Downtown Las Vegas's two mob-history institutions have joined forces for the month, letting film buffs and history nerds get a break on admission to both. The Beverly Theater and The Mob Museum have struck a reciprocal discount deal tied to the theater's annual Mob Month film series, meaning a ticket to a gangster classic on the big screen now comes with a price cut at the real-life courthouse where organized crime once stood trial.
Mob Month movie ticket holders get 20% off admission to The Mob Museum, while Mob Museum wristband or membership card holders get the same 20% discount off any Mob Month screening, according to KSNV. Kip Kelly, Chief Experience Officer of The Beverly Theater, joined Arc Las Vegas for a Mob Month preview to talk up the collaboration, per the same report. The Beverly Theater is bringing iconic crime films back to the big screen this August, and organizers say the pairing is meant to offer both special discounts and, as the station put it, a deep dive into the real-life history behind the movies.
While The Beverly Theater has run Mob Month as an internal screening series in past years, this is the first time the event has become a formal reciprocal partnership with The Mob Museum, according to The Beverly Theater. The two nonprofits sit just blocks apart in Downtown Las Vegas, and the tie-up gives each a built-in audience already primed for mob history and crime cinema.
A Lineup Built for Historical Fact-Checking
The centerpiece of this year's slate is a screening of Martin Scorsese's 1990 film Goodfellas on August 26, featuring an introduction and post-film Q&A with Geoff Schumacher, Vice President of Research, Collections and Programs at The Mob Museum, according to Non-Profit News Vegas. Schumacher's role is to separate mob lore from historical fact for the audience, the outlet reports.
The rest of the August schedule spans several decades of crime cinema, including Scorsese's The Departed, marking its 20th anniversary this year, Casino, the Coen Brothers' Miller's Crossing, Gomorrah, and the dystopian mob adaptation Dredd, as detailed by The Fabulous. The lineup mixes restored classics with genre outliers, giving repeat visitors a reason to check in throughout the month rather than catch a single showing.
The Museum Behind the Discount
The Mob Museum, officially the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, opened on February 14, 2012, at 300 East Stewart Avenue inside a historic 1933 federal building, per Wikipedia. Its centerpiece courtroom was the site of a November 15, 1950 U.S. Senate Kefauver Committee hearing on organized crime in Las Vegas, an event that helped land the building on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, according to the City of Las Vegas. In 2002, under then-Mayor Oscar Goodman, the federal government sold the building to the city for $1 on the condition it be preserved as a public cultural center, the city notes.
Mob Month discounts aren't the only thing on the museum's August calendar. The museum's programming this month also included an August 6 panel marking the 60th anniversary of Caesars Palace, examining how the resort was funded in part by the mob-controlled Teamsters Union pension fund in 1966, per Non-Profit News Vegas. Beyond the Beverly Theater tie-in, The Mob Museum is also offering Nevada residents a buy-one-get-one-free admission deal on select weekdays throughout August, the outlet adds.
Vegas's Only Art-House Cinema
The Beverly Theater itself is a relatively new addition to Downtown's cultural scene. Philanthropist Beverly Rogers established the venue through The Rogers Foundation as part of a $30 million arts commitment, and it officially opened March 3, 2023, as Las Vegas's first and only independent art-house cinema, according to Wikipedia. The 14,000-square-foot nonprofit space features a 146-to-150-seat main auditorium with retractable seating, a 360-square-foot screen, an outdoor courtyard, and a jazz terrace, per Broadway World.
The Mob Museum-Beverly Theater tie-up follows a string of recent cross-promotional moves by the museum around Downtown Las Vegas. A Golden Gate Casino exhibit tie-in launched earlier this month, and the museum has also expanded with a retail outpost at the Las Vegas airport and a new outdoor space called Starlight Plaza. Whether the Beverly Theater discount becomes a permanent annual fixture beyond this August remains unclear, but for now, moviegoers and museum visitors alike have a fresh incentive to hit both stops in one Downtown outing. More information on Mob Month screenings is available at thebeverlytheater.com, per KSNV.
