Fascinating photos of abandoned movie palaces reveal the decline of movie-going in America

The Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia was in such bad shape, a developer purchased it for $1 in 2012.

The structure has undergone numerous transformations over the last 110 years. It was built in 1908 as a home for the Philadelphia Opera Company, but was eventually converted into a ballroom, sports arena, and, finally, a church.

By the mid-1990s, the crumbling structure was declared imminently dangerous to the public. City building authorities wanted to tear it down, but a developer, Eric Blumenfeld, wound up purchasing the property for a single dollar.

Renovations were stalled for many years before the entertainment company Live Nation swept in with a $56 million redevelopment plan. The newly renovated venue opened to the public in December 2018 with a concert featuring Bob Dylan.

The Blue Horizon in Philadelphia was one of the world's most famous boxing venues from the 1960s to 2010.

The building was first constructed as housing complex in 1865, before transitioning to a boxing venue in the late 1930s. By the 1960s, the arena became known as a place to watch boxing legends. The site was also used to shoot boxing scenes for the fifth Rocky movie and the 2006 film Annapolis.

In 2010, the Blue Horizon closed after reportedly running into tax issues. For nearly a decade, it seemed to represent the decline of Rust Belt cities in the wake of deindustrialization. Now it could be part of Philadelphia's revival. Marriott plans to convert the building into a $22 million "micro-hotel" with 140 guest rooms.

Developers in Newark, New Jersey, are revamping the city's Paramount Theater, which once served as a vaudeville house.

Like the Blue Horizon, Newark's shuttered Paramount Theater came to symbolize the plight of industrial towns during the 1980s. The building opened as a vaudeville house in 1886 and closed a century later after a long history as a movie theater.

Developers now plan to transform the structure into a mixed-use development. A key part of their vision involves preserving the "Newark" sign on the building's facade, which has become one of the city's most recognizable icons.

The signature blue ceiling of the Kenosha Theater in Wisconsin has been torn down.

The theater's design was inspired by the Alcázar of Segovia, a Spanish castle that also served as the inspiration for Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World.

In their photograph, Marchand and Meffre capture the bright blue ceiling, which once held scattered lights that mimicked the night sky. The ceiling has since been replaced due to water damage.

The theater opened in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1927. Some of the liveliest elements of its history occurred within the first two years. In an effort to lure early patrons, the theater offered free plane flights as a perk for people who bought movie tickets. Then in 1928, the theater fell victim to a robbery orchestrated by its own night watchman.

The building is now being restored, with hopes of transforming it into a performing arts facility.

Brooklyn's Paramount Theater hosted artists like Miles Davis and Frank Sinatra.

The Paramount Theater has been credited with igniting the jazz scene in Brooklyn. It boasted appearances from artists like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzergald, and Miles Davis. In the 1950s, it also became home to rock n' rollers like Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly.

The theater was later purchased by Long Island University, which converted it into the gymnasium seen in the above photograph. It is now being transformed into an event venue for the university's students.

The Spooner Theater in the Bronx used to show movies. Now it's home to a Burger King and some retail stores.

For much of its history, the Spooner Theater operated as a second-run movie theater under the ownership of the Loew's theater chain. In the late 1960s, it became a space for clothing and furniture stores.

Today, the building holds a Burger King, The Children's Place clothing store, and cell phone retailers like T Mobile. Marchand and Meffre photographed the auditorium before it was gutted in 2010.

The Rivoli Theater in Berkeley, California became a 99-cent store.

The theater offers a fitting example of what Meffre called "the spectacle of modernity penetrating the baroque."

After closing in the 1950s, the Rivoli become a drugstore, a supermarket, and, eventually, a 99-cent store.

Meffre said many of theaters he visited were located on higher floors with grocery or retail stores below. He and Marchand would ask the managers to let them upstairs without being sure of what they'd find.

"The ones that stayed unused the longest were above supermarkets or places that were actually functioning," Meffre said. "It's a kind of preservation by neglect."