Main Art Theatre RIP

I can’t say I was surprised that Landmark Theatres stateside decided to close the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, one of three major art houses in metro Detroit over the last 30 years. The Main was a converted 1940s-era mainstream theatre that opened for foreign and independent films in the 1990s. Located at the corner of well, Main Street and 11 Mile Road in suburban Royal Oak, it also happened to be in a perfect location for downtown Royal Oak’s early hip renaissance, also one of the few metro Detroit walkable communities with lots of bars, restaurants and boutiques. The three-room venue remained the same all those years. Countless times did I drive up to 11 Mile, early or late afternoon, early or late evening, park in a sometimes sardine like lot due in part to spillover from next door’s Emagine cinemas super plex, a later addition to the area. I went alone, with girlfriends, with other friends, with groups of people, year after year after year. Yet Covid – or should I say Covid restrictions – killed it – and Los Angeles-based Landmark closed its only Metro Detroit theatre. But even before Covid, few were the times, at least in recent years, when any screening I attended was anywhere near more than half full. It might have been due to at least two screening rooms' rather cavernous sizes. Still, filling those seats is what any enterprise is all about and I didn’t see a whole lot of people at screenings. It’s sad, very sad. Now I await some developer demolishing the place and building yet another trendy hi rise condo to join others that have gone up around the Main - 11 Mile intersection. RIP The Main…..Meanwhile there have been two other large art houses in metro – the Detroit Film Theatre (DFT) at the DIA and The Maple Theater at West Maple and Telegraph in Bloomfield Hills. Just prior to the pandemic it had undergone a major renovation. It has now re-opened post-pandemic. The DFT still remains closed though films can be rented online. And Cinema Detroit, a later smaller addition to metro’s art house scene, located in Midtown near downtown Detroit, is also open. There’s also the more recent Film Lab in Hamtramck, to which I’ve never been. Of course, all of this is academic to Canadian cineastes as we still cannot cross the border for “non-essential” reasons due to Covid travel restrictions. And in Windsor and Ontario no theatres – mainstream or art house, indoor or outdoor - are open, period.