AMC Kips Bay 15 Closing by Year's End, Taking an IMAX Screen With It

AMC Kips Bay 15, the 15-screen megaplex that has anchored Second Avenue near East 31st Street since 1999, is set to close by the end of 2026. The theater, one of AMC's largest multiplexes in Manhattan, includes an IMAX auditorium and has built a loyal following among East Side moviegoers over more than two decades.

According to Time Out, the property owner exercised a contractual right to terminate the lease before its scheduled expiration, forcing AMC to wind down operations at the site. An AMC spokesperson told the outlet that Kips Bay 15 will continue operating until the end of 2026 before closing, though the company has not announced a precise closing date and says it is still finalizing details. AMC said the theater has been an important part of the Kips Bay community since it opened in 1999, and the company expressed gratitude to guests for their loyalty and support, adding that more information about the closure will come in the months ahead.

A Megaplex Built for the Late-'90s Boom

The theater originally opened as Loews Kips Bay Theatre on May 14, 1999, before AMC Theatres acquired and rebranded the location in 2006, according to Cinema Treasures. Architect David Rockwell of the Rockwell Group designed the 570 Second Avenue complex as a 15-screen megaplex with 3,000 stadium seats, part of a wave of large-format multiplex construction that swept urban centers in the late 1990s.

Once it closes, Kips Bay 15 will leave New York City's East Side with one fewer IMAX theater, per Time Out's reporting. Manhattan will still have three AMC IMAX venues left standing — AMC Lincoln Square 13, AMC Empire 25 near Times Square in Midtown, and AMC 34th Street 14 near Madison Square Garden — according to IMAX. AMC Lincoln Square 13 on the Upper West Side houses the largest IMAX screen in North America and is one of only 25 venues worldwide equipped to project 70mm film IMAX, according to Hot 100.9 — a stark contrast to the standard commercial IMAX screen Kips Bay is losing.

The East Side's Long Cinema Contraction

Kips Bay 15's closure adds to a string of losses for East Side moviegoers, per Time Out, which also cites the closures of the Beekman Theatre and City Cinemas 86th Street in recent years. The Beekman, located at 1271 Second Avenue, shut down unexpectedly in September 2019 after operator City Cinemas closed the venue, according to Patch. Further compounding the East Side's theater squeeze, Reading International said in August 2026 that it expects to finalize the sale of its historic Cinema 1, 2, 3 property on Manhattan's East Side in early Q4 2026 to pay down debt and fund circuit upgrades, according to a transcript reported by the Motley Fool.

Not every closure on the island has been permanent. Netflix signed a long-term lease in November 2019 to save and operate the 71-year-old Paris Theatre on West 58th Street, Manhattan's last single-screen venue, using it for theatrical releases and special events, as reported by CBS New York. And Regal Cinemas signed a long-term lease extension in June 2023 with landlord Related Companies to keep operating Regal Union Square after an extensive multi-screen renovation, according to Cinema Treasures.

A Shrinking Audience, Even as AMC Invests Elsewhere

The pullback in Kips Bay comes even as AMC continues pouring money into premium formats nationally. In April 2025, IMAX Corporation and AMC Entertainment announced an agreement to deploy IMAX with Laser technology across more than 180 U.S. locations, adding 12 new IMAX auditoriums and upgrading 68 existing screens, according to IMAX Corporation. That national expansion underscores just how significant it is that a Manhattan location with its own IMAX screen is being shut out by a landlord's lease decision rather than any move by AMC itself.

The closure also lands amid a broader attendance slump for movie theaters nationwide. North American theatrical ticket sales were projected at approximately 555 million for 2026, down from 1.23 billion in 2019 before the pandemic, even as average ticket prices climbed to $11.31, per TheStreet. That uneven recovery gives commercial landlords added incentive to reclaim prime real estate like the Second Avenue site once a lease clause allows it. For now, it remains unclear what will replace AMC Kips Bay 15 once the multiplex vacates the 570 Second Avenue space by the end of 2026.