James Dolan, the CEO of Cablevision, which runs the 1,131-seat movie house, last year told the Hollywood Reporter that the cinema, the largest in New York City, would likely close. "It loses a lot of money. The theater business is a tough business," Dolan said.
However the Post reported Jan. 20 that the partners who operate Gotham Hall, the event venue inside a former bank on Broadway at West 36th Street, have agreed to lease the Ziegfeld from its current owners, Fisher Brothers, a real estate company.
The new lessees plan to rename it the Ziegfeld Ballroom and use it as "a mecca for society galas and corporate events" to open in fall 2017 after a renovation." The cinema is scheduled to close "within a few weeks."
The theatre is named for the master Broadway showman Florenz Ziegfeld, father of the Ziegfeld Follies revues.
The Post said plans call for a 10,000 square-foot column-free ballroom, as well as mezzanine meeting rooms and advanced electronic facilities.
Built in 1969, the movie house is located at 141 W. 54th Street. It shouldn't be confused with the Broadway theatre of the same name, which stood nearby on the northwest corner of 54th Street and Avenue of the Americas from 1927 to 1966.
