I've been reviewing movies for Seven Days for 16 years, starting in February 2007 with the adaptation of Vermont author Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia. I saw it at the Palace 9 in South Burlington.
Over the years, the multiplex has always been my favorite theater for reviewing movies — cavernous, easy to park at and seldom crowded. Built in 1992, it was the state's largest theater until the 2004 opening of the Majestic 10 in Williston — according to Merrill Jarvis III, who owns both.
Bridge to Terabithia starred a 14-year-old actor named Josh Hutcherson. These days, 31-year-old Hutcherson stars in the video game adaptation Five Nights at Freddy's, one of the movies that was playing at the Palace 9 on Thursday, November 9 — the theater's last night in operation.
I didn't have a movie to see that day. But I came anyway, to pay my respects to my home away from home — a place that worked itself into my subconscious and even into my fiction writing.
When I arrived at about 5 p.m. with Eva Sollberger of "Stuck in Vermont," the parking lot of the Palace was jam-packed — something I hadn't seen since the pre-pandemic days when new Hunger Games or Marvel releases drew huge crowds.
Tickets were just $1 on the theater's last night, as was popcorn — a strong draw. We watched as employees hauled in five bags of the volume you might use for lawn debris, tightly packed with kernels popped at the Majestic 10.
Inside, crowds came and went. The lobby filled up briefly, then emptied out, then gradually filled again as the 6 and 7 p.m. shows approached.
The Palace 9 corridor in the run-up to this summer's "Barbenheimer"
If I had to explain why I love movie theaters, I'd say they're liminal spaces, gateways to dreams and nightmares. Stand in the central corridor of the Palace 9 on any given afternoon or evening, and you might hear explosions from one theater (the superhero flick), screams from another (horror) and high-pitched cartoon voices from a third (the family film).
Which experience do you want? It's your choice. Over the years, though, I've watched as the variety of choices dwindled. In 2007, you probably could have chosen a rom-com, a raunchy comedy, or a crime or courtroom drama. These days, most of those films are relegated to streaming services, leaving theaters to the aforementioned superheroes, serial killers and Minions.
Upstairs in the projection room of the Palace 9, decommissioned 35mm projectors stand in a long row. Here, you can walk the concrete floor from one modern digital projector to another and gaze down on each film playing in the darkness below. It makes you feel a bit godlike and isolated to look down on all those possible worlds.
Jarvis said the projectors run themselves all week long — a far cry from the platters of 35mm film that needed to be carefully threaded and monitored by projectionists.
But with the convenience of digital film came the new competition of home streaming. During the pandemic, Jarvis pointed out, even his older customers learned to use the new technology. Many didn't return to the theater.
Before 2020, he played Metropolitan Opera broadcasts at the Palace. Residents of nearby Shelburne retirement community Wake Robin "would come every week," Jarvis said. The downtown Roxy was also popular with older moviegoers. Today, he said, "I don't get my older crowd there anymore."
The Palace had to close because "25 screens here in Burlington is just too much right now," Jarvis said. "Everybody's spread too thin."
Who does still come to movie theaters? "The high school and college crowds," Jarvis said. Halloween season screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Roxy were a hit with younger audiences.
The University of Vermont buys Roxy tickets for students via a program called Cats at the Movies. Sophomore Ayelet Kaminski suggested that more students should take advantage of it in a recent op-ed in the Vermont Cynic headlined "Don't Let the Little Cinemas Die." "Think of all the first dates that aren’t going to happen,” she quoted a friend as saying about the creeping demise of theaters. “This is why our generation is having less sex.”
I'm glad to know some young people are still eager to see movies with an audience. But the timing of the Palace's closure has a special bittersweet significance for me. Next week, I'll launch a new teen thriller novel whose heroine works at the "Grand 9," a tribute to my beloved multiplex.
In my book, I used poetic license and 16-plus years of memories to paint the theater as slightly more ... colorful than it actually was in the recent past. Here's how my narrator sums it up: "The carpet never gets changed out and the broken restroom locks never get repaired and the projection booths stink of cigarettes and I kind of love it." (For the record, the lock in the first stall of the women's restroom was eventually repaired, and the projection room smelled fine on my visit, but I loved the theater in any condition.)
Long before the novel, I wrote a short story from the point of view of a ghost haunting the Palace 9. I wanted to capture how movie theaters serve as refuges, places to let your imagination float free as you pass from the darkness into the light and back.
Seeing a movie with other people is key to that experience. "People at movies think they’re alone," I wrote in my story. "They don’t consciously hear the collective inhale, like a bird beating its wings in the dusk, or the mass exhale as a hero narrowly escapes." But they're still part of something bigger than themselves.
I never minded getting a screen all to myself at the Palace 9 — which did happen occasionally. But seeing a movie with people was always more rewarding (as long as they weren't on their phones).
"It's the customers that bring the love and bring everybody together," Jarvis said, describing that collective experience of moviegoing. "It's an amazing experience when everybody's laughing in the theater together or crying or confused or chattering."
He thanked all the Palace's customers over the past 30 years, saying, "I hate to see 'em go." While he didn't disclose any plans for the theater's replacement, he promised that it "will make the community happy."
I hope so. But I'll mourn the Palace 9 even as I recognize that everyone who chose the convenience of home viewing over that communal experience — including me, in recent years — bears some responsibility for its final curtain.
Reflecting on the crowds on the Palace's last night, Jarvis said, "I love it full of people. I wish it was full every day like this."
In addition to La Chimera, here's what is playing in Northern and Central Vermont movie theaters this week. Listings include new movies, vintage films and a directory of open theaters.
In addition to Abigail, here's what is playing in Northern and Central Vermont movie theaters this week. Listings include new movies, vintage films and a directory of open theaters.
Bio:
Margot Harrison is the Associate Editor at Seven Days; she coordinates literary and film coverage. In 2005, she won the John D. Donoghue award for arts criticism from the Vermont Press Association.
From 2014-2020, Seven Days allowed readers to comment on all stories posted on our website. While we've appreciated the suggestions and insights, right now Seven Days is prioritizing our core mission — producing high-quality, responsible local journalism — over moderating online debates between readers.