{"id":351928,"date":"2026-09-20T21:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T21:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/351928\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T21:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T21:34:11","slug":"kips-bay-community-rallies-to-save-beloved-amc-movie-theater-amid-threat-of-nyu-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/351928\/","title":{"rendered":"Kips Bay community rallies to save beloved AMC movie theater amid threat of NYU takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

The neighborhood came out in droves to the movie theater, located at 570 2nd Avenue, holding signs reading \u201csave AMC Kips Bay.\u201d From children to seniors, they all told amNewYork the same thing: It\u2019s more than a movie theater; it\u2019s a cultural meeting point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a place for the community to actually be together. Movie theaters just seem to be shutting down all over the city,\u201d Joan Beranbaum said. \u201cIt\u2019s a social experience that you know you get together with your friends. I mean, I don\u2019t invite my friends over to watch things on my television, but I do make plans to see movies with friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

This show of support for the AMC location comes as NYU Langone<\/a> plans to take over the building housing the 15 cinema screens and the supermarket Fairway, which would ultimately shutter both locations at the end of 2026. Elected officials like Assembly Member Keith Powers, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Senator Kristen Gonzalez, and more say they are not only infuriated by the prospect of the theater closing its doors for good but also for the way they say NYU has handled the process, including a lack of transparency.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fuming Kips Bay residents and elected officials rallied outside of the local AMC movie theater on Sunday afternoon in a desperate plea to save the beloved community hotspot.Photo by Dean Moses \"\"\u201cNYU is making an active decision to acquire this property, and in doing so, also made an active decision not to engage or let any of us know. The only way we found out is because my office literally had to reach out to them,\u201d Senator Gonzalez said.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

\u201cNYU is making an active decision to acquire this property, and in doing so, also made an active decision not to engage or let any of us know. The only way we found out is because my office literally had to reach out to them,\u201d Senator Gonzalez said. \u201cThis is not new for NYU. I have, in the last year and a half, struggled to build a relationship with them as it pertains to gender l-affirming care. We had over 85,000 New Yorkers send letters to them when they chose to discontinue care for youth, and in that process, they refused to negotiate. They refused to work with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to NYU Langone, the hospital has been looking to expand healthcare services and what it calls a demand in Manhattan.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the owner of the Second Avenue property approached us most recently regarding a potential sale, we recognized that the site\u2019s proximity to our hospital could help support those long-term community healthcare needs,\u201d Steve Ritea Senior Director of Media Relations said in part of a statement. \u201cThe purchase remains under contract and is not expected to close until early next year. Years before NYU Langone was approached about the property, AMC and the landlord entered into a lease granting either party a right to terminate at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will provide updates on our clinical plans when the transaction is finalized,\u201d he added.
\n\"\"Elected likes Assembly Member Keith Powers, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Senator Kristen Gonzalez, and more say they are not only infuriated by the prospect of the theater closing its doors for good but also for the way they say NYU has handled the process, including a lack of transparency.Photo by Dean Moses\n<\/p>\n

While AMC did not respond to amNewYork for comment by publication time, Assembly Member Powers said that the closure is not a mutual agreement; in fact, AMC wants to stay open.<\/p>\n

\u201cAMC wants to stay, and I\u2019m not going to speak to COVID-era leases when everybody was struggling, and nobody\u2019s going to the movie theaters. I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m not going to let them hide behind an era of time where we couldn\u2019t walk into buildings, let alone go see a movie,\u201d Powers said. \u201cAMC, I talked to you directly. I called them to make sure they wanted to stay, and they said very clearly they want to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, even patients at NYU Langone told amNewYork that they believe the expansion is growing out of control.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an NYU patient myself, but to me, a lot of the grabbing of lands and buildings is like, I hate to say this, like a cancer metastasizing in the city, and that\u2019s what it is. On 34th Street, that\u2019s what replaced one of the movie theaters. So, again, I\u2019m a patient of NYU, but I still want to have my community and the theater,\u201d Jeanie Kispert said.<\/p>\n

Carlton Wilson has lived in the Kips Bay area for most of his life, and he has watched the expansion of what he called the \u201cbedpan alley,\u201d the long stretch of hospitals from what was once Beth Israel Hospital to the VA Hospital to Bellevue and NYU.<\/p>\n

\"\"Carlton Wilson has lived in the Kips Bay area for most of his life, and he has watched the expansion of what he called the \u201cbedpan alley,\u201d the long stretch of hospitals from what was once Beth Israel Hospital to the VA Hospital to Bellevue and NYU.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand, but there\u2019s enough hospitals around here. All on First Avenue, it\u2019s a lot of hospitals. That\u2019s why they call it Bedpan Alley. But this is sad. This is the place where people go to shop to get real food\u2026 this theater needs to stay here. It needs to be for the next few generations to come,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cBut the point is, is that how many f**cking hospitals do you need? It\u2019s all for profit. It\u2019s all about whatever kind of insurance you have. So they\u2019re all about it for the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese movies here bring people together,\u201d Wilson added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The neighborhood came out in droves to the movie theater, located at 570 2nd Avenue, holding signs reading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18372,131370,23878,75,9,11,10,22460,131371],"class_list":["post-351928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-brad-hoylman-sigal","tag-kieth-powers","tag-kips-bay","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nyu","tag-rally-for-amc-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}