An era in New Jersey moviegoing has come to an abrupt end.
The Kerasotes ShowPlace 14, a movie theater in Secaucus, has been sold to Regal Cinemas.
The theater will officially be known as Regal Secaucus ShowPlace as of Friday, June 21.
The Secaucus film hub, which opened in 2009 in the Harmon Meadow retail, restaurant and entertainment complex off Route 3, was the lone Jersey theater owned by Kerasotes.
Despite its status as a multiplex with assigned seating and reclining chairs, the Plaza Drive theater held a kind of independence from further corporate encroachment. When Kerasotes sold most of its theaters to AMC in 2010, the 14-screen Secaucus location, a Hudson County mainstay, was not included in that sale and remained a Kerasotes theater.
With the sale to Regal, Kerasotes, which before the sale to AMC owned nearly 100 theaters across the country, currently runs just four ShowPlace theaters nationwide. Located in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Mountain View and Santa Clara, California, they are known as ShowPlace Icon theaters.
The Chicago-based Kerasotes sent news of the sale to customers Thursday afternoon.
“Kerasotes ShowPlace 14 in Secaucus, NJ has ended operations effective Thursday, June 20,” the theater chain said in an email. “We would like to express our sincerest gratitude for your unwavering support, loyalty, and enthusiasm over the years.”
The latest change in theater ownership arrives during a trying time for movie theaters across the country. The state-mandated shutdown of theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic hastened the closure of many local cinemas and put more of an emphasis on home viewing, which was already hurting the box office with the rise of streaming.
Kerasotes traces its beginnings to 1909, “with a single nickelodeon” in Springfield, Illinois. Regal Cinemas started up in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1989.
The chain operates 11 other movie theaters in Jersey: Regal Burlington, Regal Independence Plaza in Hamilton, Regal Manahawkin, Regal Hamilton Commons in Mays Landing, Regal Moorestown Mall, Regal Commerce Center in North Brunswick, Regal Pohatcong in Phillipsburg, Regal UA Washington Township in Sewell, Regal Hadley in South Plainfield, Regal Cross Keys in Turnersville and Regal Cumberland Mall in Vineland.
Any customers who bought advance tickets from the Kerasotes theater won’t have to do anything — Kerasotes says all tickets will be automatically transferred to Regal.
Regal will honor Kerasotes gift cards, vouchers and passes through Dec. 31.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup.
