Goodbye Old Friend: The Closing of AMC Hamilton 24

Am I the only person who had two childhood movie theaters? It seems that everyone has that singular beloved theater from their adolescence, the one that produced a mixture of lovely memories and cringe-inducing horror stories from their youth. I truly believe that entire childhoods could be analyzed just by sharing experiences that took place on the sticky floors and neon-tinted hallways of a cineplex. Where I grew up, there were two movie theaters that were within reasonable driving distance for parents, each in the opposite direction of my small town: Regal Burlington 20 and AMC Hamilton 24.

Now, Regal is my ORIGINAL hometown(ish) theater. This is where I had most of my formative movie watching memories, including birthday parties, my first date, and one unfortunate Pixar day where my sister had to sit on the floor (???) because they oversold the showing. To me and most of my friends, AMC Hamilton was the *~*fancy*~* theater. In reality TV terms, AMC was The Bachelor while Regal was Rock of Love. When I was a teenager, going to AMC was a bit intimidating. The workers there actually CARED that you had a ticket, for example. Everything about AMC Hamilton just seemed...bigger. The parking lot stretched out in every direction, three or four times the size of the diminutive Regal. While you could drive from Regal to the nearby T.G.I. Fridays, AMC had a Pizzeria Uno IN THE SAME COMPLEX. Even the tickets (many of which I still have!) were twice the size as the ones from Regal. It was a different world twenty minutes up highway 295, so I really didn’t attend a ton of showings until college

From the time I started at The College of New Jersey, however, AMC Hamilton became a regular part of my entertainment routine. It truly felt like an EXPERIENCE walking into the gigantic building, with multiple hallways shooting off of the central hub, which was buzzing with crowds and trails of popcorn left behind from rushing moviegoers. Each hallway was filled with blinking arcade games and lifesize cardboard advertisements of The Rock’s upcoming project. The first time I strolled into the bathrooms in this atrium, I was blown away by the number of stalls--I was embarrassed for my sweet Regal theater, who only boasted four toilets and never had a line outside. I don’t mean to disparage Regal Burlington 20 at all. I love my local theater, and I truly think that it is one of the main reasons why I am an avid movie watcher today. I just can’t emphasize enough how “big time” the AMC was to me, even without the comfy seat or bartender novelties of some of the other venues. 

AMC Hamilton is probably the theater that I have seen the most movies with my husband. It is the theater that I gleefully attended the majority of films while using that insane red MoviePass card during that wild nine month period a few years back. I have seen dozens of films--some were future Oscar winners and others were...not. That’s why my stomach fell and my eyes welled up a while ago when I read the article that broke the news of AMC Hamilton 24’s permanent closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I think it still hasn’t fully sunk in for me. I’m sure I’ll be able to write about this in depth once more time passes, but for now, I want to briefly write about a few lasting memories I have of AMC Hamilton 24.

1. The Strange Fun House of Theater 24

I have already written about the sad time I attended a fully sensory showing of Jojo Rabbit, but this wasn’t my first dance with this strange little room. A few weeks earlier, Tom and I were SO PUMPED to catch a showing of Parasite. This was one of the first movies of our “Oscar Watch 2019” so we were putting our movie critic hats on. Theater 24 is one of the farthest from the lobby, and it seems to be where they shove the movies that fall under the categories of artsy, Oscar-y, or “has been in theaters for a long time”. 

There are only a few rows of seats, and it feels like the one theater that they just sort of added on to the end to appease a small percentage of their customers. Despite that, I was still really surprised that the workers completely forgot about the showing. There were no previews to be found. No lights were dimmed in anticipation of a fun cinematic evening. Nothing. There were a few dozen of us just...sitting there. The clocks on our phones hit the movie start time. Then ten minutes past. Then fifteen. I was getting myself comfortable. There was no way I was going to miss Parasite even if I had to wait an hour. 

Finally, someone mercifully left to grab an employee, and a few minutes later the film abruptly blasted onto the screen. It was one of the best movies I have seen at AMC, but this showing truly foreshadowed the tragedy that was to unfold in theater 24 less than a month later.

2. Erin: The Worst Double Date Attendee

Tom and I are lucky to have an amazing bunch of friends. Our friends are kind, fun, and just flat out GOOD people. Two of them, the now married Mike and Janine, are too good, because they agreed to go to AMC Hamilton on two double dates with us. I want to make this clear--I was the problem both times here. I’m sure that Tom is a lovely double dater. I just can’t help it when we get into an argument at the Cheesecake Factory (over God knows what) before the movie. Why we would fight at the Cheesecake Factory in front of some of our closest friends, I will never know. Why I would continue to give Tom the cold shoulder during the entirety of the middling Taken 2, I also couldn’t tell you. What is the most baffling though, is why Janine and Mike would agree to go to another movie with us after that. 

Despite having a chance to redeem myself as a totally chill and fun girl to hang out with as couples, I could not deal with the movie we chose to see. I don’t know how this happened, but I know one thing: it was not my choice to see The Hobbit. I tried really really hard to find it pleasant. To give it a chance. But half an hour in, I couldn’t take it anymore. There were just so many hills. So much singing. It felt like an endless infomercial for Middle Earth.

“I’m going to run to the bathroom really quick,” I whispered to Janine, fumbling for my purse as I murmured apologies to the others in my row. Exiting the dark tunnel into the bright lobby, I exhaled a long breath of relief. “I am free,” I thought. I found an empty bench in the center of the lobby, right in between the ticket taker and the snack stand, and just sat for a glorious half an hour. I have to say, it was so much more entertaining than watching Bilbo and crew. 

Years later, Janine and Mike are still dear friends of ours. It is absolutely not due to our two double dates at AMC Hamilton.

3. Why We Go to the Movies

My final lasting memory of AMC Hamilton was from a cold February night a couple years ago. Have you ever had a moment at a theater that made you think, “THIS is why I love the movies?” Tom and I had snagged tickets for an 8PM showing of Black Panther on opening night for his birthday. 8PM happens to be my absolute favorite movie theater showtime. It’s early enough that I will stay awake throughout the whole runtime, but you don’t have to rush through dinner to get there. 

Our movie was showing at the biggest theater at AMC, right in the center of the building. We got in line and just fell into the excited chatter alongside everyone else waiting. The two of us talked to an older couple who happened to be from my hometown. We got to people-watch all of the Marvel fans and those who have been waiting for the movie for years. When we finally were let into the theater, the mood just felt celebratory. Everyone was just happy to be in the theater. There was nowhere else anyone wanted to be at that moment. It felt exuberant and was exactly why we love the movies.

Just as Regal Burlington 20 was a nostalgic piece of my childhood, AMC Hamilton 24 was a part of my growth into adulthood. It is a place where I have laughed, cried, and almost barfed (sorry, I am never going to stop talking about the poop theater!) It reminds me of my husband, my sister, my friends. While I still hold out hope that somehow, someday, it will reopen, I smile with the memories I have of one of my favorite movie theaters.