Images Cinema on Spring Street has embarked on the second phase of an over $2 million fundraising campaign. As the last standing movie theater in Northern Berkshire County, it’s about $900,000 away from taking its mission to the next level with major overhauls and the addition of a second screen.
“Once people get past our existing concessions counter, it's going to be completely different. So, our existing bathroom is going to move and be updated. The existing auditorium, about the only thing that will stay the same about it is that the same screen size and orientation will stay the same, but everything else will be changed," Executive Director Dan Hudson told WAMC. “We're going to get brand new seats, which will be a little bit larger, a little bit more comfortable, and have improved accessibility, including all of the auditorium spaces will be ADA accessible with ramps and everything, and we'll be putting in brand new surround sound systems, upgrading to some of the latest sort of industry standards, like 7.1 surround sound, getting in laser projectors."
The current arrangement at Images – a single proper screen with around 150 seats – isn’t meeting community demand or achieving sellouts. Hence, two screens — one with around 70 seats and another with about 20.
“We've really been bursting at the seams the past year or so with the community's use and growing interest in using the space for rentals and making requests for us to get in certain types of films, including certain types of films that we may not have shown as much before the closure of the Lanesborough and the North Adams multiplexes," Hudson continued. "So, the ability to bring in more new release, first run studio movies as well in addition to the classic movies and the art house fare that we had been really known for previously.”
While Images opened its new lounge last year, Hudson says this aspect of the project is the first major renovation in over a decade.
The larger effort to reimagine Images has been underway for over two years now. Hudson says the community support to get the fundraising behind the effort to over 60% before fully publicizing it speaks to local enthusiasm for the plan.
“We plan to have all permitting in place by May of this year, May of 2025, so just a couple months away, and then everything lined up for the theater to go the main theater to go dark in late August, early September, so at the end of summer, before the fall season kicks off,” he explained.
The screen of Images itself might go dark during construction, but the team behind it won’t be dormant.
“We're going to have a number of different sort of pop up and off site collaborations with a number of different venues and cultural organizations, mostly around the Northern Berkshire region," Hudson told WAMC. "We also expect that our our lounge space will remain open during construction as well, which is continuing to grow an audience and become very popular for both our cocktail bar and some other specialty and first run indie programming that we have in that space. So, we will be maintaining an active presence on Spring Street throughout the renovation as well as making sure that we're having the different types of festivals and events and repertory classic programming that our community has come to expect from Images.”
Images Cinema expects to fully reopen to the public by February 2026.
