Paris is the archetype of a New York City arthouse theater. After all, it is the original. Established in 1948 by Pathé, the theater was the first in the country to screen Romeo and Juliet, A Room With a View, and Belle de Jour, among other gems in the international cinema. Sitting off the lower right corner of Central Park, Paris rubs elbows with Fifth Avenue darlings like the Plaza Hotel and the Bergdorf Goodman Building. Its relatively minimal Art Moderne design stands out amongst the neighborhood’s rhythm of windows set in white marble, and Paris is wearing its age well. After Netflix purchased the theater in 2019 to serve as the studio’s New York flagship, Paris carries the air of a landmark that is one-of-a-kind rather than one of a dying breed: it is Manhattan’s last standing single-screen cinema, and with 535 seats, it’s also the borough’s largest movie theater. This is the kind of place where size matters—the theater hosts year-round programming filled with special events, retrospectives, and filmmaker appearances, where the momentum of the crowd is a key ingredient.
