Two blocks south of Union Square, on a stretch of West 13th Street that most New Yorkers walk past without lifting their eyes, sits the theater that taught the city how to multiplex. The Quad Cinema, at 34 West 13th Street, opened on October 18, 1972 as the first theater in New York City to put four screens under one roof. The original ads called it “A new way to go to the movies.” More than fifty years later, after a multi-million-dollar rebuild and a 2017 reopening, the Quad is something rarer than an innovation: it is a working repertory house with an art-house spine, a 35mm and 16mm projection booth, and a wine bar where you can sit down with whoever you just sat next to in the dark and argue about what you saw.

This is a profile of the Quad as a place to actually go — its programming character, the texture of the rooms, the ticket math, and the small, specific things you learn after a few visits. It is written for the kind of moviegoer who plans a week around what is on a screen, not what is on a streaming service.

The history under the lobby tile

The Quad was the project of Maurice Kanbar, a serial inventor and entrepreneur, and his younger brother Elliott Kanbar. Their idea — four small auditoriums sharing a single lobby, projection booth, and concession stand — was a radical operational gamble in 1972. New York’s movie houses were almost all single-screen palaces or grindhouses by then, and the multiplex format would soon swallow the country whole. The Quad got there first inside the city limits. For decades it ran as an unglamorous workhorse, slotting foreign films, documentaries, and small American independents into rooms that prized programming variety over architectural grandeur.

In 2014, real-estate developer and film distributor Charles S. Cohen — the chairman of Cohen Media Group, which also owns the Curzon cinema chain in the United Kingdom — purchased the Quad and announced a full renovation. The theater closed in May 2015 and reopened on April 14, 2017, with a Lina Wertmüller retrospective: a choice that signaled, before a single ticket was sold, what kind of house this was going to be.

Cohen’s renovation kept the Quad’s name, its four-screen footprint, and — importantly — its head projectionist. He also installed a slate of programmers who reshaped what plays there. The reopening hired Christopher Wells, formerly of the IFC Center, as director of repertory programming, and Gavin Smith, the former editor of Film Comment, as senior programmer. That pairing devoted one of the four screens largely to repertory work, with the other three open to first-run independent and foreign releases. The Quad’s official site lists the current operations team — General Manager Isabel Martinez, Technical Director Richie May, Administrative Director Kris Alvarez — alongside Cohen as owner, developer, and CEO. It is a small staff for a four-screen theater, which matches the room-by-room feel of the place.

How the Quad programs, and why that matters

The Quad runs on a hybrid model that distinguishes it from its peers. Film Forum, twelve blocks south on Houston, is a nonprofit with a fixed repertory-and-new-releases identity. The IFC Center, on Sixth Avenue at West 3rd Street, mixes first-run art-house with midnight programming and special series. Metrograph, on Ludlow Street, leans curatorial and membership-driven. The Quad sits across that family as a commercial four-screen art house that still books retrospectives, 35mm prints, and director Q&As on a regular schedule.

The current week of programming, drawn directly from the theater’s official site, illustrates the mix. The Quad is running new independent and foreign first-run features — Amrum, The Drama, Fantasy Life, Influenced, and the documentary Been Here Stay Here, which on the day this profile was reported had a Q&A with director David Usui and editor Elizabeth Rao, moderated by filmmaker Nelson Walker. Alongside that first-run slate, the Quad is hosting American Elsewhere, a small-town-themed repertory series running May 5 through 28, 2026, with David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence screening in 35mm May 19 through 21, including an introduction by Fran Hoepfner of Vulture. Napoleon Dynamite closes the series May 26 through 28. A second retrospective, Pride: From A to Z, follows June 5 through 25.

That is the engine of the place: every month, alongside whatever small distributors are debuting, one screen carries a curated series, often anchored by a 35mm print and an introduction or Q&A. For a pilgrim, this is the programming pattern to track. Watch the “Programs” page on quadcinema.com — it is updated monthly, and the retrospective slot is the heart of the calendar.

The rooms themselves

The Quad’s four auditoriums were rebuilt during the 2015–2017 renovation to the model the theater itself describes on its About page: “the intimacy and luxury of a high-end private screening room.” Each room has its own color scheme. Capacity per room is small — far below the largest IFC and Film Forum rooms — which is the trade-off you accept for the intimacy. The seats are imported from Norway. The projection booth carries 4K Christie and Barco digital projectors as well as 35mm and 16mm film projectors, which is the specific detail repertory pilgrims care about most. The Quad is one of the few houses in Manhattan that can run 16mm.

The lobby reflects Cohen’s commercial sensibility more than the auditoriums do: a 12-by-6-foot video wall built from 32 flat screens, and a 50-foot concession stand. If you are arriving from Film Forum’s deliberately spartan lobby, the Quad will feel almost like a downtown hotel. After the second visit, the lobby reads as what it is: a transition space designed to keep four films’ worth of audiences moving without colliding.

Ticket mechanics and the math of going often

The Quad publishes a simple ticket schedule on its About page. General admission is $18. The discounted rate is $16, and it applies to several categories: students, group rates, military members, federally disabled, and — this is the one most relevant to pilgrims — general admission for repertory screenings. Seniors aged 62 and up are $16. Children ages 5 through 11 are $16. The student, senior, military, and disabled rates require appropriate ID in person at the box office.

Two specifics matter. First: every repertory screening drops to the discounted $16 rate for everyone, not just students or seniors. If you are choosing between a $22-or-higher commercial chain and a 35mm Cronenberg print at the Quad, the math is not close. Second: the box office opens 30 minutes before the first feature of the day. That is the window for picking up rush or in-person tickets and for using ID-required discounts. Tickets are otherwise sold online, with the booking flow handed off to Fandango.

The Quad does not publish a public membership program in the way Film Forum, IFC, or Metrograph do. If you go often, the discounted repertory tier and the in-person student/senior rates are the main ways to get the per-ticket cost down. Pair a repertory screening with the bar — see below — and you have built a complete evening for the price of a midtown movie alone.

The Quad Bar

The Quad Bar is part of the rebuilt theater, integrated into the lobby rather than tucked into a back room. The theater’s own description: “the perfect place to meet fellow cinephiles and argue about great cinema over a glass of great wine or beer.” The bar’s hours are first show to last show, every day, and it serves organic wine, craft beer, coffee, and snacks. It is small. It is not a destination bar in the way Metrograph’s Commissary is a destination restaurant. It is a place to land for twenty minutes between a 3:00 PM matinee and a 7:00 PM second feature, or to sit for an hour after a Q&A while the director is still in the lobby. The Quad Bar is also available as a private rental space, with auditoriums available primarily Monday through Thursday — useful to know if you ever need to host a screening for a group.

Getting there

The Quad’s address is 34 West 13th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, in the northern strip of Greenwich Village. The closest subway stations are clustered around 14th Street and Union Square, one block north. The F and M stop at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue, a two-minute walk west. The L stops at both Sixth Avenue/14th Street and Union Square, putting it in walking range from either end. The N, Q, R, W, 4, 5, and 6 all converge at the 14th Street/Union Square station, three blocks east. The 1, 2, and 3 stop at 14th Street and Seventh Avenue, a four-block walk. From the PATH at Ninth Street, the Quad is about a six-minute walk. There is no on-site parking; the surrounding blocks are residential and metered street parking is unreliable on weekday evenings. Bike racks exist on West 13th and the cross-street avenues. The Quad’s phone is 212-255-2243; the box-office email is info@quadcinema.com.

Why the Quad earns the pilgrimage

It is worth being honest about what the Quad is and is not. It is not the city’s most important repertory house — that title belongs, depending on your loyalties, to Film Forum, the IFC Center, or to Metrograph. It is not the most architecturally striking — the Paris Theater on West 58th Street and the recently restored 1929 single-screen rooms uptown will always win that argument. What the Quad is, uniquely, is a four-screen, 35mm-capable, 16mm-capable art house in northern Greenwich Village that runs a monthly curated retrospective alongside first-run independent and foreign distribution. That combination is rare. It means that any given week, you can see a new film from a small distributor that no chain will book, and on the next screen over, a 35mm print of an American classic with an introduction from someone who has written seriously about it.

The Quad also occupies a specific civic position. It sits at what the theater itself calls “a nexus of New York City, a meeting point between uptown and downtown, where students from NYU, The New School, and FIT see movies alongside longtime Village residents.” That description is accurate on the ground. On any weekday matinee you will see retirees, on Friday and Saturday evenings you will see NYU film students and downtown couples, and at the repertory screenings the audience skews toward the kind of moviegoer who has driven into Manhattan specifically for the print.

If you are building a Manhattan repertory week — one screening at Film Forum, one at IFC, one at Metrograph, one at the Quad — the Quad is the easiest to slot in. It is central, the booking system is simple, the discounted repertory tier is real, and the bar lets you debrief without leaving the building. For pilgrims working through the city’s repertory map, the Quad is not a peripheral stop. It is the four-screen art house that proved this format could work in New York City, and the one that, after a thoughtful and well-funded rebuild, still does.

Practical reference

• Address: 34 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011
• Phone: 212-255-2243
• Email: info@quadcinema.com
• Official site: quadcinema.com
• Tickets: $18 general admission; $16 for students, seniors 62+, military, federally disabled, children 5–11, and all repertory screenings (in-person ID required for discount categories)
• Box office: Opens 30 minutes before the first feature of the day
• Quad Bar: Open daily, first show to last show; organic wine, craft beer, coffee, snacks
• Projection: 4K Christie and Barco digital; 35mm and 16mm film
• Nearest subway: 14th Street/Sixth Avenue (F, M, L); 14th Street/Union Square (L, N, Q, R, W, 4, 5, 6)

Frequently asked questions

When did the Quad Cinema open?

The Quad Cinema opened on October 18, 1972, founded by Maurice Kanbar and his brother Elliott Kanbar. It was the first theater in New York City to operate four screens under one roof.

Who owns the Quad Cinema today?

Charles S. Cohen, chairman of Cohen Media Group, acquired the Quad in 2014 and reopened it on April 14, 2017 after a multi-million-dollar renovation. He is listed on the theater’s site as owner, developer, and CEO.

Does the Quad Cinema show films in 35mm?

Yes. The Quad’s projection booth carries 35mm and 16mm film projectors alongside 4K Christie and Barco digital projectors. The American Elsewhere retrospective in May 2026 included a 35mm print of A History of Violence.

How much are Quad Cinema tickets?

General admission is $18. The discounted rate of $16 applies to students, seniors 62 and up, military members, federally disabled patrons, children ages 5 to 11, and all repertory screenings. ID is required at the box office for student, senior, military, and federally disabled rates.

What’s the closest subway to the Quad Cinema?

The F and M trains stop at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue, one block north and one block west, a two-minute walk. The L stops at the same station and at Union Square. The N, Q, R, W, 4, 5, and 6 all stop at 14th Street/Union Square, three blocks east.

Is there a bar at the Quad Cinema?

Yes. The Quad Bar is built into the lobby, opens with the first show, closes with the last, and serves organic wine, craft beer, coffee, and snacks. It is also available as a private rental space.

This profile is part of HelpNewYork’s Cinephile Pilgrim series. We’re capturing the city’s repertory cinema scene over a 46-day window — the rooms, the booths, the programmers, and the regulars. If you have a Quad story, a 35mm print you caught here, or a programmer’s series we should cover next, share it below.

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