"The goal is to have 17 screens functioning in Naples. That's where we want to be. We think that's the sweet spot," Paragon Theaters co-CEO Michael Whalen told Gulfshore Business this month.
Seventeen screens is fewer than the two theaters near the Vanderbilt Beach Road and US-41 intersection had before September, when 11 screens at Mercato and 10 at The Pavilion added up to 21. Through the holidays, the indoor movie night closest to the beach happens in one building, The Pavilion at 833 Vanderbilt Beach Road, and it runs at full size. Once Paragon's planned Mercato location opens, The Pavilion is slated to lose four of its screens. So the next couple of months are probably the last stretch of a 10-screen Pavilion.
The Mercato space went dark on Sept. 9
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema closed its Mercato theater on Sept. 9. It was the chain's only Florida location, and it had run the space since Silverspot Cinema moved out in 2024. That left 11 empty screens on the Mercato side of US-41.
Paragon Theaters, which already runs the cinema at The Pavilion across US-41, is the likely next tenant. Gulfshore Business describes the deal as a likely lease, not a signed one. The plan has Paragon running 11 screens at Mercato and six at The Pavilion. One company would then hold both sides of the intersection, with a smaller footprint than the two-operator setup had before Alamo closed.
The Pavilion is at full size, for a limited time
The four screens that would go are in a separate 9,850-square-foot freestanding building behind the northwest corner of The Pavilion shopping center. A hallway near the bar connects them to the main theater. Whalen said Paragon will keep all 10 screens open through the holidays, running those four "probably minimally until the end of the year."
That building has changed size before. In Whalen's telling to Gulfshore Business, the whole site began as a 10-screen theater. It later shrank to six screens when Tuesday Morning took part of the space, then went back to 10 after that retail box opened up again. The next step would take it back to six.
What replaces those four screens is still open. Andrew Pressler, a leasing agent for Pavilion owner Regency Centers, said the center has the option to take back the old Tuesday Morning box and lease it to another tenant. Whalen mentioned interest from an indoor soccer operator and from the existing cycle shop, which could use more inventory space. He also said Paragon might keep the space and install roughly six golf simulators. The existing kitchen and bar would make that cheaper than building a simulator business from scratch.
In the meantime, The Pavilion is the full Paragon experience. Its Lux Box seats are zero-gravity leather recliners, and you order food and drinks from a QR-code menu and have them brought to your seat.
Tuesday does a lot of the work this season
Paragon Pavilion runs $5 Ticket Tuesdays every week. Across US-41, Mercato's Films Al Fresco shows free movies in the Piazza on the third Tuesday of each month. Lawn chairs and blankets are encouraged. Coolers and outside drinks are not allowed, and every Mercato event can change with the weather.
The Pavilion's coming-soon list leans toward the holidays, too, with Christmas in Connecticut, White Christmas, Clue and The Polar Express.
Here is the season laid out by date, from now to the hoped-for reopening:
- Tuesdays, every week: $5 tickets at Paragon Pavilion, 833 Vanderbilt Beach Road.
- Tuesday, Nov. 17: A Christmas Story at Films Al Fresco in the Mercato Piazza. Free.
- Monday, Nov. 30, and Tuesday, Dec. 1, 4 p.m.: "Four O'clock at the Movies" at Artis-Naples in Daniels Pavilion. Elaine Newton, Professor Emeritus of Humanities at York University in Toronto, discusses Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus. This one is a ticketed lecture, not a screening.
- Tuesday, Dec. 15: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the 2000 version, at Films Al Fresco. Free.
- Friday, Dec. 18: Paragon's target date for opening at Mercato.
Mercato's event page gives the October showing a start of about 7 p.m. and lists the series time as "varies," so check the date of each showing before you load the chairs.
The December Piazza movie lands three days before the date Paragon is aiming for. If that date holds, The Grinch on the lawn will be the last Mercato movie night that doesn't involve a theater.
What Dec. 18 depends on
Paragon picked Dec. 18 because the sequels to The Avengers and Dune come out that day. Whalen has tied the opening to one feature, though. He doesn't want to open Paragon Mercato until every auditorium has Lux Box seating, and the seats may not be manufactured in time.
"If the seats are delayed, which it looks like they are, it's probably a beginning of January event now."
He added that he is still aiming for the 18th, according to Gulfshore Business.
Until the seats arrive, plan on The Pavilion for the big December releases. Opening weekend is when all 10 screens there matter most. If Mercato slips to January, The Pavilion carries the holiday blockbusters by itself, at the one size it isn't expected to keep.
Getting to Strada Place while the road is torn up
When Mercato's screens come back, getting there will take some planning. Collier County is widening Vanderbilt Beach Road from just east of US-41 to east of Goodlette-Frank Road, about 1.8 miles, from four lanes to six. Most of the new lanes go in the existing median. The project also includes improvements at the Strada Place intersection, the street Mercato sits on.
According to the county's July 6 announcement, lane closures are planned mostly between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday. A 7 p.m. Piazza movie or an evening show falls outside those hours. A Tuesday matinee may not.
The bigger squeeze comes after the holidays. In spring 2027, crews plan to put a box culvert under the road. That will cut traffic to one lane each way between Strada Place and Goodlette-Frank Road for about two months. The $28.4 million project is expected to take two years, weather permitting. A new Paragon Mercato would spend its first spring next to that work. Coming from the beach side, though, drivers reach Strada Place before the narrowed stretch begins.
Questions about specific closures go to the county's community liaison, Connie Deane, at (239) 252-8365.
Small things like how far you are from Mercato's screens, or which side of US-41 your Tuesday night starts on, shape everyday life around Vanderbilt Beach. They also shape what a home here is worth to the next buyer. If you're thinking about how changes along Vanderbilt Beach Road could affect your own plans, Tricia Kowaleski is happy to talk it through. Request a Free Consultation & Home Valuation, and we'll look at the neighborhood the way you live in it.
