The Senator was the highest-grossing theater in the country showing "Amistad" last weekend. More than 3,500 filmgoers attended the art deco landmark to see Steven Spielberg's account of a 19th-century slave ship uprising and subsequent court fights.
Coming in second was the Sony Lincoln Square theater in Manhattan, regularly one of the top-grossing theaters in the country.
Tom Kiefaber, who owns the Senator, attributed part of the theater's success to the Xaala Mainama African Arts Ensemble, a drumming troupe that has been performing before some screenings on weekends. "On Saturday night we had a few hundred people on their feet, hands in the air, all races and genders," he said. "They even started a conga line down the aisle."
