Rally set Sunday to help save the AMC Kips Bay 15

The campaign to keep the AMC Kips Bay 15 from going dark is heading to Second Avenue on Sunday.

Assemblymember Keith Powers and other local elected officials are expected to join neighborhood groups and residents for a noon rally outside the 15-screen theater at 570 Second Ave. at 31st Street.

Organizers are calling on NYU Langone to work with the community on a plan that would allow the theater to remain. Expected participants include Powers, State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, Assemblymember Micah Lasher, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Councilmembers Harvey Epstein and Virginia Maloney, the Eleanor Roosevelt Independent Democrats and the Alliance for Kips Bay. 

As previously reported, AMC has said the theater will operate through the end of 2026 before closing after the property owner exercised its right to terminate the lease early. The multiplex opened in 1999, initially under the Loews banner, with AMC taking over in 2006. 

NYU Langone acquired the Kips Bay Plaza property, which also includes Fairway. The health system has said it is interested in the property as part of expanding health-care access in the community and is willing to discuss options with local stakeholders. Specific plans for the site have not been announced. 

The rally follows several weeks of community efforts to preserve the theater, including a letter from neighborhood groups urging NYU Langone to consider the importance of the cinema and other neighborhood-serving businesses at the complex.

Find more info at Save Kips Bay. Petition here.