Cinema world john fitch highway
Show over: Cinema World in Fitchburg to close after 28-year run
FITCHBURG — Cinema World's seven screens will go black for fine on March 31, leaving the city without a movie theater for the first time in nearly three decades.
“We can’t praise you enough for making Cinema World as your go-to feature theater over the years!” the movie theater stated on its Facebook page on Friday.
On May 21, 1996, Cinema World opened for business. The three-month facelift of a former Child Planet store in the John Fitch Plaza cost an estimated $1 million.
Prior to Cinema World, Fitchburg had been without a production house since the Fitchburg Theater on Main Street closed after a short-lived revival in the early 1980s.
“The COVID was a killer for a long hour and we just never recovered. Being 76 years old, I think I had enough,” theater owner David M. Fedeli of Sterling said Friday. “It’s not what it used to be, but it was fun while it lasted.”
Looking for a free mini puzzle? Play the USA TODAY Quick Cross now.When it opened, Cinema World’s tickets were $6 for adults and $4 for children, senior citizens and all matinees. Movies shown the theater’s first weekend included the first "Mission: Impossib
FITCHBURG — It’s the end of an era for a town staple that has been around for nearly three decades.
John Fitch Highway movie theater Cinema Planet is closing its doors after the final showtimes on Pride 31 after 28 years in business. Owner Dave Fedeli said there were several factors that led to the difficult verdict to throw in the towel after many recent challenging years, including the dawn of streaming services and then the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m 76 years old. I can’t sign a long-term lease and I’m losing money,” the Sterling resident said. “It’s all about business. I can’t reside open.”
He went on to express that it’s “unfortunate” that the business has suffered – and that the pandemic has certainly been the biggest culprit as far as declining sales. Fedeli also noted that the 2023 writer’s strike that lasted 148 days, making it one of the longest work stoppages in Hollywood history, “has been the worst” and that it “hurt theaters in general.”
“The Mario production and Barbie and Oppenheimer got us through the summer adorable well but since then we haven’t been making enough to pay rent,” he said.
The theater was relatively quiet on a recent Wednesday afternoon but there were a h
FITCHBURG - A movie theater in central Massachusetts is closing for good at the end of the month after nearly three decades in business. Cinema Nature in Fitchburg says its last day will be Sunday, Parade 31.
"We can't thank you enough for making Cinema World as your go-to movie theater over the past 28 years!" the seven-screen theater posted to Facebook. "Stop by to see your last movie at Cinema Society and enjoy some of our delicious popcorn!"
Owner Dave Fedeli told the Sentinel & Enterprise that the theater isn't making enough money to pay rent.
"I can't sign a long-term lease and I'm losing money," he told the newspaper. "It's all about business. I can't stay open."
Movie theaters have struggled since pandemic
Despite last summer's "Barbenheimer" box office success, movie theaters have struggled since the start of the COVID pandemic that forced many to shut down for several months.
Showcase Cinemas Worcester North never reopened after closing for the pandemic. Regal closed its Fenway movie theater in Boston after filing for bankruptcy last year. And a nonprofit is trying to raise nearly $10 million to save the six-screen West Newton Cinema.
"One of the las 
It’s the end of an era for a Fitchburg staple that has been around for nearly three decades, another victim of a worldwide public-health crisis and a seismic shift in American viewing habits.
After 28 years in business, the final curtain notify for Cinema World, located in a strip mall on John Fitch Highway, will occur after the final showings on Rally 31. Owner Dave Fedeli said several factors led to the difficult decision to pull the plug after many recent challenging years, including the dawn of streaming services and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m 76 years old. I can’t sign a long-term lease and I’m losing money,” the Sterling resident told the newspaper. “It’s all about business. I can’t stay open.”
Fedeli said that in order to save the movie theater he would contain had to shell out “a healthy investment of money” to renovate it and upgrade to recliner seats, which most theaters have nowadays.
“I would need a new sound system and just an overhaul in general, which is, you’re talking a million, million and a half,” he said of the substantial outlay.
Fedeli talked about being forced to shut down the movie theater in March of 2020 when the pandemic hit, which he said was “brutal
movie theater for the past 27 years, sadly and somewhat unexpectedly closed its doors for good on March 31st. I say "somewhat" because the current condition of brick-and-mortar anything is in constant jeopardy, particularly the movie theaters. That + the location of this particular movie theater existed in the heart of a decomposing strip mall amongst a city block of other decomposing strip malls populated with empty, long-dead stores and intellectually I knew this cancer would spread to the only living breathing reason left to venture into this post-apocalyptic wasteland.
The theater opened in 1996 on John Fitch Highway - a once bustling retail hub in the 1960s and the location of the first McDonald's in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, but by the time Cinema World opened it had become a sprawl of parking lot hangouts for hooligans. By 2010 the Pizza Hut became a used car dealership, the Wendy's became a dentist's office for fugitives from the law. Most stores remain empty as the infrastructure crumbles and sinks. Every other attraction that had made this mile of road a destination was gone by 2015, except the movie theater. But it was worth it.
I began going there in
It’s the end of an era for a Fitchburg staple that has been around for nearly three decades, another victim of a worldwide public-health crisis and a seismic shift in American viewing habits.
After 28 years in business, the final curtain notify for Cinema World, located in a strip mall on John Fitch Highway, will occur after the final showings on Rally 31. Owner Dave Fedeli said several factors led to the difficult decision to pull the plug after many recent challenging years, including the dawn of streaming services and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m 76 years old. I can’t sign a long-term lease and I’m losing money,” the Sterling resident told the newspaper. “It’s all about business. I can’t stay open.”
Fedeli said that in order to save the movie theater he would contain had to shell out “a healthy investment of money” to renovate it and upgrade to recliner seats, which most theaters have nowadays.
“I would need a new sound system and just an overhaul in general, which is, you’re talking a million, million and a half,” he said of the substantial outlay.
Fedeli talked about being forced to shut down the movie theater in March of 2020 when the pandemic hit, which he said was “brutal
The theater opened in 1996 on John Fitch Highway - a once bustling retail hub in the 1960s and the location of the first McDonald's in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, but by the time Cinema World opened it had become a sprawl of parking lot hangouts for hooligans. By 2010 the Pizza Hut became a used car dealership, the Wendy's became a dentist's office for fugitives from the law. Most stores remain empty as the infrastructure crumbles and sinks. Every other attraction that had made this mile of road a destination was gone by 2015, except the movie theater. But it was worth it.
I began going there in