On Monday (October 18), Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will open a brand-new location in Lower Manhattan, it was announced today.
The new 14-screen, 578-seat theater will occupy 37,000 square feet on Floor 2B beneath the 28 Liberty Street building in the Financial District. It is Alamo Drafthouse’s third New York-area location after Yonkers and Brooklyn, which opened in 2013 and 2016, respectively, as well as the first of several openings of new Alamo Drafthouse locations slated for later this year and next, including in Washington, DC; Arlington, VA; St. Louis, MO; and a Staten Island theater that will include a kung fu-themed video store and bar co-designed and curated by Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA.
A centerpiece of the Lower Manhattan location is The Press Room, a letterpress print shop, bar and private event space that will display selections from an archive of over 60,000 letterpress film advertising plates from the 1930s through the 1980s. In addition, the venue’s 1938 Vandercook letterpress will be used to create limited edition greeting cards for special screenings at the theater and will also be made available for private events and classes for anyone wishing to learn the art of letterpress printing.
A wall of 48 draft beers will additionally be on tap at The Press Room, with guests also having the option of customizing their own bespoke cocktail or choose from a list of original craft cocktails designed by Alamo Drafthouse NYC Bar Manager Vince Favella. More info on The Press Room can be found here.
To celebrate the opening, Alamo Drafthouse programmers have curated a limited series of films drawn from every decade of the past century of movies “set in and about New York City,” according to a press release. The resulting series, “Lights of New York” – an homage to the 1928 movie that’s been characterized as the first full-length, all “talkie” film – “highlights what’s always been special about New York as a setting for tall tales, epic evenings out on the town, and street-level stories of regular New Yorkers,” the release continues. A full list of titles in the series can be found below.
On November 3, Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan will also participate in Alamo Drafthouse’s “Godzilla Day” with an exclusive premiere of Toho’s new 4K restoration of the titular monster’s 1954 cinematic debut, Gojira. Additionally, the theater will feature Alamo Drafthouse’s signature holiday programming, including the Elf Movie Party and perennial favorites including Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Love Actually, A Christmas Story, The Polar Express, Gremlins, Scrooged, Batman Returns, Meet Me In St. Louis and It’s A Wonderful Life. Screenings will also include genre favorites Black Christmas and Dial Code Santa Claus as well as the modern LGBTQ+ classic Carol.
During the “soft opening” period that runs through October 21, guests of the Lower Manhattan location will receive discounts on select food and non-alcoholic beverages. Titles slated to screen at the theater upon opening include Halloween Kills, The Last Duel and Bergman Island. In the coming weeks, the theater will program Dune, The French Dispatch, Last Night in Soho and Eternals.
“The last eighteen months have been a rollercoaster for our industry, but through it all we’ve believed in the future of this industry,” said Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor in a statement. “Opening our Lower Manhattan theater is an expression of our belief that audiences will always seek elevated, communal moviegoing experiences like ours.”
“Lights of New York” screening series titles:
Beginning October 18th
Speedy (1928)
King Kong (1933)
On The Town (1949)
Beginning October 22nd
Rear Window (1954)
Barefoot In The Park (1967)
Putney Swope (1969)
Beginning October 29th
God Told Me To (1976)
Smithereens (1982)
Ghostbusters (1984)
The Addiction (1995)
Beginning November 5th
Inside Man (2006)
Good Time (2017)
Shiva Baby (2020)
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