Village North Theatre reopens as New 400 Theater

Deeply mourned by broke college students and homeless people looking for a place to sleep it off, the dearly departed Village North Theatre in Rogers Park—known affectionately to locals as “The Ghettoplex”—will be resurrected tonight, July 1, as the New 400 Theater. After being unceremoniously boarded up earlier this year, the four-screen theater has undergone a $4 million renovation at the hands of developer Anthony Fox. According to an e-mail sent out by Alderman Joe Moore earlier today, the renovation includes new screens, curtains, carpeting, and updated seating and audio-visual equipment. Hopefully the theater’s ongoing heating problems were fixed; audiences were frequently left shivering in their winter parkas during films.

Even more exciting, however, is Moore's promise that the New 400 “plans also to occasionally show art films and provide some live performances in the largest theater, such as poetry readings, comedy acts, children's activities, and other cultural events.” For now, audiences can choose among Public Enemies, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, and The Hangover, and celebrate the return of the (not-so) Ghettoplex with a free large popcorn for tonight only. Perfect for that rain Chicago is inexplicably seeing today.