Can Local Movie Theaters Be Saved as Nonprofits?

[Pink Freud]

Something like 12% of the nation's movie theaters have closed in the last few years, and many more soon will. Movies are made to be seen on the big screen, among our fellow locals. Yet, I see so many theaters now barely staying afloat with single-digit "crowds" for many screenings. Some try and make it up with preposterously overpriced concessions nobody would pay for, except a guy really trying to impress his date. My favorite movie house here charges $17 for a combined small soda and small popcorn.

When I first moved to Los Angeles, my very first Saturday was spent joining the L. A. Conservancy for a walking tour of the many legendary downtown movie theaters, several of which were converted to churches; concert halls; and industrial storage facilities. One, the former Warner Brothers Theater, is now a jewelry exchange, with a giant diamond superimposed on the marquee over the familiar WB shield. In Santa Monica, the beloved 1940 Aero Theater remains open for screenings and showbiz seminars --- I saw Valerie Perrine and the "Texas Chainsaw 3D" writers Adam Marcus and Debra Sullivan, who lived in their car their first two months in L.A., give talks there --- and screened the sensational doc "Los Angeles Plays Itself" --- on Montana Avenue's neighborhood shopping strip movie theater.

In today's New York Times, a few communities have attempted to keep local movie houses alive by taking them public: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/busi ... rofit.html

[edwin drood]

Yet another victim of the internet and "Progress'. I currently have Netflix and their 6000 titles and an On-Demand channel on cable with hundreds of more choices. And it's 4 degrees F outside. Staying home seems like my best option. Although a theater is the place to see a big movie.

[GelatinousEndive]

Fontenac theaters are closing. That was my go-to place, back before Covid. I joined the blue haired retirees in 2015. Cue Clark…

But havent been there for ?3 years? We moved 85 miles away so that is one factor in my non-attendance. But mainly ennui fuels disinterest in attending films in the theater.