Graphic by Brenda Delgado
New York City’s AMC Kips Bay theater didn’t know what hit them.
On January 6th, 2023, a group of 170 women, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people descended onto the movie theater, parading out of the Irish pub across the street and into the theater lobby. Although they had fun at their happy hour, the main event was yet to begin. They were here for the 7 p.m. showing of M3GAN, the science fiction horror film that has captured the hearts of the internet. They bought their popcorn, praised the movie poster of their animatronic killer queen, snapped a group picture and made their way to their seats.
“We knew we were seeing M3GAN on Jan. 6, but we didn’t know when or where,” shared Kaite Hubler. “The evening was planned, and the promo graphic was made. Once tickets were available, we MOVED.”
23-year-old Kaite Hubler (she/her) is the force behind this gaggle of gals and pals, formally known as The Cinema Sorority. A self described “femme-forward film club” based in New York City, The Cinema Sorority (TCS) seeks to create a welcoming and comforting space for women, non-binary and gender non-conforming people who love the movies, crave community and are simply tired of film bros.
And of course, it started in the way all modern strokes of genius begin these days: with a viral TikTok.
It’s tradition for Kaite and her friends to go to the movies every Sunday — no matter if they’re hungover or half asleep, they make their way to their AMC of choice with a large coffee and the lust for a good story. Kaite took to TikTok to share this experience on one of their Sunday outings, and the video gained a ton of traction. To date, the video has 200.1K views, 20.5k likes, and a shitload of comments, all with a common theme:
It’s a tale as old as time: person dreams of moving to New York City. Person finally bites the bullet and makes the jump from their small hometown to The Big Apple. Person moves into a shoebox apartment with an ungodly rent, prepared to “take the city by storm.” Person soon realizes that even with their scrappy personality, can-do attitude, and the over eight million people who live around them, New York City is fucking lonely.
As someone who moved from their home state to New York City, Kaite understood the struggle to find community in such a large, bustling city. She took the comments to heart, and decided to do something about it.
Kaite made a group on the Geneva app, a social messaging app that helps people stay connected through groups about shared interests and passions. She started sharings the access link with people who indicated interest, not really knowing what would happen, but setting low expectations:
“Even if only 40 people joined, but two became friends, that’s fucking sick!”
It’s done that, and then some.
The first official club outing was to Don’t Worry Darling, the 2022 film directed by Olivia Wilde, who’s on-set romance and drama with popstar Harry Styles was eaten up by the media for the duration of the movie’s production and release. It was the perfect “wave to ride,” as Kaite put it. This September 2022 release was at the crux of film anticipation, celebrity gossip and fan culture, which overlapped nicely with the interests of The Cinema Sorority and the people in it.
Kaite polled the group for an ideal day and time for a movie watch party. She also coordinated the first TCS “after party” by renting out a nearby bar. 100 people showed up to the event.
“Every time a person walked into the bar and introduced themselves as ‘I’m so and so,’ I was like ‘NO WAY, that’s you from the Geneva chat!’”
Kaite realized very quickly she couldn’t take on this project alone. The current Vice President, Mari Jacobson, reached out early on, even before the “Don’t Worry Darling” outing, to express her interest in the initiative. With experience from participating and leading an actual sorority, Mari had ideas on how to scale up The Cinema Sorority by modeling it on the very thing that inspired the second half of its name. Together, Kaite and Mari built an executive board with members who believed in the mission and wanted to take on roles just because they were passionate about the concept. In many cases, these members had direct experience to the responsibilities of their role, which was just an added benefit in Kaite’s eyes: “Why am I going to be doing this if there are people with experience who want to do this?”
Today, there are 15 board members who run all aspects of The Cinema Sorority, but they are always expanding to create new committees based on people’s interests and requests. Of course, this one-of-a-kind, fully volunteer passion project comes with its challenges, but Kaite leads by keeping it all in perspective: “This is a movie club. We were all going through shit during the holidays, and I was like ‘let’s just take a step back’ … Sometimes I’m putting in 40 hours a week, and other times I’m like ‘I can’t do this right now.’”
Kaite is right — it is just a movie club. But that doesn’t diminish the club’s impact on it’s community, including herself:
“As someone who spent a lot of time going to movies alone, it’s really nice to have something like this in a city so big, where the stakes are so low for social interaction. I’m a social person, but also a natural introvert. [And through The Cinema Sorority], I’ve been able to make friends.”
And with over 500 active members after only five months since the Geneva chat was first created, many agree.
Kaite believes there are two reasons that make this club so popular. First, it’s extremely low stakes. Being able to enjoy other people’s company for an average of two hours without having to make actual conversation? The dream for introverts, socially anxious individuals, and those with low social batteries everywhere. Even the absolute worst-case scenario, as Kaite described, is not so awful. You could show up to a movie meet-up, hate every single person, and leave without talking to them ever again.
Second, the movie theater is a familiar space. No matter where you’re from, chances are you’ve stepped into a movie theater at some point. While the actual theater may differ, the smell of buttery popcorn and sugary slushies remains the same. It’s a piece of home, of childhood memories, of comfort. And in a city as big and daunting as New York City, it’s nice to have that familiarity.
When The Cinema Sorority first began, the primary focus was on moving outings, and the secondary focus on community. At first, every official movie outing included a secondary “high stakes” community event — meaning a space for more contact and conversation, such as a happy hour or café date. But as the club continued to grow, members wanted more opportunity to build community — with or without a trip to the movies. Now, the board includes event coordinator volunteers who organize community events. The Cinema Sorority’s large events coordinator, Lauren Majid (who, fun fact, is the one who recruited me to The Cinema Sorority during a networking event last fall), works with a team of volunteers to plan large-scale events for the whole club to enjoy; most incredulously, this includes a raging 200-person Halloween party hosted last October at a bar, and most recently, the M3GAN happy hour and watch party. There are also small event leaders covering some of the most active NYC neighborhoods with TCS membership to organize smaller neighborhood adventures; for example, the Upper West Side group rides HARD for bar trivia.
While texting with some TCS members about their experience with the club, the appreciation for community really shone through.
“I found TCS in August 2022 through Kaite’s original TikTok,” TCS member Ashley shares. “Being new to New York, I remember liking the TikTok but having a ping of jealousy because I couldn’t wait to have a group of girls to go to the movies with and hangout with every weekend … little did I know what Kaite and TCS had in store for me. Finding community in a big city can be really hard. In TCS I’ve found friendship, humor and a true sense of sisterhood.”
TCS member Khara, who also serves as a small events leader on the board, feels similarly to Ashely: “I found TCS through a tiktok at the end of August … by then there was already 50 or so members in the chat. I had been in NYC for six months and really wanted to make friends. It’s also great because it’s moved beyond just a “movie club” and I’ve gone to concerts, clubbing, Governor’s Island, plays, comedy shows [and more] with girls from the group. [My] favorite moments have been when I saw 5SOS at the Today Show with three other members and then also the M3GAN viewing. It had been a while since all the members saw each other so it felt like a family reunion.”
This rapid growth has come with its own set of challenges. Hosting more community events meant needing to create safety protocols in order to protect its members. At the end of the day, The Cinema Sorority is built on a virtual community, which assumes the risks of the internet creeps and freaks our parents and teachers warned us about that we scoffed off — but it’s a real risk, and the TCS wants to exercise precaution as members go from texting buddies to irl friends. The board just recently implemented a verification system for all members: in order to be added to the Geneva group, you need to provide a form of identity to prove you are who you say you are.
Another challenge is one more difficult to navigate: criticism regarding The Cinema Sorority’s name, and what it reveals about their claimed inclusivity. Despite describing itself as a “welcoming space for all women, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people,” the “sorority” name draws criticism because of traditional Greek life’s lack of diversity and inclusivity with identities such as race, sexual orientation and gender identity. This is compounded by the demographics of the club. A scroll through their pictures from movie outings and other events reveals that membership skews majority white-passing members, and the Board of Directors is 66% white-passing. And with a sticker slogan that reads “here’s the to the ladies who go to the movies,” it is understandable that some may be hesitant about the club.
Although the use of the“sorority” name is an intended satirical effort to reclaim the word, Kaite recognizes this concern, and thus works towards inclusivity through multiple initiatives. From founding a DEI chair member and committee, to creating exclusive Geneva chat channels for BIPOC and LGBT+ members, as well as planning initiatives to support the communities that have been historically marginalized by sororities, The Cinema Sorority actively works towards creating the space it aims to be. And of course, the board is always willing to learn; in fact, a form has been created for members to express suggestions on how the club could do better.
These efforts don’t necessarily fully ameliorate diversity and inclusivity concerns. Branded language and membership demographics are the first lines of contact with TCS’s audience, and may turn away potential members because of lack of clarity about who is accepted and represented in this space. Clearly, this is a long term struggle, and current efforts to make the club as inclusive and diverse as possible are just the starting point.
But perhaps the biggest critique of this club is one not expressed in the group chats, but written in the headlines — why build a club around a “dying” industry?
And to that Kaite says: “the movies are not dead … we can argue it is dying, but a lot of things that died 20 years ago are reborn again. We’re wearing jelly shoes, aren’t we?”
That’s certainly up for factual debate.
It’s no secret that movie theaters have been struggling to keep up with our culture — Insider was reporting on the decline of U.S. movie-goers in 2015, almost 10 years ago. There are many reasons for the decline of what was once America’s favorite pastime. Streaming services are perhaps the biggest, and most obvious, reason for the death of movies: why should film fanatics leave the comfort of their own home when they have access to thousands of selections via streaming services from the comfort of their own living room? In addition to comfortability, streaming services are more affordable — which is saying something, considering various platforms have hiked their prices in recent years. The average price of a movie theater ticket in 2021 was $9.57, while Netflix’s second-tier membership plan, “basic,” costs $9.99 to access their entire catalog in your area. And remember, that $9.57 price is an average — at my nearest AMC in the Upper West Side, an adult ticket costs about $25 per movie. Tragic.
Companies recognize the power and profitability of streaming services, and in recent years, many have decided to limit, or even completely forgo, theatrical releases in favor of streaming. “Glass Onions: A Knives Out Mystery” only had a week-long theatrical release in November 2022 before Netflix began streaming the movie the following month; the comedy thriller Fresh featuring A-Listers like Daisy Edgar Jones and Sebastian Stan was a Hulu original that streamed exclusively on the platform (and is one of the many examples of streaming services creating their own original content).
And all of this has been compounded by the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Who woulda thunk.
Of course, there are still those that are hopeful that movies are coming back (myself included), particularly following summer 2022 as movies like “Elvis” and “Top Gun: Maverick” brought Americans back to the theater — heck, “Minions: The Rise of Gru” mobilized Gen Z youth everywhere to “set the record of achieving the biggest July 4th opening weekend ever, surpassing the previous record-holder of Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), which brought in a 4-day total of $115.9 million.” Including myself, and I can confirm it totally ruled.
Although it’s too early to tell if this trend will continue through hard cold data, I believe Kaite’s support for movie theaters captures a sentiment that is slowly reinfecting our culture — at least, the culture of 20-to-30 something year olds living in a major metropolitan city.
“It’s like Harry Styles said, ‘I like the movie because it feels like a movie,” exclaimed Kaite passionately. “How special is it that you can sit with a large Diet Coke and popcorn in a dark room [and watch a movie]?”
So true, Kaite. It is special. And remembering what makes it special points to why The Cinema Sorority is successful — movies achieve one of the most incredible feats known to mankind. It brings together people who have never crossed paths before into one (mostly) silent room for a certain duration of time, all for the appreciation of a craft, a specific actor, a story, a director, a [insert whatever gets you into a movie seat here] — as Nicole Kidman puts it in her AMC Theatres opening monologue, “there is just “that indescribable feeling we get when the light begin to dim… [and somehow we are] reborn together.”
And to the 20-to-30 something year olds of varying marginalized gender identities, the movies and TCS community are an escape. For approximately two hours and change, Kaite — and the rest of the members — don’t have to field inquiries about dating or relationship statuses that seem to plague every other social scene in the city, or navigate the pressure to perform “femininity” and “attractiveness” for the benefit of larger society. Kaite laughs, “God forbid I have interests outside of getting fucked up and going home with someone … I’m going to show up [to the movies] in an XL hoodie [and know that] everyone here fucks with each other.”
It’s sustained willingness, friendliness, mutual respect and shared excitement for movies and community that makes this club as impressive, and successful, as it is. As a young adult who grew up glued to her phone, I’ve watched group chats come and go — but it seems like The Cinema Sorority Geneva will never die. When I checked my phone the morning I typed this very sentence, I had about 140 notifications that accumulated over 2-3 days from the various groups I joined in the Geneva chat. Whether it’s film fanatics gushing over the Golden Globe awards, girl bosses swapping opportunities in the networking channel, or members planning the next official TCS outing to “80s for Brady”, The Cinema Sorority is thriving.
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To join The Cinema Sorority, navigate here and follow instructions.