Great Barrington — After more than two years of fundraising and renovation work, Triplex Cinema’s Theater 2 reopened on Christmas Day, Thursday, December 25.
The theater opened with a screening of the recently released “Song Sung Blue,” starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. Later in the evening, “Marty Supreme” director and co-screenwriter Josh Safdie introduced a showing of his film.
“When Josh asked the audience before we showed the movie how many people in the theater had seen four or more movies in 2025, almost the entire audience raised their hands,” Triplex Programming Committee member Nicki Wilson told The Berkshire Edge. “He was duly impressed and said that when he asked the audience in a New York City theater the same question, only nine people raised their hands. Josh is the hottest director in the United States right now, and here he was at The Triplex on Christmas. It was such a treat for him to come in and do that.”
The reopening of Theater 2 was a victory lap of sorts after over two years of hard work by the nonprofit organization behind the theater.
The organization formed as a grassroots group back in April 2023 after former Triplex owner and South Egremont resident Richard Stanley closed the cinema after 28 years.
In July 2023, the grassroots group announced that it had raised enough money to purchase the theater from Stanley for $1 million.
After five months of closure for renovations, the theater officially reopened on November 17, 2023. In the ensuing two years, The Triplex has been one of the hosts of the annual Berkshire International Film Festival, as well as events featuring figures from the Hollywood and independent filmmaking worlds.
However, the renovation and reopening of Theater 2 has long remained a goal for the nonprofit since reopening the Triplex. “About a year and a half ago, we received a facilities grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council for $200,000, and we have been fundraising match funds since then,” said Triplex Creative Director Ben Elliott [Disclaimer: Elliott is a columnist for The Berkshire Edge]. “This year, all of the funds came together and we were able to unlock all of the funding. We knew that we were going to be able to renovate and reopen the theater this year.”
The theater includes an enlarged screen, a 7.1 Dolby surround sound system, and 127 new upholstered rocker chairs.
“This is our ‘proof of concept’ theater,” Elliott said. “Theater 2 is our first fully renovated theater, and moving forward, this is what we want to do with all of our other theaters. We want our theaters to have an immersive experience.”
Elliott said movie theaters are practically locked in “an arms race” with home streaming providers like Netflix. “Some people believe that a ‘movie experience’ is watching a movie at home while on a couch,” he said. “I understand that, but the picture and sound that you will get by watching a film in a movie theater will blow away anything that you will get at home, no matter how good your TV or sound bar is. But the work that we have to do for a movie theater is to exceed people’s general expectations of a movie theater.”
With the reopening and renovation of Theater 2, The Triplex now has four theaters. “Now we can show movies for our audiences,” Wilson said. “Movie studios have certain guidelines about the amount of time you have to show a film. The reopening of Theater 2 is not just about having another movie theater, it is also about being able to create a schedule to show films that will suit our audiences.”
In a previous interview with The Berkshire Edge, Triplex Board President Gail Lansky said there are several issues with the Triplex building that still need to be addressed. “We have an over-30-year-old HVAC system in the building,” she said. “Typically, an HVAC system has a 25-year lifespan. An HVAC system is not something where you can just go down to Home Depot and tell an employee, ‘Hey, let’s buy a new HVAC system for a movie theater.’”
According to Lansky, a new HVAC system would cost in the neighborhood of $363,000. “But that estimate is just for the system itself,” she said. “There are also going to be labor costs to install a new system, and dumping fees to get rid of the old system.”
Lansky added that there are other building projects the organization wants to tackle in the future, including renovating its bathrooms.
For more information about The Triplex, visit its website.
