Six years ago, Washington and its suburbs were a movie house backwater, woefully underscreened by industry standards. We lost the quirky little places that showed independent and foreign flicks -- the Key, the Biograph and the Foundry, all in Georgetown. Loews Cineplex started shuttering its old theaters -- the MacArthur, the Avalon and the Outer Circle.
But things change quickly in show biz, and today, many in the movie industry say Washington is overscreened. An army of suburban multiplexes advanced, including huge complexes such as the Majestic 20 in Silver Spring, the Egyptian 24 at Arundel Mills, the AMC Hoffman Center 22 in Alexandria and the 12-screen Magic Johnson theaters about to open at the old Capital Centre site in Prince George's County.
Nonprofits and national chains alike realized that this affluent, highly educated market craved something beyond blockbusters. In short order, Landmark opened its hugely successful Bethesda Row and E Street complexes, the American Film Institute moved into Silver Spring, and a community group revived the Avalon in Chevy Chase.
But tonight, the little theater that launched the art movie boomlet four years ago falls victim to the success it spurred. Visions, the two-screen theater that was home to a funky restaurant and bar, ethnic film festivals and some of the best people-watching in town, will screen its last movie tonight. After a farewell party Sunday, the theater on Florida Avenue NW just north of Dupont Circle will go dark.
In the past two years alone, Visions' competition soared from 89 movie screens within six miles to 139 screens, a 56 percent increase.
"Every month, we were just increasing our deficit," said Andrew Frank, the entrepreneur behind Sirius Coffee, who joined with childhood friend Andrew Mack and Mack's buddy Jonathan Zuck to start Visions. "After Landmark, AFI and the Avalon came in, we just couldn't get the films people wanted to see. By the end, we were losing $1,000 to $1,500 a day."
If Loews, which last year closed the Janus theaters on Connecticut Avenue NW, also shuts its Dupont 5 theaters, as real estate brokers expect, there will be no movie house between Georgetown and Washington's East End.
Like independent bookstores holding out against the big boxes, Visions tried to be creative. Its lobby bar brought in more than half the revenue. Visions staffers knew movies. Visions connected with embassies, political groups and film buffs from around the globe. Nearly every week brought directors, actors and other speakers.
When Visions showed "Lumumba," about the Congo's first prime minister, Frank Carlucci, the ex-CIA official portrayed in the film as plotting Patrice Lumumba's assassination, came and defended himself in a heated but civil exchange with a knowledgeable, involved audience.
Andy Shallal, the Dupont Circle restaurateur whose Peace Cafe program gathers Jews, Arabs and others for conversation about the Middle East, helped Visions turn the lobby cafe into a beehive of discussion after "Promises," a movie about Palestinian and Israeli children who meet one another.
Other theaters show the hot independent films, but where will the African film festival -- Visions' highest-grossing week -- go?
Visions' passing "might be the end of that kind of independent theater," said Alan Rubin, who ran the Biograph for 29 years before bowing to the Age of the Multiplex. "The chains don't want to bother with festivals and speakers and events. It's too much work."
Real estate broker David Crowley, who has done deals on movie house properties, said the Dupont area can still support a theater if it has another hook, a bar or restaurant that generates revenue when the movies are not hits.
But downtown rents are rising to a point that movies only make sense when city planners make them a priority, giving landlords incentives to lease to theaters, which is what brought the Gallery Place and E Street movie houses to those sites.
"Nothing lasts forever," said Visions' Zuck. "We came along when Washington really needed this type of content. We proved the market for others who came in. And we became a community."
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