RIVERVIEW THEATER RETURNING

Paul Schwedelson of the Philadelphia Business Journal reported on Oct 16, 2024 that Philadelphia’s Riverview Theater which shut its doors during the pandemic in 2020, will be reopened by Walpole, Massachusetts-based Apple Cinemas (no relation to Apple, Inc). They have signed a lease for a 17-screen theater – luxury seating, offering gourmet concessions and upscale bars at this soon to be renovated space owned by Developer Bart Blatstein.  There are also plans to set up restaurants and other business elsewhere in the development (Riverview Plaza), most of which, with the exception of Warm Daddy’s, which hung in there a while, sat empty for the last decade or so even when the Riverview theater was still showing movies. 

The PR company, Allied, which provides my weekly screenings, used the old Riverview Theater as our main base for years; and although it offered free parking, there is no good SEPTA route from Center City, where I worked at the time, to get to this area of Columbus Blvd in South Philly. I always had to drive in to work on screening days and try to find all day parking without paying for it, so that I’d have my car after work to get to Riverview.  Now, I work from home and love how easy it is to get to AMC Fashion District (11 & Market) from the Trolley for our preview movie screenings.  I would prefer we don’t return to Riverview.  Of course, if the 76ers much debated new arena push the AMC out of the Fashion District, that will be a problem – hoping the City will relocated the theater down the block a bit.