Seaford Cinemas latest Long Island movie theater to shut down

Seaford Cinemas, a multiplex on Merrick Road, is the latest in a string of Long Island  movie houses making their final fade-out. It will close on Monday.

On Friday morning, the theater's website featured the following announcement: "Seaford Cinemas will be closing its doors as of Monday, April 28, 2025. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has come to enjoy movies at our theater over the last few years. It has been an honor serving the community."

Representatives from the theater and the Seaford Chamber of Commerce did not immediately return calls from Newsday on Friday seeking comment.

The news came as quite a surprise — and a blow — to patrons, such as Plainview retirees Paul and Alice, who declined to give their last names, showing up for matinees on Friday.

"Another one gone," Alice said. "We come here all the time. It's never crowded, which I guess is unfortunate for them."

"The price is right," Paul added.

The theater opened in May 2000 as a six-screen complex. In October 2005, two screening rooms with tiered stadium seating were added. The theater remained one of the most affordable on Long Island, with $5 matinee tickets daily up to 2 p.m. and $10 for later screenings.

"This was such a family place," said Carmine Fiorillo, of East Meadow, who said he and his wife visit the theater about three times a month. "You pay $5 for a ticket. Now if you go to the Regal, you pay $15 or $18. And if you take the grandkids, with popcorn and everything else, you're talking $200."

Since the pandemic, movie theater owners have been struggling to lure back patrons, which has led to a number of recent closings on Long Island. In October, the mom-and-pop-run Malverne Cinema & Art Center closed its doors after 34 years due to low attendance following the pandemic, which gave rise to an increase in at-home viewing.

In January, Showcase Cinema de Lux Broadway, a multiplex in Hicksville’s Broadway Commons Mall, also shut down amid an increase in at-home viewing and several years of movies that failed to push box-office earnings back to pre-pandemic levels.

The Seaford closing comes the same day the renovated Sunset Theater in Westhampton Beach is launching. The theater, which opened in 1927, was purchased by Westhampton Beach resident Inge Debyser with a small group of investors in 2022 for $1.15 million.

In November, Mattituck Cinemas reopened with new reclining seats and an upgraded concessions area that sells margaritas.