HBO star's new 44-seat micro-moviehouse screens film oddities, classics in offbeat NYC space
Queens has plenty of microbreweries — now it has a micro-moviehouse.
HBO star John Wilson's new Low Cinema in Ridgewood has just 44 seats with a quirky interior and a roster of films ranging from the classics to bizarre military and prison movies.
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The 750-square-foot theater at 70-11 60th Stt will screen 16 millimeter and digital films starting in mid-May, said Wilson, the 38-year-old known for 'How To With John Wilson.
7 Classics and rarities are on tap at John Wilson's 44-seat 'micro' theater in Ridgewood, Queens.
Dorian Geiger/NYPost
'I've been [a cinephile] since I was a teenager and it's always been a dream to open up something with friends and open up a theater,' Wilson, who lives down the street from Low Cinema, told The Post.
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Wilson's theater is the first to open in the nabe in nearly a century — the last being the lavish Oasis Theatre, which opened in 1927 but is now a CVS Pharmacy.
7 John Wilson (second from left) opened Low Cinema this month, which will begin regular screenings in mid-May.
Dorian Geiger/NYPost
The Ridgewood Theatre on Myrtle Avenue, once the longest continually-operating theater in the nation, was the last cinema to shut its doors in 2008 after a 92-year run. The building now operates as a Blink Fitness, but retains the original marquee.
Local cinephiles said they have been forced to trek to Regal Atlas Park in Glendale or Brooklyn to catch a flick.
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'Ridgewood is a movie desert,' said Cosmo Bjorkenheim, who co-owns the theater with Wilson and fellow artist Davis Fowlkes. 'There's no movie theaters here … That's what Low Cinema hopefully will be: the idea is for it to just be a neighborhood movie theater.
'[It's] the whole gamut — from obscure schlock to stone cold classics,' Bjorkenheim said of Low Cinema's movie picks.
7 Low Cinema is the first movie theater to open in the neighborhood in nearly a century.
Dorian Geiger/NYPost
The theater's interior is as offbeat as its film offerings, with vintage seats, salvaged signage and other artifacts – as well as a paper-mâché E.T. sculpture that Wilson made himself using recycled Christmas decor and 'real' human teeth, he said.
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Its walls are adorned with celebrity portrait plaques of Jack Nicholson, Sandra Bullock and Pierce Brosnan, all rescued from a now-closed Hollywood-themed Burger King on Myrtle Avenue — which Wilson said he bought for about $60 after some haggling when the fast food joint closed during the pandemic.
'I got a couple of other things from a drive-in movie theater that was abandoned on the side of a highway that I was just snooping around one day,' he said. 'I've naturally been harvesting a lot of unwanted theater ephemera over the years and they all come from different places … but I just like to see them all in one place.'
7 A commemorative plaque of Irish actor Pierce Brosnan, which Wilson rescued from a now-closed Hollywood-themed Burger King on Myrtle Avenue.
Dorian Geiger/NYPost
7 A paper-mâché E.T. sculpture that Wilson made himself using recycled Christmas decor and 'real' teeth, he said.
Dorian Geiger/NYPost
Even the bathroom doubles as a display space.
Wilson, a self-professed tabloid fan, wallpapered it with ironic headlines he's clipped from newspapers over the years, from 'The Post or The Daily News or whatever the heck is circulating in the neighborhood.'
Among the gems: 'A pretty leak,' 'Odor smelling,' 'rare egg,' 'Dairy Queen nightmare,' and 'Weiner finished.'
The indie moviehouse held its soft-launch opening Thursday to a sold-out crowd, screening a 1903 silent short dubbed 'Rube and Mandy at Coney Island,' paired with the 2002 Hugh Grant and Saundra Bullock rom-com 'Two Weeks Notice.'
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7 Wilson, a self-professed tabloid fan, wallpapered it with ironic headlines he's clipped from newspapers over the years, from 'The Post or The Daily News or whatever the heck is circulating in the neighborhood.'
Dorian Geiger/NYPost
The night also included a post-screening panel featuring urban planners Daphne Lundi and Louise Yeung, as well as podcaster Lily Marotta, who discussed how cinema influences development and public space.
Together, the flicks capture 'the idea of the city being erased over time,' Wilson explained.
'['Two Weeks Notice'] is about a billionaire and an environmental lawyer, but they're talking about Coney Island development and neighborhood change, and communities and levels of that,' said Lundi. 'Rom-coms are the entry point to have bigger conversations about cities and how we want them to feel.'
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7 Cinephiles gathered for a sold-out double feature at Low Cinema on Thursday night.
Dorian Geiger/NYPost
Several cinephiles told The Post they were thrilled with both the offbeat programming and to finally have a local theater.
'I'm really excited about the things that [Wilson is] going to be doing here,' said 35-year-old Nellie Metcalfe of Glendale. 'This was really creative and fun.'
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'What's so 'John Wilson' is that this is a place where you can go see a silent film about Coney Island and then an underrated Sandra Bullock classic all in one night,' said Marotta, 38, who arrived dressed as Hugh Grant.
'It's going to be so great for the community.'
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