In a small West Village theater, Spike Lee’s laughter rang out as he snuck in the back to catch some of the humorous moments in his 2002 drama, 25th Hour.

“This film still holds up,” Lee said, later on the stage, sitting across from the film’s star, Edward Norton. Lee then asked how many people had seen the movie for the first time and looked out as half the theater raised their hands.

The screening was part of A24’s reopening week at the Cherry Lane Theatre, which kicked off Sept. 8 with the screening and includes a wide range of programming with other luminaries, including comedy with Jerrod Carmichael, a staged reading of True West, starring Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks, and a film screening of Foxes and Q&A with Sofia Coppola and Jodie Foster. 

The film studio purchased the Off-Broadway theater in 2023 and has since remodeled it in its indie cool image, replete with black-and-white photos from past theater productions, including Cecily Tyson, James Baldwin, Arthur Mitchell, and Harry Belafonte in To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which previously ran at the theater, and the addition of a small restaurant run by the Frenchette Group, designed as a mid-century bistro. The historic facade and signature red door still stand.

Cherry Lane has deep roots in the community, as it has been operating as a theater since 1924 and has welcomed productions including Sam Shepard’s True West in 1982 and more recently, Alex Edelman’s Just For Us. Norton noted that he had rehearsed Keeping the Faith, his directorial debut, at the theater.  

A24 plans to keep programming theatrical productions in the 167-seat theater, alongside other forms of entertainment, including music and a recurring film series and talkbacks hosted by Coppola. Natalie Palamides’ one-woman show Weer, in which each half of her body plays one of the roles in a male and female couple, will be the first long-run programming at the theater, with the show set for a five-week run starting Sept. 20. 

“We’re not announcing a season, per se. We’ll do traditional theater runs, but also spontaneous music, film, comedy, conversation, one-night only special events,” said Dani Rait, a former Saturday Night Live booker who has been hired to program the theater. 

The film studio is a producer on Weer, but will not be a producer on all works at the theater, with the decision being made on a show-by-show basis. 

A24’s decision to acquire an Off-Broadway theater — at a price tag of $10 million — follows Audible, the audiobook company owned by Amazon, which began leasing the Minetta Lane Theatre in 2018 and puts on live performances there that are often recorded and later offered on its platform. Netflix has also moved into the real estate business, after acquiring movie theaters in New York and Los Angeles, where it screens its own programming and hosts special events. 

A24 is unlikely to hold premieres of its films at the theater, given its small size, and unlikely to make a big profit on the holding, as it is setting a goal of having accessible ticket pricing, depending on the event. The works running at the theater are also not viewed as shoe-ins for adaptation by A24, but it is a possibility. 

The bigger idea is to have A24 move into live experiences, in part, as a brand extension, but also as a means to have artists they’ve previously worked with put shows on the stage and to discover new voices. Many creatives who have worked with A24, including Euphoria’s Jeremy O. Harris, Sing Sing’s Coleman Domingo and Moonlight’s Tarell Alvin McCraney have roots in the theater world. 

Lured by the cheaper economics and the opportunity to present their own works, producers have also been scooping up Off-Broadway real estate with prolific Broadway producer Seaview Productions leasing the former Tony Kiser Theater in midtown and No Guarantees Productions, backed by Christine Schwarzman, wife of the CEO of the Blackstone Group, taking over the Astor Place Theater, former longtime home to Blue Man Group.

A24 has not dictated what kind of programming should be at the theater. Rait and her team are frequently talking to artists and seeing shows in London and at Edinburgh Fringe (where Weer originated) and elsewhere to find future bookings. While the stage is small, the shows themselves will not be limited to just one-person offerings. 

“We don’t really have a mandate or guardrails for programming, quality is the only unifier, and we just want to give talent and amazing voices an opportunity to share their stories,” Rait said. 

Over the summer, the theater hosted a series of private events to prepare for the big reopening including stand-up comedy by Ramy Youssef and Alex Edelman and HAIM previewing their new album I Quit.

At the moment, the only obvious sign the theater is owned by A24, other than the cultivated atmosphere, is the presence of “A24 movie candy bars” at the theater concessions. 

Many of the reopening week artists also had a connection with A24, with Lee’s most recent film, Highest 2 Lowest, produced in part by the studio.

After reminiscing about how Norton had his nose broken during filming after his costar Barry Pepper accidentally punched him in the face during what was meant to be a choreographed fight scene, the actor turned to Lee and asked how his filmmaking had changed in the decades since the film.

“I’ve got more money!” Lee said.