Kevin Smith expands business empire with Atlantic Highlands movie theater purchase
We might have to start referring to Kevin Smith as the Boss in Monmouth County. The Red Bank-born, Highlands-raised filmmaker and podcast impresario is expanding his entrepreneurial footprint.
Smith is already the proprietor of Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash comic book shop in Red Bank and the SModcastle podcast theater in the Leonardo section of Middletown. He’s set to become the co-owner of the downtown Atlantic Highlands movie theater currently operating as the Atlantic Moviehouse, which will be re-christened SModcastle Cinemas this fall.
“It’s one more clubhouse to play at, one more thing to feel good about, playing as an adult,” Smith told the Asbury Park Press on Monday. “I’ve got no purpose in this world except to distract people from the fact that they’re going to (expletive) drop dead one day like everybody, so this is a great way to do it – not only making the movies, but now there’s a place to show them as well.”
Smith first revealed the news during a live episode of his and Jason Mewes’ “Jay and Silent Bob Get Old" podcast on Aug. 2 at the theater. Smith and his wife, Jen Schwalbach, are purchasing the theater alongside Ashley DiGennaro, co-owner of memorabilia and collectible business Leeloo Multiprops, and fellow Bayshore natives Ernie O’Donnell and Jeff Swanton.
The new owners are scheduled to close on the property in mid-September. Smith plans to host the "CLERKS: Open All Night" triple-feature ? an overnight screening of his “Clerks” trilogy ? at the theater on Oct. 8, followed by a breakfast catered by the Quick Stop convenience store. The venue will host the inaugural SModcastle Film Festival from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4.
Historic theater's next act
Smith and his partners bought the property from Frederick Rast, the former Atlantic Highlands mayor. Rast declined to disclose the sales price, but the theater and adjacent building he owned were listed for $2.6 million.
The new ownership group shores up a movie theater that was on shaky ground.
The five-screen theater on First Avenue dates to the early 1920s. Rast himself worked as an usher there some 60 years ago, eventually partnering with Leonard "Lenny" Edwards, and then buying it outright after Edwards died in 2012.
The small-town theater gave the borough a calling card, and survived even as movie-goers gravitated to suburban multiplexes - until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, sending people home in isolation, where they entertained themselves with streaming services.
Rast closed the theater and, with retirement calling, put the properties up for sale. Finding a buyer shouldn't have been a problem: Atlantic Highlands has been undergoing a renaissance with new restaurants, retailers and apartment buildings.
But Rast said he wanted to maintain the theater. He found a lifeline, leasing the cinema for two years starting last summer to borough residents Tony and Susanne Zertuche. And he found a long-term solution thanks to a connection who grew up with his daughter, Michelle: Kevin Smith.
"I've known Kevin since he was a little boy," Rast said. "He's the same age as my daughter, and used to hang out with my daughter. So, over the years, he's expressed an interest and I've expressed an interest. And I wanted to keep the theater in town. I had offers for people to buy the property, the two buildings, and tear everything down, which I was against. I think it's very important to keep the town going with the theater."
For a borough that is home to an annual film festival, FilmOneFest, Smith's plans were met with applause.
Manda Gorsegner, president of the Atlantic Highlands Arts Council, said the project in the short term could bring consumers into town to spend money not only at the theater but also the restaurants nearby.
The prospect of a film school to go alongside the theater could spark a bug in local residents, Gorsegner said, including her 8-year-old daughter, Dottie, who, like others growing up with technology, already knows how to use iMovie and edit content.
"Kevin Smith has been a huge supporter of FilmOneFest," said Corinna Thuss, the festival's director. "He’s very generous to the community and the arts, and it’s fantastic for our town. I’m really, really excited."
Smith, 52, who lives in Los Angeles, said the acquisition had him walking the tightrope between the fun and games of his childhood and the adult responsibilities of owning a business.
“Suddenly you’re not just buying a movie theater, you’re buying real estate, two buildings on First Avenue, which feels very, very grown-up,” Smith said. “And thankfully I can offset that forced maturity with some fun immaturity in the theater itself.”
Detailing the news on his Instagram page, Smith said SModcastle Cinemas will host programs, including a monthly series of cult classics and midnight movies; the Merry Marvel Movie Society, where fans can see every new Marvel Studios film with Smith; and Saturday Morning Movies with Mooby, offering kids’ movies and cereal breakfasts.
Smith also announced that his next movie, the 1986-set “The 4:30 Movie,” following theater-hopping suburban teens, will be shot at the theater in 2023, following his “Convenience Tour” of roadshow screenings for his upcoming “Clerks III.” Starting next summer, the theater also will be home to View Askewniversity: A Jay and Silent Bob Film School.
“Unfortunately I can’t just do something simple like buy a movie theater,” Smith said. “It’s like suddenly I’ve got to go, ‘OK, now we’re going to make a movie in the movie theater, then we’re going to turn it into a college next summer,’ because it means that hopefully we’ll be able to pay our mortgage back sooner rather than later.”
From clerk to the man in charge
Smith broke into the mainstream with his 1994 debut film, “Clerks,” an independent comedy sensation inspired by his time working at the Quick Stop convenience store and RST video store in Leonardo (mere steps away from the SModcastle).
Nearly 30 years later, he’s still hard at work in Monmouth County, although these days he’s the man in charge.
“It gives you a chance to do all the things you wanted to do when you were an employee, like, ‘If I was in charge, I’d do this,’ ” Smith said. “Now you get to do that. And thankfully I chose a business that’s all predicated on good times and fun. What is a movie theater if not a place to go, be entertained and eat food, two of the greatest things in the world? So it’s a fun business, so that makes it easier to be in charge, to be the boss, because I’m never like, ‘And now, we dig graves.’ ”
The Secret Stash opened in Red Bank in 1997, moving to its current location at 65 Broad St. in February 2021.
After operating a SModcastle location in Los Angeles from 2010 to 2011, Smith partnered with O’Donnell, the "Clerks" actor and contractor, and Rajiv Thapar, whose family owns the Quick Stop, on the Leonardo iteration of the venue, which opened in July 2021.
He also hit the road starting in 2020 with Mooby's, a pop-up restaurant experience inspired by the fictional fast food chain created for his 1999 film "Dogma." Mooby's took over Gianni's Pizzeria on Wikoff Place in Red Bank in September 2020 and September 2021.
These business moves on his old stomping grounds, Smith explained, are part of "no real plot or plan."
"It's just things as they pop up," Smith said, "where suddenly you're like, 'Oh, this would be fun.' "
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Kevin Smith purchases Atlantic Moviehouse movie theater
