Unless your primary audience is gang members, and those gang members watch a lot of movies, how could two identical theaters across the street from one another be making a lot of money?
Generally, if I see two theaters near one another, one is showing second run or discount films and the other is showing the brand new stuff. Or both are showing new stuff but different films – but that wouldn’t work if your goal was to keep people from crossing the street. The gang on the east side would just yell spoilers to the gang on the west side who are waiting for the film to make it over
I knew about the Lincoln Plaza theater. But the Angelika? Are you sure? I’ve been in the Angelika many times. It has windows! It can’t all be underground.
Also, I grew up in a neighborhood in Queens where there were indeed two theaters across the street from each other. Not directly facing each other, but separated by a street. There was no gang issue involved, and neither was converted into a theater from something else. They were both obviously purpose-built theaters. I wonder if this is what the OP is talking about (since he/she says “in one of the boroughs”).
Sounds like an urban legend to me. Or not even an urban legend, just a story someone heard once.
Noooooo! Fuck! I’ve seen four films there in the past 2 months, I really like that place!
I haven’t been there in a few years so I forget if they had any screens on the cafe ground floor level, but I know there’s a big escalator down to several screens below.
Applying comparable logic, I would you cite unspoken gang behaviour to explain why there are two petrol stations on opposite ides of a major road and competing Pakistani and Bengali restaurants facing each other, each claiming to do the best curries in town near where I live. With that and some runners wrapped around electrical wires down the street, I dont think its too long before we start seeing house prices dropping.
