These two Coral Gables movie theaters are undergoing renovations. See the plans
The Gables movie experience is getting a makeover.
Coral Gables Art Cinema recently submitted final renovation plans to the city to add a second screen, a move that will increase how many movies it can play a year.
The long-awaited expansion project will give the art house a new 90-seat auditorium to play more films. The new location will be right next door to its existing space at 260 Aragon Ave. The city’s parking garage will be sandwiched between the two locations, giving movie fans nearby parking to both theaters.
“We’re programming like we have two screens already,” said Brenda Moe, the art house’s executive director and programming director, noting that the 141-seat theater in 2024 played 257 individual titles, with 1,145 screenings. “On a weekend, you can see between four to six different titles on our screen, which is phenomenal for single screen.”
The Coral Gables Art Cinema is known for playing digital and analog award-winning independent, foreign, avant-garde and classic films, including some that are curated by founder Steven Krams and Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan. It plays family-friendly movies like “Finding Nemo,” “Peter Pan” and “The Polar Express” on select weekends every month through its pay-what-you-can “Family Day on Aragon” program. It’s the only cinema with dedicated 70mm projectors in South Florida.
And it’s also not the only Gables theater getting an upgrade — the Bill Cosford Cinema at the University of Miami campus at 5030 Brunson Dr. also recently underwent renovations.
Cosford Cinema gets a new screen
The Cosford’s large 70-square-foot screen was upgraded in early July to a nearly 80-foot screen, continuing its reign as the largest screen of any one-screen art house in the Miami area, according to Rene Rodriguez, the theater’s general manager and former Miami Herald award-winning film critic and real estate reporter.
Also part of the 242-seat theater’s Knight Foundation grant-funded makeover: new curtains, new carpet and a sound system upgrade to 7.1 Dolby Digital Sound.
“Renovations are ultimately about a better presentation, and a better presentation is a better experience,” said Rodriguez.
More films coming to Coral Gables
At the Coral Gables Art Cinema, once the second auditorium opens, the art house could screen around 400 different films a year, Moe said. That means more movie options for the over 55,000 annual attendees that go to the cinema to catch a flick. The expansion project is expected to boost attendance to nearly 80,000, “with an expected economic impact of $3 million,” and also help the art house expand some of its existing programs, according to its website.
That includes its sensor-friendly screenings to make the cinematic experience more comfortable for people living with autism spectrum disorder and its “Unwind” program, which is meant to give children whose families are incarcerated, homeless or experiencing financial difficulties an opportunity to enjoy a day at the movies, according to its website.
A second screen is also expected to help the art house earn more revenue and keep it competitive with the seven other cinemas within a 3-mile radius, according to Moe. Distributors sometimes require a movie to be shown for several weeks, which can make it difficult to keep content fresh with only one screen, she said.
The Coral Gables Art Cinema is one of three movie theaters within the city of Coral Gables. The other two are The Landmark at Merrick Park, a luxury commercial theater, and the Cosford Cinema at UM.
At the Cosford, nearly all of its movies are free for everyone to watch. The cinema plays movies in different formats, including in 4K. It hosts special previews of upcoming movies, like its upcoming “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” movie preview in September. Other times, it screens movies that were recently in theaters, as well as classic films. On Sundays, the Cosford plays international films selected by Rodriguez. He says it’s like “inviting your friends over to watch this movie, except you’re watching it at the theater.”
Sometimes, well-known South Floridians like singer-actress Gloria Estefan and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava are invited to show a movie they like (they selected “Young Frankenstein” and “My Cousin Vinny,” respectively, in case you were wondering) and participate in a Q&A discussion.
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And there’s more to come. UM is currently fundraising for a larger-scale renovation of the theater.
“The renovation is going to be pretty radical. It’s going to change what the theater looks like on the inside,” said Rodriguez, who is also an adjunct film professor at UM.
“I want to focus on not just the choice of films, but just the best presentation possible, because that’s how the movies were designed to be seen,” he said.
What’s the status of Coral Gables Art Cinema’s expansion plans?
It’s too soon to say how long it will take for the Cosford and Coral Gables Art Cinema’s renovations to be complete. But movie theater renovations, like other construction projects, take time.
The Coral Gables Art Cinema expansion project at 240 Aragon Ave., for example, has been years in the making. It met its initial $1.5 million expansion fundraising goal in 2022. But the pandemic and construction-related delays have made the project pricier. The theater is hoping supporters will help it raise the remaining money it needs to hit its new $200,000 goal so it can “complete the project with integrity, not shortcuts,” according to a Facebook post.
“We’re offering our community an opportunity to support a beacon of culture from the ground floor, and that’s really exciting, and we’re so grateful to see incredible support that has sustained us for 15 years now and to expand that support into this second location,” said Moe.
The art house needs to wait for the city to approve its construction documents and find a contractor before the construction of its second location can begin.
Once the second site opens, movie fans will be able to walk into a new, larger lobby to buy tickets, popcorn, soda, wine and other movie snacks. There will be an 18-foot video wall and a vintage-inspired rotating window exhibit that will showcase Krams’ extensive collection of late 19th through 20th century cinema technology.
“It’s going to beautify Aragon,” said Moe. “It’s going to bring rich cinema history right to the sidewalk.”
This story was originally published August 8, 2025 at 2:23 PM.
