Columbia's non-profit moves to new location after 33 years
It's out with the old and in with the new on Main Street this month as Columbia's favorite non-profit movie theater relocates to a bigger home. The Nickelodeon Theatre is moving, but the cinema's new space isn't far away from the current location — the address is still on Main Street.
Still, Columbia moviegoers have mixed feelings about the relocation of the Nickelodeon theater.
"I'm going to miss this place," said Arlene Polinsky, a lifetime member of the non-profit cinema, while sitting in her usual seat before Thursday's screening of "Cinema Paradiso."
"[I've been attending movies here] since before it was the Nick. It was an art theater before then," Polinsky said.
Local movie fan Allen Neal has been coming to the Nick for the last 15 years.
"For a stretch of 10 years, I didn't miss a single picture," said Neal, who admitted to seeing movies that didn't always interest him just so he could "fall asleep in my favorite seat."
In honor of the "new" Nick, the theater is hosting a retrospective film festival to celebrate 33 years of movies. With at least two films shown every day, the theater is showcasing one film for each year that it has been in business. The celebration began on Aug. 10 with a screening of "Sunset Boulevard" and ends on Aug. 26 with "The Artist" followed by a send-off party.
The movies in the final series were either favorites of the staff or popular choices of viewers.
The Nickelodeon has been in the process of moving for several years. The new building was purchased in 2007, but raising the funds to renovate the space took time.
Isaac Calvage, a USC graduate who serves as the Nickelodeon's director of marketing and membership, is looking forward to the theater's relocation.
"We're very happy for our move," Calvage said. "We're excited to have people out and about late at night on Main Street."
Like many patrons, Calvage has fond memories of the current location on 937 Main St.
"The current location has so much charm and such a history," said Calvage, who credits the Nick with giving him the first chance "to fall in love with independent cinema."
"I've sat in the audience with people who have attended [movies at the Nickelodeon] for 20, 30 years," Calvage said.
But, as Calvage said, with that charm comes "a lot of maintenance."
The current location seats 75 while the new location will seat 99 with plans to add a second theater upstairs that will seat 199 people. The second theater will give the theater the opportunity to screen two movies at the same time. The theater will also feature separate counters for concessions and ticket sales and bathrooms in the lobby of the theater.
Even though longtime patrons will miss the old location, they won't stop coming to the movies.
"It's the only theater in town that shows decent films," Polinsky said.
"The Nickelodeon gives [audiences] an opportunity to see films you can't see anywhere else," Neal said.
The new theater will officially open on Aug. 31. "Beasts of the Southern Wild" will be the first film screened at the new location.