Kevin Smith buys a movie theater in NJ that inspired him as a kid

Filmmaker Kevin Smith buys the cinema that made him fall in love with filmmaking.

The 52-year-old native of Red Bank, New Jersey, buys the Atlantic Moviehouse in the Atlantic Highlands where his father took him as a child, sometimes allowing him to skip school for the experience.

The filmmaker, who announced the news on Instagram, is expected to finalize the deal on September 14 for the property, which he will own with his wife Jennifer Schwalbach Smith and other business partners.

His plans for the renovation of the 250-seat theatre, already renamed SModcastle Cinemas, include installing a mural in the lobby featuring characters from his films, which are set in New Jersey.

These include Clerks – which was filmed in convenience and video stores, where he worked in real life for $27,575 and made a whopping $3 million at the box office – Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma. .

He also pledged to host live shows, create a “Merry Marvel Movie Society” for fans of Marvel Studios releases, and open a film school on premises.

Smith also plans to live in the apartment above the theater, a twist on his childhood dream of living in a movie theater, he said in his post.

“This is certainly not an investment deal,” Smith told NJ Advance Media. “This is about owning a little piece of my personal film history, a edifice that helped forge the filmmaker I was destined to become.”