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With its move across the street on Cookman Avenue now complete, The ShowRoom Cinema opens for business Friday in its new home — a fully reconstructed building specifically designed to be a small multi-screen art house movie theater.

The opening culminates a three-and-a-half-year journey for ShowRoom owners Nancy Sabino and Mike Sodano [pictured above in the 75-seat screening room in the new location]. The husband-and-wife team first opened the original ShowRoom theater in April 2009 with a 50-seat screening room. Lawn furniture served as the seating.

But The ShowRoom proved a popular attraction. Between 5,000 and 6,000 tickets were sold on a yearly basis in the old location, according to Sodano.

“And that number was growing,” he said. “And that was with one screen and 50 seats.”

The new ShowRoom will regularly use two screening rooms with the latest in movie theater seating. The larger room is the 75-seat theater pictured at top. A smaller screening room has 25 seats.  The couple took ownership of the building last year.

In addition, a screening room with seating for 12 and a standing capacity of 50 is on the second floor overlooking Cookman Avenue. That room will be available for groups to rent, as well as for special screenings.

There’s also a fully equipped snack bar area off the entrance. The ShowRoom Cinema will feature “Jersey-based unique concession fare,” said Sodano. “One of the things we’re noted for is the selection of our films. We also want to be known for our selection of snacks.”

The theater will still feature typical movie snacks and candy. In addition, Sodano said that the ShowRoom Cinema is a Coca-Cola concession.

The seating is “classic lumbar-supported high-back permanent theater seating, with arm rests and cup holders,” he said. “There were some great bargains on used seats, but they were stiff, hard and uncomfortable. They were narrow.”

Those used seats were rejected as “not as conducive to the seats that modern Americans gravitate toward” in a movie theater, Sabino added.

Sodano and Sabino, who are Asbury Park residents, plan to expand the ShowRoom hours, as well as the offerings. The plans are to be open seven days a week from 3:30 p.m. to about 9:30 p.m. However, there will be later programming at times.

“The concept here is to have multiple offerings under one roof,” said Sodano. “And we want to change the quiet nights into niche market nights. We’re an economic engine down here. We bring a lot of people in at night when a lot of the restaurants are closed, and we’re trying to increase that so the downtown is open seven days a week.”

It’s also rare for a new small art house movie theater to open for business. Sodano and Sabino are members of the national trade group of art house theaters, so they’re familiar with trends around the country.

Outside of similarly sized multi-screen art house movie theaters in Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, and Boca Raton, Fla., there are no other comparable facilities to the new ShowRoom to their knowledge, Sodano and Sabino both said.

“You don’t find independent ventures like this cropping up across the country,” Sodano said.

With the extra screening rooms, Sabino and Sodano plan to reach out to work with other groups in Asbury Park, particularly the Boys and Girls Club and Big Brothers and Big Sisters. In addition, they want to partner with Monmouth University and Brookdale Community College to jointly offer programming.

The first film to be shown on Friday is a 3:30 p.m. screening of the documentary “Diane Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel.” That will be followed at 4 p.m. with “A Royal Affair”, which is a Danish movie with subtitles. At 5:30 p.m., it’s “A Late Quartet” featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Chrisopher Walken.

Visit the ShowRoom website for more information.

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