2025 Cinemas - In Memoriam
In 2025, four theaters across South Florida closed their doors for good. A total of 68 auditoriums were shuttered, projectors turned off, and seats forever empty. The movie theater business has been slow to rebound after the pandemic, and some older theaters have become causalities to changing movie-going trends. These are the stories of those four theaters; curtains closed and lobbies empty:
Regal Cypress Creek Station - 1997-2025
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Regal Cypress Creek Station was the first all-stadium-seating megaplex in Broward County when it opened in 1997. I remember visiting the theater for the first time and being in awe of the vast auditorium with stair-step seating. It was unfathomable to me at the time to sit in a theater and not have the head of the person in front of you blocking the screen.
I last visited Regal Cypress Creek Station in 2024, and it was obvious the theater’s days were numbered. The lobby was empty, the marquee was half-lit, and the auditoriums were uncomfortable and downright sad. After my visit, a friend regaled me with a story of a rat running down the theater aisle the last time I was there. Now that the theater has been demolished to make way for a Target, I wonder if the rat is okay.
Regal Oakwood - 1995-2025
Hollywood, FL
Regal Oakwood 18 opened a Cobb Theatres cinema in the summer of 1995 and thirty years later closed its doors forever. The Regal Oakwood was one of only a couple of Regals in South Florida with full recliner cinemas.
My last visit to the Regal Oakwood was to see The Phoenician Scheme less than a month before it closed. Oakwood always showed films that were ignored by other Regals. But it was never crowded, always dead, and the opening of the Regal Dania Pointe down the street in 2022 was the beginning of the end for Regal Oakwood.
VIP Shadowood 16 - 1987-2025
Boca Raton, FL
The VIP Shadowood was the oldest of the South Florida theaters to close in 2025. Recently, the cinema closed as a Regal in 2023 before reopening in 2024 with VIP Theaters, and is now closed again.
I cannot remember the last time I visited the theater; it must have been when it was still a Regal and likely 20+ years ago on a campus field trip. I had made plans to see The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie there in March 2025, but ultimately those plans moved to a closer theater.
Regal South Beach - 1999-2025
Miami Beach, FL
The Miami Beach theater was the fourth theater (and third Regal) to close in South Florida in 2025. The cinema closed forever at the end of September to make way for a new museum. Unlike the other, older, and outdated theaters on this list, the Regal South Beach was equipped with IMAX, ScreenX, and Regal VIP screens. It had embraced the premium movie-going experience and still closed.
I never had the opportunity to visit the Regal South Beach. For years it had been a venue for movies playing as a part of the Miami Film Festival and the Miami GEMS Festival. Sadly, the theater closed before I attended the GEMS Festival in November 2025.
