It's a very good question. A question I've thought about for a very long time. A quick and easy answer is to blame the internet. Because I remember at time before the internet, when you had to actually go somewhere to find out what was happening. I had to go to the OK Hotel, the Vogue, the Crocodile to find out what was happening. You could only get so much reading the Rocket...or the Stranger when it first came out. You had to be physically present to be part of a scene. So the question becomes: how do you create a scene in the age of Facebook, tic tok, Instagram ecetera?

Also, any Russ Meyer films: Faster Pussycat Kill Kill or Beyond Valley of the Dolls because they are brilliant and fun or films from John Milius, like Red Dawn and Conan the Barbarian because they are not so brilliant and fun.

The midnight movie era may well be behind us.

Seattle has pretty good resources for exposure to niche, experimental cinema (SIFF, the Northwest Film Forum, Three Dollar Bill Cinema, etc) that manage to operate during traditional waking hours. There isn't an intense need here to invade "traditional" movie theater spaces at odd hours to see something odd or different on the big screen.

Also, availability of niche cinema at home has exploded in the last 10 years. I don't need to wait for a summer midnight movie series to learn about something like Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I'm getting that kind of curation from weird Vox articles and obscure subreddits, and finding them on online to watch whenever I'm in the mood to. It's a casualty of convenience.

But I believe there's still value in theaters, and in the midnight timeslot. You just need to put appropriate content there. Existing media might not make sense anymore, but premieres are always going to be a winner. Also, getting outside the box a bit: concerts (think those Fathom Events ads you see that advertise boomer band reunion tours and ballet performances), live sports from other countries (midnight PT is prime time for Australia / New Zealand), projection-facilitated performance art, I dunno man. If I had the best the ideas I'd be running a movie theater myself.

There is zero mention in this article of what DAY OF THE WEEK these supposed midnight movies will happen on.

Friday or Saturday night? Hell yes. Any other, and sadly I am not young enough to be up until 2 or 3 AM and then be anything close to functional at work the next day.

The midnight movies (Saturday night, if I remember right) in Santa Cruz, CA, in 2002 - 05 were spectacular. It's the first place I saw The Boondock Saints and wondered why two patrons were in line wearing bloody bathrobes and holding a toilet.

The "Midnight Adrenaline" series at Seattle International Film Festival used to have a great mix of horror, action, and otherwise engaging late-night fare. As @4 noted, Friday and Saturday nights were the only days. No spectacle required, just a great film. (And I used to attend "Rocky Horror" in Greenwich Village, back in the day. "Friends, a toast!")

The trouble with midnight movies in Seattle is the same problem with midnight anything in Washington State: the bluenosed fascists at the Liquor & Cannabis Control Board, who start bodily throwing drunks out of bars into the streets just as the midnight movies end. Not only can you not just go get a drink and chat about the fun you just had, you have to compete with drunken 23-year-olds for your ride home.

You LIVE in Seattle, correct? Where everything downtown is closed at 5pm?
Sorry Seattle, but you reap what you sow. You can't expect everything to shut down, people to get used to that for life and then all of a sudden need a movie at midnight. Culture is organic.
I remember moving here (from the lawless bastion that is Phoenix), and trying to find somewhere to go after 6. Or on a Sunday afternoon.
I got used to the idea of staying in, a good decade before COVID hit.

Saturday Rocky Horror midnight movies were a necessary part of my teenage years.
I remember a Dune screening at the Egyptian around 2003, thought maybe Seattle had finally grown up. But then the Egyptian was sold.
The Pacific NW is a weird bastion of acceptance and acquiescence. Dress however you like, just make sure to be aurally quiet about it.

6: "The trouble with midnight movies in Seattle is the same problem with midnight anything in Washington State: the bluenosed fascists at the Liquor & Cannabis Control Board

YES, exactly!

"Where cosplay began"