{"id":480836,"date":"2026-09-30T20:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T20:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/480836\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T20:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T20:50:11","slug":"maya-cinemas-transition-to-galaxy-theaters-shakes-fresno-city-college-film-community-the-rampage-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/480836\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya Cinemas Transition to Galaxy Theaters Shakes Fresno City College Film Community \u2013 The Rampage Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, Maya Cinemas served the community of Fresno as a staple for affordable movie going. On Sept. 11 that all changed when Maya closed its doors without any warning. Just as it left, Galaxy Theaters was announced to take its spot at Campus Pointe. Galaxy opened just a week after Maya closed.<\/p>\n

Tickets or passes purchased before the transition will still be honored by Galaxy<\/a>, and can still be refunded through Maya<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maya brought an affordable movie going experience to many people across Fresno. Maya had affordable tickets, concessions and better rewards programs<\/a> compared to other theaters like Regal or Sierra Vista Cinemas 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, prices at Galaxy to see \u201cSpider-man: Brand New Day\u201d for a morning or afternoon showing is $10 for children, adults and seniors. An evening ticket is $13 for adults and $10 for children, seniors and military discount.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The price of Maya tickets<\/a> for afternoon and morning were $10 for adults and $9.50 for child and senior tickets. An evening ticket was $12.75 for adults and $9.50 for child and senior tickets.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a slight increase in ticket pricing since Galaxy took over, but it\u2019s still affordable compared to other theatres. Both Maya and Galaxy have a free rewards program that works the same where $1 is equivalent to one point, which can be used to redeem rewards.<\/p>\n

The Fresno City College film appreciation club felt the impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really good theater so I\u2019m not really sure why they closed down,\u201d Maria Prieto, a theater major in the film appreciation club, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prieto said she enjoyed going around Campus Pointe before or after going to Maya.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really fun, I\u2019ve watched a ton of movies there I\u2019ve lost count, and I really like that nearby there\u2019s a Cold Stone [Creamery] and before or after the movie we went to get ice cream and it was a fun experience,\u201d Prieto said.<\/p>\n

Prieto prefers to go to theatres to watch blockbuster movies, Maya formerly being one of her go to theaters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIve never heard of a Galaxy theatre before, it must be out of this world if it\u2019s here in Fresno,\u201d Prieto said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Table with promotional images inside Galaxy Theaters taken on Sept. 24. (Photo by: Sara Cisneros<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Galaxy is a larger theater chain that operates in five states; Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas and Washington. Maya is a more local theater founded by Moctesuma Esparza in California with its first location being in Salinas. Maya now operates in five cities, Bakersfield, Chino, Delano, Pittsburg and North Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Rita Bell, a litigation paralegal and board member of Fresno Filmworks, said smaller businesses like Maya being bought out by larger businesses like Galaxy is a common issue.<\/p>\n

Bell said this won\u2019t be an issue for theaters downtown like the Crest Theater, but could happen again to Galaxy with an even bigger theater chain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more fearful of those middle guys, the small but still corporate like Maya and Galaxy because it costs a lot to operate a theater,\u201d Bell said. \u201cAs soon as I heard Galaxy was going to take it over, I was like \u2018Well crap, how long are they going to be in business?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Galaxy announced plans to make upgrades to the theater in the future, which Bell said is a good sign that Galaxy can stay and maintain itself longer than Maya.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always think it\u2019s a bummer when any theater closes, especially one that\u2019s a key part of the community here,\u201d Eric Browning, film studies instructor and advisor for the film appreciation club at FCC, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Browning enjoyed how Maya had events that catered to the people of Fresno, like the Sundance Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one in particular did a really good job in having events that appeal to specifically the people of Fresno and collaborating with different non profit organizations,\u201d Browning said.<\/p>\n

Browning said Maya had a connection with the community of Fresno that other theater chains like Regal don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

Galaxy Theaters has a big hole to fill now that a staple in the Fresno film community is gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully they\u2019ll meet that need for community engagement that Maya Cinemas showed, and if they do I think that\u2019s a positive, if they don\u2019t though that does negatively impact the film community as a whole in the town,\u201d Browning said. \u201cI think now would be the best time to really start supporting the truly local.\u201d<\/p>\n

Browning says there are more local theaters downtown like the Crest Theater, Warnors Theatre and Tower Theatre that are worth checking out if Galaxy doesn\u2019t meet the need Maya gave to the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, Maya Cinemas served the community of Fresno as a staple for affordable movie going. On Sept.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-480836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}