Fairfield Cinemas at Bullard Square is closing its doors permanently.
Fairfield Cinemas at Bullard Square is closing its doors permanently.
Fairfield Cinemas at Bullard Square is closing its doors permanently.
Fairfield Cinemas at Bullard Square is closing its doors permanently.
FAIRFIELD — Fairfield Cinemas at Bullard Square, a theater owned by Showcase Cinemas, has closed its doors permanently.
In an email to members of its Showcase Starpass program, the parent company of the theater announced the closure of the cinema on 40 Black Rock Turnpike.
“It has been a great pleasure to serve the Fairfield community for the last 26 years,” the company said in an email. “Due to business circumstances, we will not reopen Fairfield Cinemas at Bullard Square. Any Showcase Starpass rewards currently available will be forfeited and no substitutions will be awarded. Since we don’t have any nearby theaters for you to visit, we will deactivate your account.”
Mark Barnhart, the director of Fairfield’s Office of Community and Economic Development, said his department had already worked with a broker to identify another use for the site.
The decision to close comes after Showcase Cinemas closed another venue less than a block away. In February, the movie theater on Canfield Avenue in Bridgeport permanently closed.
That property was purchased by Eastpointe LLC and Spinnaker Development, who plan to use the property to build a 300-unit multi-family, $75 million apartment complex on it.
Joe Meyers, a local film critic, said the closure is bad news.
“The movie (theater) situation on this side of Connecticut is really pretty scary,” he said, adding that the coronavirus pandemic has put a large strain on an industry already facing hardship.
“This could be a pivotal moment in the history of theatrical movies,” Meyers said. “We may find, after this is all over, that only half, three-quarters of existing theaters reopen, because they were all ready not doing great business.”
On a personal basis, he said, at this time last year, Meyers had two theaters within walking distancing of his apartment, although he had a preference for Fairfield Cinemas.
“It was actually a better theater than Showcase Cinemas (in Bridgeport),” Meyers said. “They would show art type films on one screen. So I could walk over there and see ‘Pain and Glory’ or something foreign with subtitles, which was really great.”
Meyers said theaters chains are in a holding pattern as they await for movie theaters to release new films, noting that the Christopher Nolan flick “Tenet” has already been pushed back several times.
Regarding the fate of Fairfield Cinemas, Meyers said the writing was on the wall. He said he and his friends have joked that the theater already has social distancing because so few ever went there.
The big question, Meyers said, is whether people will feel safe going to theaters at all. He said most movie-goers are older people — the population facing the most risk from coronavirus.
Meyers called the closure of both theaters a blow to the Black Rock and Bridgeport communities, both of which had been in the area for almost 30 years.
“People who love movies got used to them,” he said. “It’s depressing that they’re not going to be there after this is over.”