The programming reflected the theater’s cast-a-wide-net mandate. ![]() But many had a fondness for the famously rowdy Regal because it was a true neighborhood theater, drawing an economically and demographically diverse crowd from Brooklyn Heights and Fort Greene to Boerum Hill and Windsor Terrace. ![]() And, of course, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn’s polestar for art and repertory programming. No, the Regal UA Court Street, as it was known when it closed down last Sunday, was one of those gigantic, bustling suburban-style multiplexes that old-timers used to lament were “ruining cinema.” In accordance with East Coast urban norms, everything was stacked in a multilayered vertical space, the levels joined by escalators and elevators if you went to the Regal often enough, you learned to factor in ten extra minutes of travel time in case your film was playing on the top floor (at least the view was lovely).īack then, there were other theaters in that part of Brooklyn, including the Brooklyn Heights Cinemas I & II (closed in 2014 and converted to condos in 2017), the Pavilion in Park Slope (legendary for its seediness and chronic understaffing, it was adapted into a dine-in by Nitehawk), and the adorable Cobble Hill Cinemas farther south on Court Street (which was declared a goner the instant its giant neighbor opened but is still chugging along). This was no fabulous mid-century movie palace like the Ziegfeld and the Astor Plaza (both since shuttered) or the Paris (which would have been a goner if Netflix hadn’t snapped it up). ![]() When the Regal Court Street Stadium 12 opened over two decades ago at the intersection of Court and State Streets in downtown Brooklyn, it would’ve been hard to envision anyone mourning its demise.
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