Backlick Center

cinema

Miracle Theatre

535 8th St SE

cinema

AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

8633 Colesville Rd

If you want to actually think about what you're watching, this restored 1938 movie palace in Silver Spring programs 600 films yearly—rarities, classics, global cinema—on a serious screen, the kind of place where the building itself reminds you that movies matter.

cinema

AMC Loews Uptown 1

3426 Connecticut Ave NW

A cavernous art deco palace that hosted the premieres of 2001 and Jurassic Park, this Cleveland Park landmark had the biggest commercial screen in the region—go if you want to experience how movies were meant to be seen in a space built for that purpose.

cinema

AMC Mazza Gallerie

5300 Wisconsin Ave NW

This cinema no longer exists—the mall that housed it was demolished in 2023 and replaced with a mixed-use development. If you're looking for a movie theater in Friendship Heights, try the Bethesda Row Cinema just across the border in Maryland.

cinema

iPic Pike & Rose

11830 Grand Park Ave

Luxury recliners and full meals in a cinema designed for people who'd rather not leave the building, nestled in North Bethesda's attempt at urban density.

cinema

Old Town Alexandria

Alexandria, Virginia

Artists now occupy the building where the Navy once manufactured torpedoes, turning wartime machinery into studios where you can watch painters, sculptors, and glassblowers work. Go if you want to see how a place transforms, or if you're the kind of person who asks questions while watching someone create.