Brentwood once had its own movie theater.It was located at 1825 Brentwood Road,in what is now the Compare Foods shopping center.It was located in the building behind Checkers.The theater originally had a wall-to-wall screen,rocking chair seats in the smoking section,wide aisle staggered seating in the orchestra,a large snack bar,
and a big parking lot.First owned by Prudential Theatres,its first manager was Fred LoBello.The theater opened on Wednesday,April 14,1965,with the first of three consecutive charity benefit sneak previews.Regular film performances began on Saturday,April 17,1965,with "Major Dundee" starring Charlton Heston.
The Brentwood Theater continued to show first-run films very successfully for many years.Some of the most popualr attractions included "The Sound Of Music","Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid","Gone With The Wind","Jaws",
"Star Wars",and "Superman".In the 1970s,it was taken over by United Artists Theatres.But then,the theater's luck began to run out.In 1983,the Commack Multiplex opened and began to provide stiff competition.UA then converted the Brentwood Theater to a second-run discount house.It did well for several years,but the multiplex era was taking over and several more opened nearby.The theater started losing money and business,so it closed in the late 1980s.It reopened again briefly as a discount theater in the 1990s,but was forced to close again due to lack of business.
It was taken over by new owners and used occassionally as a Cultural and Performing Arts Center,with little success.
Then something happened.The Asian Indian population increased on Long Island in the 1990s.A company called Suleka movie Theatres saw an opportunity,and took over the Brentwood Theater.They remodeled the theater with a large curved screen and increased the seating capacity to eight hundred,while also adding unique Indian refreshments at the snack bar.They showed what are popularly known as "Bollywood" films-big,lavish,spectacular Hindi language movies,many of them romances or musicals.They were popular enough to keep the theater open for several years
(Manager Somasundaram Sagar told Newsday in 2001 that hundreds of people would come to the theater on weekends).But in 2007, the theater was bought by the owners of La Espiguita Bakery and converted into the indoor
La Espiguita Soccer Academy.This has been wildly successful,offering very popular soccer training and other fitness activities.