Hicksville cinema shutters, Mattituck theater reopens, Westhampton Beach launching

Serena Perrotta’s two sons grew up seeing movies at the Showcase Cinema de Lux Broadway, a multiplex in Hicksville’s Broadway Commons Mall. Each boy celebrated at least one birthday party there, Perotta recalled, and so did many of their grade-school classmates. But those boys are in their 30s now, and the last time Perrotta visited the cinema was to see Bradley Cooper in "A Star Is Born" nearly seven years ago.

In today’s streaming era, the cinema is "just not a thing," said Perrotta, 64, who lives in Syosset and works in human resources. "The convenience of being home in your jammies, watching the movies and not worrying about whether or not you fall asleep — it’s like, ‘OK, we can just watch it again later.’ "

The Hicksville Showcase appears to be the latest victim of Long Islanders’ changing moviegoing habits in the post-pandemic age. The theater closed its doors for good Sunday night after choosing not to renew its lease at the Commons. National Amusements, the Massachusetts-based company that owns the Showcase chain, called it "a business decision" in a statement, and it’s hard not to see the closure as a result of several factors that intensified during and after the pandemic: shuttered cinemas, an increase in at-home viewing and several years of movies that have failed to push box-office earnings back to pre-pandemic levels.

While the Hicksville Showcase was not exactly a grand old movie palace — it opened in 1995 as the Broadway Multiplex Cinemas, a 12-screen, 3,000-seat venue — it nevertheless served its function as a convenient option for movie fans. There are fewer such options on Long Island these days. Coram’s Movieland, Great Neck’s Squire Cinemas and the Long Beach Cinemas all shuttered during the pandemic and never reopened. The Malverne Cinema & Art Center, an art-house institution run by Anne and Henry Stampfel for 34 years, struggled valiantly but closed for good in September.

Meanwhile, the Broadway Commons has also taken some hits, losing two major tenants, Macy’s and Old Navy, since 2020. The real estate partnership K/BTF Broadway LLC, which bought the mall last February with plans for a $100 million redevelopment, has said that another theater could take the Showcase’s place, though it might be a smaller venue.

"That mall is actually an awesome mall and no one’s going to it," said Michael Bazini, a 52-year-old plumbing inspector in Hicksville. The Round1 Bowling & Arcade venue next to the cinema seems popular, he said, but he added, "I haven’t been to the movies there in a long time. It could easily be 20 years."

Still, moviegoers aren’t being left completely in the dark. After a revamp, Mattituck Cinemas reopened in November with new reclining seats and an upgraded concessions area that sells margaritas. And construction continues on the former Hampton Arts Cinema in Westhampton Beach, which is tentatively scheduled to reopen in February — also with a bar — as the Sunset Theater, according to Inge Debyser, an investor on the project.

"I think there’s a real need for a place where people meet and connect. That’s what the movie industry is all about," Debyser said. "You get connected to a reality that’s not your own, you get drawn into another world. And hopefully, if it’s a good movie, it will really entertain you."

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman