Marco Island's First Season Without Marco Movies, and Where Its Night Out Went

For 32 years, Marco Walk Plaza at 599 South Collier Boulevard had three screens showing first-run films, and a food menu came with the ticket. The theater opened in 1993 and billed itself as "America's Original First Run Food Theater."

That option closed at the end of April. This is the island's first winter season without it, and evenings out on Marco now work on a different schedule. What's left on the island happens on set dates, mostly behind one red door in Marco Town Center. A movie on short notice now starts with a 17-mile drive.

The Theater That Outlasted Irma and Ian

Marco Movies announced on April 3 that it would close, and the Marco Eagle reported that hundreds of people commented on the post. Many had been going to the theater since the mid-1990s. Some asked whether it was an April Fool's joke. One commenter remembered the owners letting San Marco Church show movies there during Lent.

The same article noted how much the theater had been through. It stayed in business after Hurricane Irma in 2017 and after Hurricane Ian passed through the Gulf nearby in 2022. It also closed when the pandemic began in March 2020 and reopened that June. WINK News reported that rising occupancy costs and fewer moviegoers drove the closure. Owner Drake Heroy told WINK that independent cinemas and businesses were struggling with those costs.

In an April 7 email to the Naples Daily News, quoted in the Marco Eagle's closing story, Heroy, identified there as the theater's general manager, left room for another outcome:

"Currently, we are set to permanently close with no successor; however, I'm open to all possibilities if there is a chance to continue."

Gift cards had to be used by April 28, and the last day of operation was expected to be April 29.

The Red Door Next to Marco Brewery

Most of what's left of evening entertainment on the island runs through Marco Island Center for the Arts. Its stage productions are at the Arts Center Theatre in Marco Town Center, 1089 North Collier Boulevard, Suite 432. The center's directions say it's next to Marco Brewery and to look for the red door. Mainstage tickets are $35 for members and $40 for non-members unless a show's listing says otherwise.

This works very differently from a cinema. Each production plays for a set run of weekends and then closes, and the next show doesn't open for weeks. The 2026–2027 season posted on the center's site lists these mainstage runs:

• Packing Up Polly, November 5–22, 2026, by Leslie Kimbell, directed by Hyla Crane
• FLOAT, December 9–20, 2026, by Patricia Kane, directed by Amy Saad
• Death Trap, January 7–24, 2027
• The Red Velvet Cake Wars, February 4–21, 2027
• Sandbag, Stage Left (Or, One Dead Dolly), March 4–21, 2027
• Ben Hur (an epic comedy), April 1–18, 2027

Packing Up Polly opened November 5 and is now in its second week. The play follows a daughter who comes home to Savannah to pack up the house of her late mother, a 1970s gospel singer who never threw anything away. Her three high school friends show up unannounced to help. FLOAT opens December 9. It's set at a women's club's annual tradition of building a float for the holiday parade.

The box office number is 239-784-1186, and it's staffed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. On performance weekends, the box office opens half an hour before curtain. A cinema showed films every night, but these runs end on fixed dates. Packing Up Polly closes November 22, and nothing new opens on the mainstage until December 9.

Two Addresses, One Organization

The same nonprofit also books music and comedy, and some of it happens at a second address. Its Musical Interludes series is listed at the center's main campus, 1010 Winterberry Drive, not at the Town Center theater. Check the address on your ticket before you leave home.

Here's what's on the island's screen and stage calendar from publish day through December:

The Musical Interludes lineup continues into spring. Comedy and Tragedy is January 21, Julie Patchouli: Landscape of Guitar is January 28, the Ben Rosenblum Jazz Trio is February 2, and Peter and Will Anderson Jazz is February 16. Glenn Roth plays March 4, Italian American Dream with Analisa and John is March 16, and Brazilian Voices closes the series on April 7, 2027.

Film Became an Occasion

Movies are still shown on Marco, but now they're one-night events instead of a nightly schedule. This fall, the clearest example was the 29th annual Manhattan Short Film Festival, which screened at Marco Island Center for the Arts on October 2 and 3. The Marco Eagle's preview described the program as 10 films from 10 countries. Audience members filled out ballots that counted toward the festival's awards.

The next screening on the calendar is outdoors. The City of Marco Island's Movie in the Park shows Zootopia at Mackle Park on Friday, November 20. The listing runs from 5:50 to 8 p.m. It's a family movie on a lawn, which makes for a very different evening than a dine-in theater on Collier Boulevard did. For now, it's the island's most direct link to the old habit of walking into a movie on a Friday night.

The Drive to Coastland Center

For a new release on a weeknight, the trip now goes up the mainland. The Marco Eagle named CMX CinéBistro Coastland at Coastland Center as the closest movie theater to Marco, about 17 miles away.

The other option the paper listed was Regal Naples 4DX & IMAX at 6006 Hollywood Drive, about three miles north of the mall. For a large-format release, Regal is the place, and it adds a few more minutes north on the same trip.

Hosting family this season and building their week around Marco Island evenings? I'm glad to share what I know about the island, from where the shows happen to how each part of Marco lives day to day. When you're curious what your own place on the island is worth this season, Holly Fagan can help. Request Your Personalized Home Valuation.