Model and Strategy
The Roxie Theater exists to ignite and sustain a rich cinema culture in the city of San Francisco. Built in 1913 and one of the oldest continuously operating cinemas in the country, the Roxie is a gathering place for local, national, and international filmmakers and film lovers, offering year-round film and community programming in a historic 233-seat main theater and a 47-seat microcinema in the heart of the city’s Mission District.
“We believe cinema is today’s version of people telling stories around the campfire and that films don’t just reflect us – they can change us. Film has the power to build community, tell impactful stories, and grow viewers' relationships with the world.” — Lex Sloan, Executive Director
The Roxie Theater curates a program of 500+ unique films annually, including first-run independent films, foreign films, documentaries, and rare films. Its film programming includes retrospectives, film festivals, and special series like RoxCine, which highlights Latinx and Spanish-speaking filmmakers. The theater supports emerging filmmakers through its Filmmaker Services Program, offering sliding-scale resources such as test screenings, fine-cut screenings, and feedback sessions. Committed to preserving the art of celluloid screenings, the Roxie regularly screens 35mm and 16mm films and consistently trains new projectionists in this highly skilled craft.
As a community hub with over 1,500 members, the Roxie fosters conversations that extend beyond the screen through post-screening discussions, special events, and partnerships with local organizations. Its “Movies for All” initiative provides discounted tickets to low-income audiences, ensuring that film is accessible regardless of financial circumstances.
Today, The Roxie Theater has the opportunity to purchase its building, solidifying its historic permanence on 16th and Valencia Street and ensuring that it remains a vibrant cinema hub in San Francisco's public life. To achieve this goal, The Roxie has launched its first-ever capital campaign, which will support the purchase of the cinema and help sustain community-driven programming. The campaign goal of $7,000,000 will underwrite building acquisition (including closing costs, due diligence, and advisors); a building and technology improvement fund to support immediate and future building needs; and a programming and operations fund to ensure long-term sustainability and grow organizational capacity. Now over halfway to its goal, the Roxie intends to close on the building purchase in May 2025.
Impact
The Roxie Theater has been an anchor in the Mission District for over a century, Through its commitment to sustaining cinema culture in San Francisco over many decades, the Roxie has become a beloved cultural institution, an essential part of Bay Area cinema history, and an irreplaceable landmark. From the boom times pre-pandemic to current-day recovery, the Roxie also has played an important role in helping sustain local businesses and contributing to the vibrant character of the Mission District, a key cultural and economic corridor within San Francisco.
While over 40 single-screen theaters in the city have shuttered since the 1980s — and independent movie theaters continue to struggle in the face of streaming and competition from corporate multiplexes — the Roxie’s business is booming. Despite being closed for over 400 days during the COVID pandemic, the Roxie emerged stronger, embracing innovation through virtual cinema, pop-up drive-ins, and satellite screenings for the Sundance Film Festival. Today, attendance figures have fully bounced back to pre-pandemic numbers. (The Roxie is one of, if not the, only Bay Area independent theater that can make this claim.) In 2023:
- Over 80,000 patrons entered the theater.
- Membership grew to 1,000 members—a figure that reached 1,500 in 2024. Membership has doubled in size since the theater reopened in May 2021.
- The theater provided an affordable venue for over 60 community-based organizations
Perhaps no initiative illustrates Roxie's impact better than RoxCine, the year-round screening series amplifying stories from Spanish-speaking countries and Latinx artists. Over the last decade, RoxCine has championed many films with great artistic merit, from political documentaries to independent titles without US distribution. Films programmed for RoxCine represent many intersectional identities, including LGBTQ+, disabled, immigrant stories, and other often marginalized voices. A notable recent addition to RoxCine's programming is a series with the San Francisco Public Library that offers free community screenings paired with library card signups and book giveaways. A priority of RoxCine is to advance and sustain the careers of filmmakers whose opportunities to engage in the media arts field are limited by geography and ethnicity. This is done through financially supporting travel, stipends, and curatorial fees. New community partnerships, increased ticket sales, a growing number of paid artists, and expanded diversity among patrons are evidence of RoxCine’s ongoing impact.
Leadership
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Lex Sloan
Executive Director
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Isabel Fondevila
Director of Programming
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Maida Lynn
Board Co-Chair
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Liz O'Malley
Board Co-Chair