Cinema Detroit

An independent community-based non-profit arthouse theater. The only 7-day-a-week movie theater in Greater Downtown Detroit.

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About

Cinema Detroit is an independent community-based non-profit arthouse movie theater and the only 7-day-a-week movie theater in Greater Downtown Detroit.

Since 2013, Cinema Detroit has delivered an eclectic, quirky and quality mix of contemporary, indie, cult, genre, and classic movies in the heart of the City. Located at 4126 Third Street, 48201, we feature movies in a unique setting – a former furniture factory – and freshly made popcorn, Faygo pop, and occasionally other locally-made treats.

Cinema Detroit exists to benefit the community and the arts, promoting media literacy and arts education, providing a community gathering place for watching films and for the dialogue that they spark, and bringing a breadth of film options, especially the best independent film, to the City of Detroit and the metro Detroit region.

We have worked hard to build a community of everyone who loves and/or makes film, to present as many underrepresented voices as we can, and to provide a space for the community to gather and discuss films.

When Paula Guthat, co-founder of Cinema Detroit, ran across a movie theater in a converted cable car garage in Providence, Rhode Island during the Summer of 2012, thoughts of the empty industrial spaces in Detroit immediately came to mind. There had to be some way to find a similar space and start it in the Detroit.

Finding an appropriate space was more difficult than imagined; cinema requires a certain ceiling height and no load-bearing columns every 10 feet.

While searching for a suitable space, Cinema Detroit decided to launch as a pop-up during Christmas 2012 to test the market and hone our vision. We wanted to bring movies to the City of Detroit proper and we wanted to keep prices reasonable. Today, Cinema Detroit is doing just that.

Work

Cinema Detroit has:

Survived 4 years and counting as an independent in an extremely difficult corporate-dominated business while keeping prices as affordable as possible
Continued to offer the City proper access a wide variety of mainstream, specialty, indie, cult and classic movies
Shown many films that would not otherwise be seen in the metro area, the state or the Midwest;
Won the title of Best Indie Cinema in the WDIV Vote for the Best poll in 2015, 2016, and 2017;
Committed to maintaining at least 40% of programming that is directed by women, people of color, LGBTQ or other underrepresented voices – compared to 4% or less in a multiplex or other chain venue
Regularly programmed films that should be seen, rather than just make money
Continues to offer monthly series of socially-relevant talkback screenings
Discounted screenings to schools so their students can see and discuss important films like Hidden Figures, I Am Not Your Negro, and more.