Arthouse cinema temporarily closes after initial opening

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - Update on Jan. 12: The founder of Theater 42 announced Thursday it will temporarily shut down.

A news release, revealed the temporary shutdown comes due to their inability to meet certain requirements set by the government. It did not elaborate as to what those requirements were, saying only they did not pertain to the safety and comfort of the facility.

“I wish I could say this will just be a day, or a week, or a month, but the truth is I have no idea. I promise you I am doing everything in my power to get this theater back up and running, but at the end of the day we have to wait on the government bureaucracy,” the theater said in a release.

Theater founder Austin Lugo and his two cofounders will continue to record their podcast and write a weekly newsletter to update people on the theater.

Original Article: The art scene is expanding in the Biggest Little City with the opening of a new arthouse cinema. It’s called Theater 42 and it’s now open at 201 West Moana Lane.

You can see all kinds of films dating back to the earliest days of the medium.

A Reno transplant from Indiana named Austin Lugo opened Theater 42 on Thursday, January 5, 2023.

He says he was inspired by the arthouse cinemas close to where he grew up in Indianapolis.

He married a woman in Carson City and moved to northern Nevada only to discover the area does not have an arthouse cinema.

He and two co-founders started Theater 42.

“What’s great about these films is whether you’re going back to the 1910′s in the early era of filmography or to films that are still coming out, every single day these are filmmakers and teams of filmmakers who absolutely love making films and when you see these films you can feel that,” Lugo said.

Hugo says the idea to bring this theater to Reno came to him in March of 2022 when he saw an arthouse cinema in Monterey Bay, California.

Click here to see the movies coming to Theater 42 and buy tickets.