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At the end of March, D.C. will lose one of its best-loved indie movie theaters, West End Cinema, which opened in 2010.
The theater’s closure comes amid increasing financial pressures, the Washington Post reports. In recent months, a host of new movie theaters have opened in the D.C. area, including the Angelika pop-up cinema at Union Market and luxury outlets that offer gourmet in-theater dining and bigger seats. (There’s also a new indie film exhibitor set to open in Mount Pleasant this summer and a gigantic Showplace Icon cinema planned for Navy Yard next year.) It’s no wonder that a tiny indie movie house in a pricey neighborhood like West End found it hard to compete.
The three-theater West End Cinema became known for showing independent films too small for E Street Cinema and playing big-name movies months after they’d run their course at corporate-chain cinemas. Its last film showing will take place on March 26.
Photo by Flickr user popturf.com, Creative Commons