Osio Cinema in downtown Monterey closed
The show is over for the Osio Cinema on Alvarado Street in downtown Monterey. The theater that showed foreign films and documentaries closed down Monday.
The announcement came as a shock to everyone, even the employees. The cinema’smanager said they found out Monday morning that the theater was shutting down. And as word got out, many film buffs rushed over to catch one last movie.
“My classmates told me that it was closing down and I thought it was just kind of a joke,” Monterey resident Abraham Leach said.
The theater made the announcement public on Facebook posting, “we appreciate your support through all the years. Art house theaters are dying across the nation and we are sorry to be one of them.”
“It’s a sad day to say goodbye to the Osio theater,” Rick Johnson with the Old Monterey Business Association said.
Johnson said the cinema is a major staple in downtown and as an independent film lover, he’s sad to see it go.
“It makes me feel like there’s a hole in the community right now. And we’ll be waiting to see what happen from that,” Johnson said.
For now, moviegoers like Johnson and Leach will have to go elsewhere.
“To see these kinds of movies now in theaters, you’re going to have to go, ugh the closest place would be Santa Cruz,” Leach said.
The property is owned by the city of Monterey but the theater is run by a group of investors in Southern California. NewsChannel 5 tried to contact them several times but didn’t hear back by deadline.
