Page "Chinatown, Manhattan" Paragraph 65

Among the theaters that existed in Chinatown in later years were Sun Sing Theater under the Manhattan Bridge and Pagoda Theater both on the street of East Broadway, Governor Theater on Chatham Square, Rosemary Theater on Canal Street across the Manhattan Bridge, and Music Palace on the Bowery, which was the last Chinese theater to close.

Others have existed in different sections of Chinatown.

The Chinese theaters also played movies with Chinese and English subtitles for the non-Chinese viewers, which were very often black Muslims that enjoyed movies with non-white heroes, Caucasian martial arts students and people who were film cognoscenti.

During the 1970s, the Chinese theaters became less attractive due to increasing gang-violence.

These theaters now have all closed because of more accessibility to videotapes, which were more affordable and provided more genres of movies and much later on DVDs and VCDs became available.

Other factors such as, availability of Chinese cable channels, karaoke bars, and gambling in casinos began to provide other options for the Chinese to have entertainment also influenced the Chinese theaters to go out of business.