It is unfortunately your last weekend to see a film at the Lower East Side’s Sunshine Cinema. Landmark Theaters will be closing the venue at 139 East Houston St. Sunday evening. The new property owners, East End Capital and K Property Group, will be knocking down the 1898 building, replacing it with a new office and retail complex.
So what’s showing on the Sunshine’s final weekend? There are four features: In Between; Darkest Hour; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; and Hostiles. The Sunshine’s Midnight Movie Series concludes with Dog Day Afternoon and Super Fly (tonight and Saturday). On Sunday, a midnight movie mainstay, The Room, will have one last showing at 9:30 p.m. Click here for showtimes.
Here’s an odd footnote to this story. Before demolition begins, the new property owners are planning a party at the Sunshine. Here’s the Eventbrite listing: “Celebrate the Lower East Side & Preview our new office development,” with “light bites, drinks, live music, comedy, poetry & (a) D.J.” A $20 donation is suggested for the Feb. 15 event, which believe it or not, benefits the Essex Street Market Vendor Association. The vendors, of course, work out of the 1940 Essex Street Market building, which also faces the wrecking ball (the market will live on in the new Essex Crossing development project now under construction).
