Longtime Buffalo Township movie theater set to close, reopen under local ownership

One of the few remaining movie theaters in the Alle-Kiski Valley is set to close, but only for a few weeks as new ownership takes over.

The AMC Classic South Pike 10 cinema complex is scheduled to shutter its doors Thursday, according to Buffalo Township Supervisor Mike Oehling Jr. and building owner Nick Mulone of Cheswick.

Mulone said AMC did not renew its lease, and he plans to reopen the theater again in early September under the South Pike Cinema brand.

“I’m hoping to rehire the AMC employees,” said Mulone, estimating there are about 20 employees. “AMC didn’t tell me how many employees there are.”

There has been a movie theater in Buffalo Township for more than 50 years, and Oehling said he is happy to hear the theater is not closing permanently.

“That sounds fantastic. It gives it more of a local feel now,” Oehling said Wednesday of the change-of-ownership news. “It was a cornerstone for everyone, especially our youth.”

Oehling praised the efforts of Mulone for keeping a locally owned business in the township.

“I’m really excited to see it localized and people will get a second chance to enjoy this movie theater,” Oehling said.

A manager opening the theater at 10 a.m. Wednesday confirmed it will close at the end of the business day Thursday but declined to answer any other questions.

A representative from AMC media relations was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

“We just purchased the equipment off of AMC, and we will open as is,” Mulone said Wednesday.

The Buffalo Township theater is one of only three first-run theaters in the Alle-Kiski Valley along with the GQT Pittsburgh Mills Cinema in Frazer and the MovieScoop theater in The Waterworks mall near Aspinwall.

The property where AMC sits has a longstanding history of offering cinema entertainment.

It originally was Cinema 356 — owned by Mulone.

South Pike Cinemas opened as a new cinema featuring 10 screens in 2002, and that same property was converted into AMC Classic in 2017.

“We’re bringing it back,” Mulone said.

Cinema I-II-III in Allegheny Township closed in 2006, and theaters in Cheswick, also owned by Mulone, closed in 2007.

Cinema closures are on the rise nationwide. Movie ticket sales nationally were down 31% last year compared to 2019, before the pandemic. They were down 46% from peak year 2002, when Americans bought a record 1.86 billion movie tickets, according to WolfStreet.com, a business and financial tracking website.

Even the phenomenon of “Barbenheimer” — the combination of blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” — in July 2023, and their combined 91.4 million tickets sold, according to data tracking website The Numbers, couldn’t push ticket sales back to prepandemic levels.

Total gross box office revenues also haven’t recovered.

Boxofficemojo.com reports overall box office revenue was a little more than $8.9 billion last year, compared to about $11.4 billion in 2019. So far this year, movie box offices have generated a little less than $5.2 billion.

In contrast, Forbes.com reports 99% of American households now subscribe to one or more online streaming services.