Cinema Detroit closing its doors on Midtown location

The final credits are ready to roll for Cinema Detroit, at least at the independent movie theater's Midtown location, on Third Avenue in Detroit.

After a 10-year run, the two-screen moviehouse will close at the end of the month, co-founder Paula Guthat said Wednesday. Guthat is shifting to a pop-up model and pursuing other venues to continue showing movies in the city.

“It’s a very difficult decision,” said Guthat, who founded and runs the theater with her husband, Tim. “This is our baby, and we’ve poured our blood, sweat and tears into Cinema Detroit for the last 10 years of our lives.”

The closing is due to a number of factors, including rising rent costs, a downturn in post-pandemic movie business, and the squeezing out of small, independent, mid-budget fare as Hollywood has grown increasingly reliant on mega-budgeted superhero extravaganzas, the kind Cinema Detroit does not show on its screens. The Main Art Theatre, Royal Oak’s long-running arthouse theater, closed its doors in June 2021, and the building was demolished a year later.

Cinema Detroit is the downtown area's only first-run, 7-day-a-week movie theater, and has been in its current space since 2015. Guthat has been looking for a new site in the city to show films for several years but hasn’t been able to find a spot that’s both affordable and suited to exhibiting movies.  

Cinema Detroit enjoyed its best year ever in 2019, Guthat said, but the building closed for 16 months during the COVID-19 pandemic and has had a rough time regaining its footing. Guthat said she’s applied for grant money to help with operational costs, but nothing significant enough to keep the business going has come through.

Cinema Detroit is currently showing “Sanctuary,” a simmering psychosexual thriller about a hotel heir and his relationship with a dominatrix, and those showings will continue through the weekend and into next week. Starting June 16, Cinema Detroit will begin holding screenings of “Cadejo Blanco,” a Spanish-language drama, on the campus of University of Michigan-Dearborn, part of a series that will continue there throughout the summer, and a holdover for Cinema Detroit until Guthat can a new permanent home for the theater.

In the meantime, Guthat is working on clearing everything out of the current building. Movie posters are for sale for a $10 donation, or three for $25 — the theater has hundreds available, Guthat says — while the fate of other items, including the theater's outdoor sign, is unclear.  

Guthat says the move to close at the end of the month was a painful but necessary decision. “We had to tear the Band-Aid off. It couldn’t be a lengthy process. It had to be quick,” said Guthat, who said she’s especially bummed to be closing just before the opening of Wes Anderson’s latest, “Asteroid City,” as well as Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” “We’re losing money, and we can’t afford to keep losing money.”

The pop-up model at least allows for Cinema Detroit's story to continue. "We're not stopping completely," Guthat said. "I love film too much."

agraham@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @grahamorama