Independently Owned Movie Theaters Still In Operation In Western New York

You can watch a movie anywhere these days. Think about it, you can watch on your phone while you're in an airplane, you can watch in the back seat of an Uber, on the couch in the comfort of your own home, or at a movie theater. But nothing seems to match the experience of watching a movie at a single-screen, independently owned movie theater.

Allow me to have a "back in my day" moment if you will. When we were kids, we didn't have movies at the tip of our fingers. We would wait months for a movie to come out, and then when it did, in some cases, we'd have to wait again for a couple of weeks for it to cycle through to our local movie theater. We would check the Pennysaver that week to see what was up. It was rare that we would drive to the mall to one of their many screens to see a movie. We just had to wait until it came up.

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Our local theater at the time was Joylan Theater in Springville. When I think back at how incredible it was to see the inside of that theater as a kid, I remember it being an event. It wasn't just something you would do to pass the time. Going to a movie was like a destination.

Now, to visit some of those theaters from our past that are still standing is like taking a step back in time. The details that some of them have inside the theater, the actual box office where you buy tickets, and the smell of the popcorn that hits you as soon as you step inside have all been burned into my memory bank.

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It got me thinking about some of the theaters that are still in Western New York and are still showing movies like they used to. Do you have a favorite place where you still like to go?