Basalt Lost Its Movie Theater. Here's Where the Midvalley Goes to the Movies This Fall.

"I do think something's going to happen on that site, because right now it's kind of an eyesore," Basalt councilman Rick Stevens said of the former Movieland 7 property in El Jebel, as reported by the Aspen Daily News. Then he voted with the rest of the council to deny the hotel proposed there.

That vote came on Tuesday, Oct. 13. Where the midvalley watches movies has been taking shape for two years, mostly downvalley in Carbondale and upvalley in Aspen. In both places, the screens that are still running are the ones a nonprofit chose to carry.

What the Council Turned Down

Movieland 7 opened in 1991 and closed in January. Ben Moss, owner of Bow Tie Partners, which operated the theater and owns the property, said it had closed "after years of economic unviability," according to the Aspen Daily News.

Bow Tie and WalshDupart, a Denver hospitality real estate investment firm, applied to tear down the theater building and turn its footprint into parking. They would then build a three-story, 93-room Marriott franchise on the existing lot on the south side, which borders El Jebel's City Market. The applicants pitched it as a more affordable option than the high-end lodging upvalley.

The Basalt Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial, and the council voted 4–0 against it. Public comment centered on traffic, light and the project's relationship to the neighboring Sopris Village neighborhood. Some speakers also described the closure as the loss of a community third space. "As a council, we get to be choosy about what gets developed here," councilwoman Angela Anderson-Ward said at the meeting.

Mayor David Knight said he did not believe a hotel was "an appropriate use for this site." In a statement to the paper, the applicants said they were disappointed and that the project would have brought revenue, business activity and nine affordable housing units. They gave no plans for the property.

So the building is still standing and still dark, with no movies.

The Screens That Survived Had Someone Choose Them

Movieland was the midvalley's commercial multiplex, and it is the theater that closed. The two historic single-venue theaters on either side of Basalt came close to the same fate, and both were kept open by organizations that decided to carry them.

In Aspen, Aspen Film told City Council in January 2025 that the Isis Theatre, a movie house since 1912, could close for good that year without significant fundraising and changes to how it operated. By that August, the Aspen Daily News reported that the board had raised enough to keep it running and buy time for a long-term plan. Aspen Film also dropped earlier ideas such as selling naming rights and turning the main level into retail.

In Carbondale, longtime owners Bob and Kathy Ezra put the Crystal Theatre up for sale. Kate Schwerin, at the time a devoted patron, began asking strangers whether they wanted to buy a movie theater with her. Will Grandbois, a part-time employee there for more than a decade, suggested forming a nonprofit. Schwerin told the Post Independent that the independent theaters they consulted, starting with the Majestic in Crested Butte, pointed to the same model: "Nine times out of 10, they are already nonprofits." The Crystal Theatre Alliance officially took over operations in September 2025, according to the Sopris Sun.

That ownership model shapes what's on the screen. The Alliance said from the start that it planned to add live performances, a speaker series and youth programming. For someone in Basalt, going to the movies now means watching a calendar of events rather than a weekly showtime grid.

A Weeknight at the Crystal Now

The Crystal still runs a regular feature on a short weekend schedule, with tickets sold at the door. The mid-October feature was scheduled for Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Oct. 17 through 19, with a captioned 5 p.m. show on Sunday. Around that feature, the Crystal's own listings show what the Alliance meant by "a lot more."

• Train to Busan, 10th anniversary, Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. Part of the theater's "Spooktober" series. Tickets at the door.
• Madre Ceiba, Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. A short film by local filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer Sylvia Johnson, set on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast. It's followed by a bilingual panel on living with wildlife in the Roaring Fork Valley, with Wilderness Workshop and Roaring Fork Safe Passages.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Friday, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31. Times and tickets had not been posted as of this week.

The Crystal also showed that it can work with Aspen Film. The 47th Filmfest ran at the Isis Sept. 29 through Oct. 4, and on Oct. 4 two encore screenings came downvalley to the Crystal, "The American Dream" and "Time Warp." The Sopris Sun described the arrangement as a reignited collaboration.

Closer to Home, the Arts Campus Fills the Gap

The closest screen to the old Movieland site is at The Arts Campus at Willits, and TACAW's late-October lineup follows the Crystal's pattern. Its screenings are scheduled nights, and most of them come with something extra.

The Girl Winter Film Tour is a program of five women-centric short ski films, followed by a Q&A and a poster signing. On Oct. 25, Spooky Screens is part of TACAW's Youth Arts Pass program. It's a seated show, and anyone under 16 must come with a legal guardian. The Nov. 13 movie night features comedians Adam Cayton-Holland, Rory Scovel and Ben Roy, who bring a film to talk over the whole time. The calendar doesn't say which film, and that's part of the joke. Tickets are limited to four per purchase, and all sales are final.

Halloween Weekend Has Two Rocky Horrors

Halloween weekend shows the valley's new movie map most clearly. The Rocky Horror Picture Show plays at TACAW on Friday, Oct. 30, at 8 p.m. It's an 18-and-over seated show with $20 general admission, and photo ID is required. The Crystal has the same film on Friday and Saturday, with times still to come. A Basalt household that missed Willits on Friday can catch it in Carbondale on Saturday, and the reverse works too. When Movieland was open, that choice would have come down to which auditorium in El Jebel had the late show.

Upvalley, the Isis Keeps Two Roles

The Isis is the closest the valley still has to a conventional cinema. Aspen Film's page for the theater says Bow Tie Management, a commercial theater operator, handles day-to-day operations, and that the theater is committed to "an exciting mix of first-run releases, independent films, and other thought-provoking programming." Showtimes are on the Isis ticketing site. So the Bow Tie name from the Old Orchard Plaza application also runs the projectors in downtown Aspen, on a building a nonprofit chose to save.

The Isis also does the event-style programming. After Filmfest, Aspen Film is presenting The Met: Live in HD there, and Carmen screens as an encore at 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13. That puts opera in Aspen at midday and comedians talking over a movie in Willits on the same date.

What Comes Next at Old Orchard Plaza

The record so far shows a few concrete things.

1. Stevens moved to continue the hearing to the council's Nov. 10 meeting. That motion failed 3–1, so there will be no Nov. 10 continuation of this application.
2. Moss told the council that when the developers first studied the site two years ago, they also looked at a mix of food service and retail. He said that option was economically viable but "not particularly interesting to us."
3. In their statement after the vote, the applicants did not say what they would propose next.

Until a new application comes in, the closest movies to El Jebel are on the TACAW calendar, starting with the Girl Winter Film Tour at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 22.

Midvalley questions like what replaces a landmark, which venues are holding on and what an empty parcel means for the blocks around it are the ones Steven Shane follows closely in Basalt and El Jebel. If you'd like a grounded read on how changes like Old Orchard Plaza could shape your corner of the valley, Work With Steven Shane.