New Yorkers Rally to Save AMC Kips Bay 15 From Closure
More than 100 New Yorkers gathered outside AMC Kips Bay 15 to fight the planned closure of Manhattan's second-largest multiplex at the end of 2026, according to Variety. Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal joined the crowd.
The target is familiar to local film fans. AMC Kips Bay 15 sits in New York, NY, and AMC still lists it as an active theatre selling tickets and showtimes. The building holds 15 screens — a multiplex simply means many screens under one roof — fitted with reclining seats and reserved seating.
The closure threat comes from a property deal. The site was privately purchased by NYU Langone more than a year before the September 2026 protest, Variety reported. Several city officials told the trade publication they did not learn about the purchase until after it had gone through.
NYU Langone Health will likely use the property for outpatient and ambulatory care facilities, where patients receive treatment without an overnight hospital stay, according to the Manhattan Borough President's office. That plan has put politicians and activists on the same side of an effort to keep the cinema open after it announced it would need to close, as first reported by IndieWire.
The street protest was billed as the Save the Kips Bay AMC Theater Rally. It was organised by the Eleanor Roosevelt Independent Democrats, a local political club that represents communities across the Lower East Side, East Village and Midtown East. Its president is Judith Gross.
Support spilled into neighbouring businesses. Paddy Reilly's Music Bar, just around the corner from the cinema, offered a free drink to anyone who stopped in after the protest with a rally selfie. The drinks were on the house.
For moviegoers, this means the fight is about screens as well as sentiment. Losing a 15-screen site in central Manhattan would cut a large chunk of seats in an area where release dates, opening weekends and holiday corridors live or die on capacity.
No deal to save the theatre has been announced. The cinema is still operating for now.
