Renaissance Place Cinema, which had been shuttered during the pandemic since March 2020, reopened earlier this month, Landmark Theatres confirmed.
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The art house cinema at 1850 Second Street in Highland Park will reopened with showings of Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter,” starring Oscar Isaac and Tiffany Haddish, among other films.
Renaissance Place is the last major downtown Highland Park business to reopen.
“The City of Highland Park looks forward to the Renaissance Place Cinema’s safe reopening,” Carolyn Hersch, business development manager said in an email. “The Renaissance Place Cinema is the essence of the shared public experience that provides entertainment and an experiential component that you do not get with streaming video at home. The theater not only provides entertainment but also contributes to the economic health of our community. In addition to spending on tickets, moviegoers spend on dining and retail the same day they go to the theater, which in turn creates jobs.”
The move was eagerly awaited by area residents.
“We’ve received calls at the Chamber office asking when the theater will be reopening, so people are eager for this,” said Ginny Glasner, president of the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce. “Opportunities that provide safe, positive experiences add to the vitality of our community. The theater’s reopening brings an added boost to surrounding restaurants and businesses.”
Shiming Chen, general manager of The Summer Inn, the restaurant located next door to Renaissance Place, called the theater’s reopening “great news,” both as a restaurateur and as a fan of the specialized fare Renaissance Place exhibits.
“We’ve been waiting for the movie theater to open up,” he said. “They play a lot of movies that not many (mainstream) theaters feature.”
Renaissance Place will require patrons to wear masks, but will not require social distancing, said Margot Gerber, vice president of marketing and publicity for Landmark.
“We adhere to CDC and local health department recommendations,” she said. “We are cleaning surfaces and have hand sanitizer available. Concessions and drinks will be served, but if things change and local health authorities say we can’t, we will adhere to that.”
The reopening of Renaissance Place comes at a precarious time for film exhibitors. Several major chains, including ArcLight Theaters and Regal, declared bankruptcy during the pandemic. With the removal of the 90-day window (the time period during which films were shown exclusively in theaters before being released to streaming and home video) and major studio releases being released in theaters and streaming simultaneously, called day and date, it is feared people have gotten out of the habit of going out to theaters, coupled with lingering health concerns.
“A lot hinges on movie theaters reopening,” Gerber said. “It’s an industry kind of teetering on the brink of extinction. It’s an uphill battle to convince people to go see something on the big screen that they can see at home on a streaming platform, which are becoming more abundant.”
For those with trepidations about returning to a movie theater, Gerber recommends going during so-called off hours when there tend to be less people in the theater, such as afternoons or later in the evening.
“That’s helpful for people who want to see a movie on the big screen, but not yet be in a crowded theater,” she said.
Renaissance Place, “featuring the Northshore’s finest independent and foreign language films,” an ad trumpeted, opened in Highland Park in Aug. 4, 2000. The theater closed for more than a year in 2012 for a just over $1 million renovation.
Loren Stone, a Highland Park resident, said he looks forward to the reopening.
“I’ve always loved going there to see independent movies on a big screen,” Stone said, and added with a smile, “They have comfortable seats, a nice staff and a great selection of candy.”
Donald Liebenson is a freelance reporter.