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The nearly century-old movie theater in Atlantic Highlands officially closed on Sunday because its owners say it simply could not survive 2020.
After 99 years, Atlantic Cinemas announced its permanent closure. The movie theater had closed temporarily due to coronavirus from March to October. But its owners, on Facebook, said they'd only made $1,000 since reopening.
Fred Rast, an owner, wrote that: Greedy film companies, Netflix and COVID-19 were just a few of the reasons for the shutdown after being an icon in the Atlantic Highlands community for basically a century.
Rast said his theater had to pay tens of thousands of dollars for insurance, salaries, taxes and maintaining the business.
"It causes my wife and I great pain to close after serving the community for so many years," Rast wrote
Rast said he and his wife were left with no choice but to close.
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