Chicago's Music Box Theatre. Photograph: Courtesy Music Box Theatre View image in fullscreen Chicago's Music Box Theatre. Photograph: Courtesy Music Box Theatre Film ‘There’s excitement in the air’: how America fell back in love with indie cinemas With unexpected programming and a community ethos, independent cinemas across the US are giving multiplexes a run for their money
Prefer the Guardian on Google O n a quiet street in New York City’s Ridgewood neighborhood stands an unassuming, windowless white building. Its lone door, covered with an amalgamation of cut-outs, looks like a teenager’s bedroom; the building numbers are displayed via peeling stickers above it. But if you look closely, herein lies Low Cinema, an indie movie theater which boasts just 42 seats and thrives on being lo-fi.
“We need to bring back theaters that are the size of porno theaters but don’t necessarily play pornographic films,” cracks owner John Wilson , who is best known as the host of HBO Max’s popular How To with John Wilson and opened Low Cinema in spring 2025.
“Four or five people have told me that they are actively opening or rehabilitating movie theaters across the country since we opened a little over a year ago,” Wilson added.
Wilson has found himself swept up in a gen Z-led wave fueling a fresh resurgence of indie movie houses. Earlier this year, a Fandango study found that the demographic is now the biggest moviegoing demographic . Meanwhile, a new survey from Art House Convergence, a coalition of indie theater owners, showed that independent cinemas have grown 38% since the pandemic, with 68% of attendees under the age of 45.
View image in fullscreen The lobby of New York’s Low Cinema, packed with movie memorabilia. Photograph: Courtesy Low Cinema Indie movie theaters have suddenly found themselves “in the business of culture-making” after years of being a niche, highbrow activity, said Lela Meadow-Conner, the interim executive director at Art House Convergence.
“Gen Z is flocking to repertory cinema, which we know to be true around the world, and nobody curates rep better than the art house,” she says. “This is in large part because independent theaters are programmed by humans who understand the tastes and desires of their community rather than just programming for the bottom line.”
Art House Convergence’s study also found that a quarter of all respondents only started attending their local indie cinema within the past three years.
Read more Factor in the recent box office successes of indie films such as Obsession and Backrooms , and publications like the Hollywood Reporter are asking if gen Z can save Hollywood .
“I think it’s because [going to a movie theater] can be anonymous or social, and it’s completely up to you how you want to play it,” said Wilson of what’s drawing younger audiences to theaters such as Low. In the week we talk, the tiny space boasts an eclectic slate, playing classics (1948’s The Naked City), cult favorites (the Jackie Chan flick Rumble in the Bronx from 1995) and otherwise (the forgettable 2010 sequel Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps).
Adding to its charm is a likeable off the cuff approach to social media. In its schedule for the 4 July weekend it simply states: “Might do something.”
“People just come in to buy popcorn if you leave the door open and they don’t even see a movie,” Wilson points out. The concession stand also flaunts stacks of worn, 90s-era VHS tapes, tapping into the nostalgia of movie cultur…