News
Small Theaters Flourish in Rural America
By Robert Marich
July 6, 2010 – An indication that the cinema-going habit is ingrained in the American culture, and will likely withstand the stiff competition of movies on-demand on TV, is visible in rural America. A New York Times story describes the great effort expended in some isolated, rural towns and villages to keep antiquated movie theaters operating.
The New York Times article begins with describing one such theater—the Roxy in Langdon, North Dakota. “In an age of streaming videos and DVDs, the small town Main Street movie theater is thriving in North Dakota, the result of a grass-roots movement to keep storefront movie houses, with their jewel-like marquees and facades of careworn utility, at the center of community life,” says the article by Patricia Leigh Brown. “The revival is not confined to North Dakota; Main Street movie houses like the Alamo in Bucksport, Me., the Luna in Clayton, N.M., and the Strand in Old Forge, N.Y., are flourishing as well…In the Great Plains, where stop signs can be 50 miles apart and the nearest multiplex is 200 miles round trip, the town theater — one screen, one show a night, weekends only — is an anchoring force, especially for families.”
Tickets are under the national average of $7.50 and food/beverages are half the price of big-city multiplexes. Babe Belzer, who spearheaded an effort to refurbish the Lyric theater in Park River, N.D., commented on the alternative of watching movies on DVD in a home. “If you can get a whole living room of kids watching a movie for three bucks, what a deal,” she said. “But at the theater, the phone doesn’t ring, it’s not time to change the clothes from the washer to the dryer, and there isn’t anyone at your door. It’s kind of the heart and soul of our town.”
There’s a lot of community assistance because adults want a place that teenagers can experience out-of-home recreation that isn’t anti-social, such as under-age alcohol drinking that is a problem with youth in rural America. And even adults want a local out-of-home entertainment option for themselves.
The article notes that moviegoers show up at the Roxy in North Dakota even during blizzards. The house can actually be pretty full, as was the case when Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel was playing during a snow storm.
I (author of Marketing to Moviegoers: Second Edition) witnessed this phenomenon first-hand at the Community Theatre in Catskill, NY and Orpheum in Saugerties, N.Y., which are small movie theaters of small towns in the Hudson River Valley. Both are in old and sprawling vaudeville theaters circa early 20th Century that have been carved up into a two-screen theater and three-screen theater (in both, the balcony is sectioned off as one auditorium).
Interestingly, they get first run movies simultaneous with national release, and no delay as one might think. Major studios are interested in pumping up opening weekend grosses, when their take of each box office dollar is highest, so the past practice of moving release print from theater to theater in subsequent weeks is no longer widely practiced.
For full text, click link below:
www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/us/05theater.html
www.marketingmovies.net/chapters/chapter-8-exhibition-theaters/