& ARTS PREVIEW The Harper Theater is putting up a fight

Despite the hurdles faced by local cinemas, the Hyde Park institution is remodeling and reopening this spring.

By JONAH NINK

How would early 20th-century Chicagoans react to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ? Would they marvel at the progress film technology has made in the past 100-plus years, or run screaming out of the theater at the sight of Corey Stoll’s M.O.D.O.K.? Could they make it through an explanation of what the 31-film Marvel Cinematic Universe is without exploding into dust?

Questions like these tend to appear whenever we visit old movie theaters like Hyde Park’s Harper Theater, which naturally connect the old moviegoing experience with the new. The theater first opened in 1915 and was designed by prolific Chicago architect Horatio Wilson. Then a destination for vaudeville shows, the Harper Theater was originally the Hyde Park Theater. It would eventually be converted to a four-screen movie theater, changing names and ownership a few times (it was known briefly as the Meridian in the 90s) before finally being acquired and renovated by the University of Chicago in 2002.

“It was in pretty poor condition,” said University of Chicago executive director of commercial real estate Phil Gold. “I had heard of standing water in the basement, several feet. It was closed at the time.”

A century and some change after first opening its doors, the Harper Theater finds itself at the tail end of another set of renovations and new management by the Nebraska-based ACX

Cinemas. The theater closed last November after former operator ADF Capital left after ten years.

ACX owns and manages theaters across the midwest. ACX executive vice president Michael Barstow says that his family’s company and the University of Chicago had a shared interest in modernizing the theater.

“We started talking with the university, and I think there was immediately a connection,” said Barstow. “We were interested in the project, and they were interested in us.”

Barstow said that all the theater’s seats will be replaced with heated luxury recliners. Other additions include new flooring and lighting and an expanded concession area and bar. Taking a cue from spots like Lakeview’s Music Box Theatre, Barstow and company hope to host special screenings and events to help it stand out.

“When the previous operator took over about ten years ago, the university did a really nice remodel,” said Barstow. “What’s nice about that building is that structurally it was really sound.”

There’s no doubt that the Harper Theater has a lot of support in its corner. ACX and the University of Chicago are eager to make the theater competitive. There’s a built-in enthusiastic audience in the Hyde Park community. The theater has historical significance and a place on the National Register of Historic Places to prove it. It’s an impressive venue, but can it survive the COVID-19 fallout and seismic shifts in movie-viewing preferences?

“The last three years have been a very interesting time for movies,” said Barstow.

Small theaters especially have become endangered, in Chicago and nationwide. The New 400 Theater in Rogers Park recently announced that its days were numbered, according to the Loyola Phoenix . Former Harper Theater operator and current New 400 Theater owner Tony Fox said that the theater “definitely did not turn a profit the last couple of years.”

The inevitability of changing preferences can seem insurmountable, but Barstow is confident that the Harper Theater should at least put up a fight.