By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia’s Roxy Theater has had more lives than a cat and it just got another one. The Center City theater will become the new home of the Philadelphia Film Society.

The Roxy’s owner announced late last month that he was ending the operator’s lease and many feared Center City would lose its last independent movie theater. But John Ciccone who bought the small, two-screen theater four years ago, says he wanted to revive the theater’s history as a venue for independents and he says the film society can do that.

“They have a staff that can review independent movies, make evaluations and they also have the contacts, through the organization of the festival with distributors, to bring in the same films that the Ritz brings in.”

Film society executive director Andrew Greenblatt says they’ll be renovating the theater and converting it to digital.

“I hope people will still come out and frequent the theater and support us as we revitalize it and turn it in to what we expect it will become.”