Rosebud Cinema in Wauwatosa sets plans to reopen after being closed since 2020

Chris Foran, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Updated ·2 min read
The Rosebud Cinema, 6823 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa, has been closed since March 17, 2020, when gathering places were shut down amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The theater's website indicates it will reopen "soon."
The Rosebud Cinema, 6823 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa, has been closed since March 17, 2020, when gathering places were shut down amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The theater's website indicates it will reopen "soon."

It looks like Rosebud Cinema in Wauwatosa has a reopening date.

According to the website of Neighborhood Theatre Group, which operates the Rosebud in Wauwatosa as well as the Times Cinema and Avalon Theater in Milwaukee, the Rosebud is listed as "closed" from Jan. 26, 2023, to Jan. 8, 2024; in early January 2024, the "closed" date was changed to Feb. 2. A notation initially said the theater would reopen Jan. 9; later, the language was changed to read that it "will be opening soon."

Like all of the Milwaukee area's movie theaters, the Rosebud, 6823 W. North Ave., closed down in March 2020 as part of the COVID-19 shutdown. Despite a few false starts, the theater has not reopened since.

In September, a community meeting was called at the theater to discuss ways to revive the Rosebud. At the time, organizer Dave Celata said the "Rosebud Community Nonprofit Meeting" was designed as a preliminary conversation to explore options for the theater, including the idea of having it operated as a nonprofit movie theater. Lee Barczak, who with his wife, Jane Schilz, owns Neighborhood Theatre Group, was part of the meeting, and at the time outlined the challenges for reopening, including staffing and needed upgrades at the theater.

Barczak didn't respond to a query on the January reopening Thursday. In an email sent to people interested in the Rosebud effort earlier in November, Celata wrote that Barczak "was able to find the right staffing and shift some things across his three theaters to make a go of it in the near term," but that a "different long-term solution" — such as leasing the theater to a community-based nonprofit — likely would be needed.

Built in 1931 as the Tosa Theatre, the Rosebud is one of the Milwaukee area's last single-screen movie theaters. The others are its sister theater the Times and the Rivoli Theatre in Cedarburg.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Rosebud Cinema, closed since the COVID pandemic, sets plans to reopen