As we were installing our new (to us) dual 35mm and 70mm film projectors that will bring new cinematic life to our 100-year-old theater, Screenland Armour, we were informed that the B&B Mainstreet would be closing in a few days. It was surprising but not shocking. And then began the latest instance of “movie theaters are cooked” since my tenure in exhibition began almost 15 years ago.
I took over the operation of Screenland Armour in August 2012. We ran 35mm film and had two screens. We made very little money. I was only 26 — the perfect age to throw my entire being into something and fight as hard as possible to create something I wanted to see in Kansas City. I made movies, and had worked in a Hollywood Video store and restaurants, but never a theater. The bosses at an unnamed chain theater wouldn’t hire me — joke’s on them. And now I had the proverbial keys to the kingdom. My own cinema.
Then came the doomsday proclamations: Movie theaters are dead. Streaming is the new king, with Netflix launching its online service and smaller studios beginning to offer premium video on demand. The big cinema chains were big mad about this. But we didn’t blink. We saw good movies that we wanted to see, and thought surely others would. So, we would show these streaming titles on the big screen, often being the only theater in the market to do so. And we did good business — well, compared to the normal little business we had…