At the Pelham Picture House on Wolfs Lane, a big studio release in its third week stays on the only screen the theater has, even after the crowd has thinned to a few people. In February, executive director Clay Bushong told a packed open house that the major studios make theaters run their big releases for at least two to four weeks. A multiplex like Regal Cinemas at New Roc City can open a film in its biggest auditorium and move it to a smaller one as attendance falls. The Picture House can't. A big release stays in the main room even when only a few people show up after the first week, as the Pelham Examiner reported.
That one limit sits behind the theater's expansion plan, the fight over it at Village Hall, and the calendar posted on the theater's website right now.
The arithmetic of one room
The Picture House has 300 seats and one screen. Bushong and chairman Joe Marty pointed to the Jacob Burns Film Center and Mamaroneck Cinemas as competitors that do well partly because their multiple screens let them offer several choices at once, new releases included. Bushong also said national movie attendance was about 65 percent of its pre-pandemic level. The theater was also dealing with falling contributions and had no classroom. Leaders said classes bring in revenue and turn students into long-term supporters.
Marty described the finances as solid. According to the Examiner, he said the mortgage was "south of $700,000," the theater had never missed a payment, and its line of credit was untouched. He said the Bronxville theater, which the organization took over in 2022, brought in about two-thirds of revenue and accounted for about two-thirds of expenses in 2024 and 2025, roughly breaking even.
So the stated goal was to change the format before the money ran out. Marty put it this way to the crowd:
"The risk is that by keeping this building the way it is, with no changes, we risk not having a film experience at all in Pelham. And once it's gone, it's gone."
That quote also comes from the Examiner's February 18 coverage.
A building Pelham has saved before
Pelham has been here before. According to the Examiner, the building has been rescued from demolition twice. The first time was about a century ago. The second was in 2002, when plans called for replacing it with a bank and residents raised close to $1 million to buy and preserve it. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
That history explains why the February meeting drew more than 100 people. It also explains the question that kept coming up that night: would any new development mean losing the historic building itself? Bushong said the board was "open for anything" that would keep film in Pelham for another hundred years. Both leaders said they would not go ahead with any proposal that didn't meet the theater's needs, even if that meant going it alone with another capital campaign.
Two concepts for the same block
By mid-February, two very different ideas for meeting that wish list were circulating. Bushong summed up the list as three theaters, parking and an education space.
| PHP Partners concept | Smithmeyer concept | |
|---|---|---|
| Footprint | The Picture House, the lot at 163 Wolfs Lane and two neighboring gas stations | The theater and 163 Wolfs Lane, without the gas stations |
| The historic theater | Theater moved to a different space on the block, set between the two apartment buildings in an area called Picture House Plaza | Historic theater kept and renovated |
| What the cinema gets | Ideas only; Bushong called it "no plan, just ideas" | Two added screening rooms, a new lobby and bar, 1,500 square feet of education space, more parking |
| Housing | Two four-story buildings, one with 60 units and one with 20, each with commercial and retail space and two levels of underground parking | A five-story, 27-unit building at 163 Wolfs Lane |
James Smithmeyer's plan, laid out in a February 17 Examiner article, is the one that targets the single-screen problem directly. Those two added rooms are what would let a big release move out of the main auditorium once its crowd shrinks.
How the Village stepped back
On February 10, the Village of Pelham trustees voted 5–2 to sign a memorandum of understanding with PHP Partners, naming the firm the preferred developer for the block. The vote is recorded in the meeting minutes. The owners of the two gas stations said they had no interest in selling. Because the MOU included a clause about the possible use of eminent domain, it drew weeks of public comment. At the February 24 meeting, Mayor Chance Mullen said there was no condemnation agreement and apologized for the alarm, the Examiner reported.
At the March 10 meeting, Mullen announced that PHP Partners had sent a letter ending the agreement. "Now that the Picture House and the new owner of 163 Wolf Lane have decided to partner, there's no role for the village to play," he said, according to the Examiner's March 23 report.
That left the project as a private partnership between the theater and the owner of the lot next door.
Since March, the agendas have been quiet
No application for the Picture House or 163 Wolfs Lane appears on the Planning Board agendas for May 19 or September 15, the Architectural Review Board agendas from April 15 through October 21, or the Zoning Board agendas from May 27 through October 28. Those dockets list sign applications and variance requests for other properties. The October 20 Planning Board meeting was cancelled.
As of the published agendas through late October, the partnership's plan has not come before any of those boards for public discussion. Upcoming agendas for all three boards are posted at the Village Agenda Center.
Meanwhile, the one room is working hard
While the expansion waits, the existing auditorium has been booked with programs that fill a night instead of holding the screen for weeks.
The Pelham Fringe Festival. Its first run, on Friday, October 2, and Sunday, October 4, drew a combined audience of more than 500 to the Picture House for short plays, skits and local vocalists, according to the Examiner's recap. Founder Kate McDaniel started the group with a social-media invitation and said that when strangers sat down around a table, "something magical happened." She said the group hopes to make the festival annual and is considering readings, incubator programs and possibly a film festival.
Film Club. The fall Pelham season runs seven Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. and ends November 11. It includes six advance screenings, with the titles and guest filmmakers kept secret until the audience arrives. It's open only to Picture House members.
Repertory nights. For Halloween, the Pelham theater scheduled A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Shining for October 30 through November 5, plus 10 p.m. showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on October 30 and 31, free for anyone in costume, according to the theater's announcement in the Examiner. A Craft Night screening of A Nightmare on Elm Street was set for November 3.
Every one of these is a one-night or short booking that doesn't tie up the screen for a month.
On the calendar into December
As of late October, the Picture House's "Coming Soon" list showed these opening dates. The site lists Pelham and Bronxville together, so check the Pelham tab before you buy tickets.
- Wild Horse Nine, November 5
- Mouse, November 13
- Fjord, November 20
- Hexed, November 24
- Once Upon A Time In Harlem, December 11
- Avengers: Doomsday, December 17
- Paper Tiger, December 18
The December 17 date is the one to watch. If a Marvel release like Avengers: Doomsday plays Wolfs Lane, the multi-week minimum Bushong described would take the 300-seat room through the holidays. Every other title would have to fit around it until there's a second room to move it to.
Jenny Jaffe follows Wolfs Lane the way her neighbors do, from the Agenda Center to the ticket line. If you'd like to talk about what changes on that block could mean for your part of Pelham, Jennifer Jaffe is glad to sit down with you. Schedule a Local Market Consultation.
