Kevin Smith Fights to Keep His Childhood Movie Theater Open With Famous Guests and a Proposed Reality Show, Because ‘Exhibition Is in the Toilet’
variety.comPat Saperstein Deputy Editor Kevin Smith could have bought the Quick Stop market he made famous in his first film, “Clerks.” But when the opportunity arose, the indie director instead put his hard-earned cash into his childhood movie theater in Atlantic Highlands, N.J., reopening it in 2022 as SModcastle Cinemas.
Now he’s fighting to keep the 103-year-old theater going, even if “exhibition is in the toilet,” as he likes to say. In other words, local audiences sometimes prefer to watch big hits like “Avatar” in modern multiplexes, and keeping a repertory theater vibrant without the help of a pricey beer and wine license is not for the faint of heart, he has found.
No matter: The “Chasing Amy” director is leveraging his pop culture brand to focus on bringing the New Jersey community classic cult movies, family films, merchandise sales and super-fresh popcorn. “It’s a big walking community, and people can just walk their kids down to the movie theaters,” he says. “‘Barbie’ and ‘Super Mario Brothers’ were absolutely huge for us.” The cinemas even served as a location for Smith’s most recent film, 1980s coming-of-age tale “The 4:30 Movie,” which rolls out this summer through Saban Films.
He’s also shopping a reality show set in the cinemas, for which he’s already shot a sizzle reel. “It tells a pretty human story about people struggling to keep the lights on,” he says.
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