It was certainly bad news when Marcus Theatres announced recently its decision to close three of its Milwaukee-area locations: Southgate Cinema on Milwaukee’s south side, Showtime Cinema in Franklin and Saukville Cinema.
The saddest part of the story is the fact that the closure of Southgate Cinema means Marcus Theatres no longer has any cinemas within the city of Milwaukee. Southgate has been Marcus’ last Milwaukee cinema since it closed Northtown Cinema at 7440 N. 76th St. in 2012. The company has long considered plans to open a downtown cinema, but those plans haven’t moved forward.
Milwaukee-based The Marcus Corp., the parent company of Marcus Theatres, is one of Milwaukee’s finest corporate citizens. But the fact that it no longer has a cinema located within the city limits is extremely disappointing.
In a statement about its closure of the three cinemas, Marcus Theatres said, “We routinely review the amenities at our theatre locations to provide the best moviegoing experience and determined that our customers at these locations are better served by the more expansive amenities at other nearby Marcus Theatres.” In the case of Southgate, Marcus said its customers are “better served” by going to Marcus BistroPlex Southridge in Greendale and Marcus South Shore Cinema in Oak Creek.
Other than that, the company has offered no explanation for closing Southgate or the other cinemas. An interview request from BizTimes Milwaukee was declined. So, we can only speculate.
Obviously, the Southgate, Showtime and Saukville cinemas were not performing well and were either losing money or were not profitable enough for Marcus to justify keeping them in operation. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have decided to shut them down.
Despite higher costs to go to a movie these days and competition from streaming services and big screen home entertainment systems, Marcus Corp. reported that its movie theater division revenue was up 5.7% in the second quarter to $136.9 million and the division’s operating income was up 20.7%. That’s good news, but the company still isn’t going to keep underperforming locations open.
It’s likely that high levels of poverty and crime in large portions of Milwaukee are a major reason that Marcus no longer has any cinema locations in the city. If crime in the city was significantly reduced and household incomes improved, it’s likely that Marcus would seize the opportunity to operate a few cinemas within the city limits.
Moviegoers can still catch a flick in the city of Milwaukee at smaller complexes including the Oriental Theatre on the East Side, Avalon Atmospheric Theater in Bay View and the Times Cinema on the west side. Landmark Downer Theatre on the East Side also closed recently.
But hopefully, at some point, Marcus Theatres opens a new cinema complex within the city of Milwaukee.
