Doreen Sayegh is preparing to celebrate a century of moviegoing at the Cranford Theater while continuing the reinvention that has kept the New Jersey cinema operating through a pandemic, industry disruption and a ceiling collapse.
The five-screen venue, located in Cranford near New York City, is the last independent, family-run movie theater in Union County. Its 100th anniversary will be marked with a screening of Padlocked, the silent film that opened the theater on November 29, 1926. An organ player will accompany the throwback presentation.
“I want us to honor this incredible history while continuing to evolve and ask, what can the next 100 years look like?” Sayegh said.
That balance between tradition and reinvention has become central to the theater’s survival. Along with showing movies, the Cranford Theater has expanded its programming to include comedy performances, piano recitals, film festivals, independent movies and special events built around classic films.
“That’s what we do here, try to create events around a lot of our films or classic films, and create ways for people to get excited and off their couches and into our theater to watch movies together and experience that together,” Sayegh explained.
A family business tested by crisis
Sayegh grew up learning the exhibition business from her father, Jesse Y. Sayegh, who operated an independent chain of New Jersey movie theaters during the 1990s. He purchased the then-two-screen Cranford Theater from Cineplex Odeon in 1997 and reopened it one year later as a five-screen cinema.
Sayegh sold her first popcorn when she was 8 years old and began selling movie tickets at 11. She later worked as an usher and box-office cashier before becoming a theater manager.
Her father sold the theater business in 2010 while retaining ownership of the building. Sayegh stayed on under the new operator, Bud Mayo’s Digiplex Destinations. Two other operators subsequently ran the venue.
In 2019, while showing the property to a prospective tenant, Sayegh decided she wanted to take over the cinema herself. With her father’s support, she completed renovations and reopened the complex in November 2019, ahead of the Christmas holidays.
The COVID-19 pandemic quickly upended those plans. By the night before the shutdown in March, Sayegh recalled, only about seven people were inside the building—and four of them were employees.
Rather than accept that the theater’s run might be over, she began selling fresh popcorn and candy to families who collected their orders through their car doors. She also rented a parking lot and converted it into a drive-in theater.
When tickets for the drive-in went on sale, Sayegh’s phone initially chimed with purchase alerts and then abruptly went silent. Concerned that demand had disappeared, she contacted the web-hosting company and learned that the opposite had happened: the surge had crashed the servers. Three nights sold out in 90 seconds.
The drive-in expanded to six nights a week, screening classic movies outdoors. For a 2020 presentation of Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory, golden tickets were hidden at Cranford businesses, with the people who found them receiving free admission. Sayegh also directed energy toward community donations and fundraising during the pandemic.
Rebuilding—and drawing audiences back
The growth of at-home streaming and the 2023 Los Angeles writers and actors strikes created further difficulties as Sayegh worked to persuade audiences to return to communal big-screen viewing.
Another major blow arrived in April 2025, when part of the theater’s ceiling collapsed. Few people were in the building, everyone was evacuated safely and no one was injured.
“That was most important to me, because that would have changed the whole story,” Sayegh said. “And the fact that no one was hurt meant I knew I was going to rebuild.”
Following a seven-month closure, the 99-year-old movie house reopened on November 26, 2025, with its marquee illuminated and neon signs glowing again.
Its recent programming has included productions shot in New Jersey, where film tax credits, other state incentives and local hiring have helped support production. The theater hosted an advance screening of Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day and showed Steven Soderbergh’s supernatural thriller Presence, which was filmed in Cranford.
Other New Jersey-shot selections have included Mother’s Instinct, starring Anne Hathway and Jessica Chastain, and Maybe I Do, featuring the late Diane Keaton and William H. Macy.
Sayegh said she enjoys seeing visiting cast and crew members spend time in the community, including stopping for coffee and food. The theater also has upcoming Thanksgiving dates planned for Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, another picture shot in New Jersey.
The drama recounts the making of the 1976 Sylvester Stallone-starring Rocky. For Sayegh, its underdog themes reflect the Cranford Theater’s own fight to survive.
“The story of Rocky is so rooted in perseverance, resilience and continuing to fight when the odds are against you,” she said, adding that those ideas resonate with what the cinema has endured across 100 years.
What Happens Next?
As the centennial approaches, Sayegh is carrying forward lessons from her father, including honoring agreements, treating people respectfully and booking films according to audience demand rather than personal preference.
A new generation is already observing the business. Sayegh’s 5-year-old daughter, Natalia, is growing up around the theater just as her mother did. Sayegh said she would love to see Natalia run it one day—but emphasized that the decision will ultimately be her daughter’s story to write.