The Angelika opened on Houston in 1989, and its lobby hasn’t changed much since.
Photo: Google Maps
On Monday around noon, the doors to the Angelika Film Center pushed open and in walked Harry, a retiree from Astoria. “Ah, they finally fixed up the lobby,” he said. Gone were the spindly metal chairs and wobbly tables just unwelcoming enough to discourage lingering. Potted palms now obscured the chalkboard menu that has long given the place the feel of a coffee shop from 1992. Instead, there were configurations of curvy armchairs and low sofas, dining sets and media consoles — all apparently by a newish-DTC brand called Povison, an online store based in Sacramento that makes pieces in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The brand labels its furniture as “ready to use” and has struck up a seemingly random collaboration with the theater. (More from the website: “Life is a miraculous journey, and the furniture you choose symbolizes that path and supports your lifestyle along the way.”)
The pop-up showroom is timed for design week, and through May 19, anyone trying to see the new Tim Robinson movie may also run into Shirley Han, a Povison rep on hand to answer questions about the Hobart Round Dining Table (there’s a built-in lazy Susan, $1,699) and the Sailboat Deep Sofa (a sectional that reclines, $2,199). “People really enjoy it,” Han told me. “They actually feel like this is their home.” (One man even fell asleep on a sofa, she said.)
Noemi Canseco killed an hour on the Sailboat Deep sofa. On the coffee table, framed QR codes link to specific Povison products.
Photo: Adriane Quinlan
Though the Angelika has hosted branding events before, like a one-day pop up for Derek Lam’s perfumes and another for a movie-adjacent line of pots from Great Jones, this is the first furniture showroom and the first weeklong tenant, according to Derek Carter, the theater’s general manager. But why the Angelika? “We’re across the street,” said Jennifer Krosche, a marketer at Trent & Company, which scouted the lobby for its “Soho-loft kind of look.” (Krosche added she views the Angelika as a “New York City icon.”) The high-ceilinged space, with its columns, chandeliers, hardwood floors, and windows on two sides, was designed by McKim, Mead & White for a company that once ran New York’s streetcars.
Beyond the surprise of the temporary renovation, there’s something a little strange about the partnership, given how its ads center on one of the very things killing off movie theaters: the home-theater experience (the Vision TV Stand, $1,099). Theaters have not rebounded back to pre-pandemic numbers, according to a report from the Angelika’s parent company, which is perhaps why the theater is open to new sources of revenue. (Blame is attributed not to TV-stand sales but to COVID, Hollywood strikes, and a lack of blockbusters.) But this doesn’t mean that the Angelika is desperate, Carter said. “This was just a good opportunity.”
A poster for Povison (right) is a clue that the new furniture is only temporary. “So the crap will be back in a couple of weeks?” Harry asked.
Photo: Adriane Quinlan
A velvet rope divides the route downstairs to the theaters, from the celebrity guest: a $2,199 sofa.
Photo: Adriane Quinlan
This piece has been updated.