider.)
Another point about the long runs of movies is that I believe normally the distributor gets a much higher cut of the revenue during the first week or two, so the theater may not be making much profit then even if they sell lots of tickets. Two-week runs would make no sense under that system.
I'm not sure it's reasonable to describe McLean Bible Church as a "Jews for Jesus outfit". Maybe they have a connection with that group, but it's hardly their main thing.
Hmm. I'm not sure that the Uptown's massive screen would have added much to seeing KNOCKED UP. Though the part where Kat Heigl's baby crowns would have certainly been terrifying as frak.
yep, i was right....i'm not going to say what it was, 'cause that'll get ME wiped off here too!
McLean Bible Church does more than host Jews for Jesus study groups. Their pastor, Lon Solomon (himself a convert from Judaism), is on the board of Jews for Jesus. There's a close relationship there.
Can DCist set up a "Wiped Comment Hall of Shame"? Some of the late-to-the-party folks might enjoy seeing what we missed!
Can you clue in the people over at WaPo?
From the Got Plans? chat going on right now:
Cleveland Park, Washington, D.C.: I was at the Four P's last nite and Frank announced that their neighbor, the Uptown Theater, was sold to the McLean Bible Church ... What's the story? Will we be losing our beloved theater?
Jen: We have heard the same rumor. I am expecting a written statement from the people at McLean Bible Church any second now, which will presumably confirm the story. I will pass along more details momentarily, I hope.
Assuming this is true -- and it appears that way -- this is a sad, sad day for D.C. moviegoers.
From what I know about McLean Bible Church they are totally into being part of a community with clean ups, working with kids, and dozens of other city wide organizations that help the community. Hopefully they bring some of that to NW!
Yeah, they're definitely just renting space in the Uptown for a few hours on Sundays and not buying it according to their website- www.mcleanbible.org/uptown.
McLean Bible Church's mission is to convert the Jews and other "non-churched" persons and to enlarge and enrich their already enormous congregation. They are an arrogant, aggressively proselytizing, bible-banging church that gives Christians everywhere a bad name. They cannot be expected to make good neighbors, no matter how many clean-ups for Christ they sponsor.
...and to think that the Uptown is only a block or two from Adas Israel. I think the synagogue holds Sunday school classes about the time Jews for Jesus will be getting out of services.
LET'S GET READY TO RUUUUUUMMMMMMBBBLLLLLLEEEEE!!!!
Over the past few years I have been able to drive out (when I can bumb a car from a friend) and attend services at McLean quit a few times. Everytime I have been they have been incredibly welcoming offering ways to get involved in community groups, community services projects and get peoples needs met. I remember one thanksgiving they did a thing where they boxed up thanksgiving dinners and distributed them all over the city, it was somthing absurd like 8,000 dinners! I heard their senior pastor give a vision talk one time and he talked about how they had a clothing ministry and a food pantry servicing literally thousands of families all over DC. Sounds kinda cool to me. Also, I was there the Sunday they announced that they were renting the Uptown. The pastor mentioned that he saw Star Wars at Uptown when it first came out and that he loves movies...not a bad deal if you ask me.
I stopped going to the Uptown for 2 reasons. The picture quality has poor contrast and sharpness. And the sound quality is muddy.
and then there are the mice frolicking in the aisles. but it's still a cool theater.
The people at McLean Bible Church are great! They constantly help out in so many ways in the District and surrounding area, it'll be great to have some of that initiative coming into NW. I've seen them participate in clothing drives, community clean-up projects, tutoring, food distribution etc. If they're showing that much love to other areas of the city, I can't see it being a problem for them to come to Cleveland Park! I'm excited to how the community might benefit!
I sense that a PR flack for the church has joined us.
Clean Ups for Christ? As a student in DC and a follower of Jesus one of the things that is most talked about in my circles is that Christians don’t follow the example of Christ. The famous quote from Gandhi saying something like: "I would be a Christian if I ever saw someone living it out" is said time and time again. I don’t know...but boxing up 8,000 thanksgiving dinners sounds pretty cool to me. After all of this blog frenzy started I decided to go to their website and take a look (www.mcleanbible.org) and under their missions section is talks about how they are involved in development programs in Africa...bono would be proud! One of the first links on their website is for a program that works with disabled kids, they are even building a whole center out in VA for kids that are disabled. One comment I always hear from my friends is that people don’t like Christians because they don’t act like they are supposed to. People always say..Ya Know Jesus hung out with prostitutes...why don’t Christians today? I think we should all give the folks out at McLean a chance and hear from them what they have to say and what they have to offer...
I don't care whose example they're following. Decent, respectful people don't proselytize. They respect other people's choices and go about their own business. When the "Christians" learn that, they will have learned a lot.
I would like to add the voice of the group that could care less if the Uptown went away. Personally I've never been very impressed by it.
Maybe someone who listens to the McLean Bible Church's massive radio network can tell me: was it on that station that I heard the sermon encouraging donations to help convert the Iraqis, and celebrating about how many Iraqis had already been saved?
I think it's great that they are bringing a church to NW! NW needs a positive influence and this could actually do us some good.
Perhaps Commenter #25 could share their definition of "proselytize." From their comments, it would seem to them to mean "talk about any belief that differs from my own or that I disagree with." It's a very postmodern re-definition. Would also love to hear #25's redefinition of "tolerance." I imagine it will mean "all ideas are of equal value, except the one's I don't like."
Yes, guest 28, because NW DC is currently completely devoid of churches.
I went to their RT 7 church back in 2000 and they had a rather prophetic sermon. They had a presentation about how Saddam was rebuilding Babylon and how it was link to “the end of times” and must be destroyed. Considering the political connections this church has to this administration I suggest conspiracy!
here, check out the Jews for Jesus page of their website...
http://www.mcleanbible.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=6591
I especially like how the picture of the Hebrew is mirror-image. Lots of Jewish scholarship happening there.
I guess I registered SaveTheUptown.com for nothing - Mike Panetta
Mike, I'm sure it'll be needed some time in the next few years.
if i wanted to go to a suburban megachurch, i'd live in the goddamned suburbs.
Crack for Jesus!!!
Crack for Jesus!!!
I have no problem with the Uptown securing itself financially through rental income; the increased traffic may generate revenue for other businesses as well.
I do have a problem with the reflexive and juvenile condemnation of MBC on the CP listserve. Would the same reaction have occurred had another denomination, faith, or demographic rented the Uptown? I thought Cleveland Park was a diverse, inclusive, tolerant, progressive place.
Tolerance is a virtue, but one is not thereby obliged to tolerate everything and everybody. MBC has earned my contempt by its actions. The Jewish community, in particular, will not assist this church in its mission to convert all of D.C. to its brand of arrogant Christianity. Let them play that game somewhere else.