A signature theater for fans of foreign and independent films in Boca Raton is shutting down.
The Living Room Theater, a cozy movie theater and café at Florida Atlantic University, closed its doors on Feb. 9th. The South Florida cinema is just the latest victim of a dwindling independent and commercial theater scene.
According to an email, the theater is closing due to dwindling numbers since the pandemic. The theater's typically older clientele has been reluctant to return to the movies. In a Facebook post, the theater said attendance during the holiday season was down by 65 percent compared to 2019.
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“Closing was a very sad and tough decision, when you have a love and passion for what you do, it’s incredibly tough to let go, especially when you’ve put so much of your energy into that work," Steve Herring, CEO of Living Room Theaters, said in a statement.
Employee Anna Teressa Soto Andujar told WLRN that before the COVID-19 pandemic, the cafe and theater was bustling with FAU faculty, students and locals.
“It really was something before COVID, but COVID changes everything,” she said.
The four-screen theater, which opened in 2010, was the kind of place where moviegoers could discuss the protagonist of a foreign film while sipping a glass of wine. Film selections would range from "Turn Every Page," a documentary capturing the relationship of two literary legends, to the Korean film "Broker," about two brokers who sell orphaned infants.
Dozens of moviegoers who purchased their tickets for the last time, expressed their disappointment. On the night of its closing, Adrienne Geffen told WLRN that she has been coming to enjoy the theater’s unique selection of films since 2011.
“It opened about a year after I moved here and it was like…a bit of New York…a bit of real culture," she said. "It’s just devastating.”
Many asked the employees where they could go and watch these types of films, now that this beloved theater was closing.
In Palm Beach County, the Movies of Delray and the Movies of Lake Worth offer a selection of foreign and independent films. But, for Deerfield Beach resident Luciana Dugan, nothing can replace The Living Room.
“I’ve had wonderful experiences here with friends and family," she said. "We’re really going to miss so much about its presence.”
