A warm summer night in Chicago. A young couple strolling south down Southport Avenue with a plan to see a movie at the Music Box, a venerable anchor of one of the city’s most successful retail and restaurant corridors. She notices the chaser lights and looks up at the restored marquee, not much different from how it looked when the theater opened in 1929. But this time she sees not the title of the movie she expects, but her name.
“Will you marry me?” it says below.
That might sound like a schmaltzy Hallmark movie but it was for real, just a couple of days ago. We noted the romanticism of the proposal and the centrality of a beautiful old theater, smaller and more intimate than many, a venue that once showed pornographic movies in a run-down auditorium but subsequently was reinvented as an exquisite art house and the economic anchor of its booming neighborhood.
The aesthetics of the Music Box offer something for all tastes; Tribune architecture critic Paul Gapp once described the decor therein as “an eclectic mélange of Italian, Spanish and Pardon-My-Fantasy put together with passion.” Sums it up. Some people go just for the old-timey experience. This weekend, some will go to escape the heat and the bangs of fireworks.
But most people go, year-round, for the quality of the programming: independent movies, foreign-language movies, cult movies, retrospectives of great directors like Jean-Luc Godard, festivals of all kinds. Much is season-specific, such as the popular Christmas singalongs.
Most independently owned movie theaters are struggling for resources. Improbably, the Music Box is a growth story. Last week, it opened a third screen, a conversion of two neighboring storefronts into another 98-seat theater, thanks in part to a small community development grant from the city of Chicago that looks like money well spent; certainly the neighboring businesses think so.
In an article that showcased the success of the Music Box, Variety reported last week on a survey that found “independent theaters continue to be a vital asset to their communities, with a 9% increase in business in 2025, an encouraging sign for the sector.” Better yet, the publication said, “25% of those surveyed said they first began going to their preferred art house theaters within the last three years.” The audience is not graying. The opposite is the case.
The days of the seething mall multiplex with the bored, pimply teens selling popcorn to the masses are numbered, of course. But that doesn’t mean what you have been hearing about people no longer seeing movies at a theater is true.
There is evidence to the contrary when it comes to the Music Box and a few of its art house peers. Independent cinema grosses have grown 38% over 2019, Variety reported.
Most tellingly, the attendees at theaters like the Music Box tend to say the venue is important to their “quality of life.” That’s the secret sauce of this exceptionally well-managed institution.
People fall in love there. And not just with a movie.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
