New movie theater to open this week in Cary featuring international films
Lotus Cinemas — a niche-market movie theater featuring art, independent and international films — will open this week in Cary’s Parkside Town Commons shopping center.
Parkside will host the first Lotus location — part of an effort by Paragon Theaters, its parent company, to promote underrepresented films. The four-auditorium theater is adjacent to Paragon’s, which opened in December.
“We recognize there is a big arts community in this area,” said Jared Comess, vice president of marketing and public relations at Paragon Entertainment. “We want to bring a lot of indie and foreign films, Bollywood especially considering some of Cary’s demographics.”
Almost 20% of Cary residents identify themselves as Asian, according to the 2020 American Community Survey conducted by the US Census Bureau. In Morrisville, more than 39% of respondents said they were Asian.
For its opening night, Lotus will premiere “RRR” — a Bollywood film some predict could be the highest grossing Indian production of all time. For future showings, Lotus will partner with film studios, producers, directors and local organizations, such as the Raleigh Film Festival, to secure and promote unique content.
“The population here is so diverse with Asian and Indian communities and others from around the world,” said Sharon Patterson, a spokesperson for the Lotus project. “So we thought, ‘Why not give a dedicated space for films from those cultures?’”
The theater’s concessions will rotate to represent food and drink popular in different cultures.
“We’ll try to tailor it for the specific films,” Comess said, “like, maybe masala popcorn with Indian films or crepes with French films. It’ll vary depending on the movie.”
Comess was unsure if the Parkside Lotus would be a standalone concept, or if more Lotus Theaters could open in the future. Paragon announced last year it would open a second Cary theater at Fenton, an $850 million retail project on Cary Towne Boulevard. Comess and Patterson could not confirm if Fenton’s theater would include a Lotus Cinema.
“We don’t know yet if this will be Lotus 1.0 and there will be others,” Comess said. “We’re trying it out.”
Like all movie theaters, Lotus and Paragon must contend with popular streaming services and ongoing apprehension from some would-be moviegoers to visit public places. To entice reluctant attendees, Lotus tickets are starting at $6.
“We know people are still getting used to going back to the movies,” Comess said. “But we think there’s really nothing else like this in the area and we want people to feel like they’re catered to with this dedicated space.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 2:27 PM.
