The United Artists Siegen Village 10 movie theater, known for screening art-house and independent films, closed its doors permanently Thursday night after being sold to developers to be converted to office, retail or storage space.
Loyal customers of the theater and fans of independent movies were upset by the movie theater’s closing.
Melissa Jandura, Baton Rouge resident, said she saw E.T. multiple times at Siegen Village when the movie first debuted in 1982.
“This is where they’d play the… decent films, the ones I want to see,” Jandura said. “All the big ones just play the same thing over and over again. Losing this theater is sad.”
Derrick Auzenue, University graduate, regularly visited Siegen Village for its wide variety of movies. “I’ve been coming here as long as I’ve been alive,” Auzenue said. “I think I may have even seen the ninja turtle movie here. This is the closest thing we have to an indy screen in Baton Rouge. Now I’ll be losing the theater experience. Chances are I’ll now have to just wait for the DVD.” Dwayne Johnson, a box-office employee at Siegen Village, said parent company Regal Entertainment gave employees the opportunity to transfer their jobs to Citiplace 11. Johnson also said he had no complaints regarding the transfer and that the two theaters are quite different. “[Siegen Village] is a whole lot slower [than Citiplace],” Johnson said. “There’s more hype up there I guess, like a younger crowd. Here it’s more lax because it’s only people coming to see the independent movies.” According to the Advocate, Siegen Village was no longer financially viable for Regal Entertainment Group, which also owns Citiplace 11 in Baton Rouge, to continue operating the theater. Highland Developments LCC purchased the 35,000-square-foot theater for $2.1 million.
After Cinema 6 on Essen Lane went out of business showing similar films in 1999, Siegen Village assumed the responsibility of screening smaller films, but ultimately met the same financial fate as its predecessor. For now, Baton Rouge residents may have to trek as far as New Orleans to get their indie fix. “There have already been a few times where [Baton Rouge was not] going to get that movie, and I had to go to New Orleans,” Auzenue said. “Hopefully now I won’t keep having to do that. I would like to think they’ll open something else that shows these movies,” Auzenue said. “I’m happy I was here on the last day.”
—-Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]