When was the last time you left your home to watch a movie in a theater? If the recent uptick in blockbuster films and the flashy technological upgrades are any indication, your visit to a local theater was fairly recent. The trade organization Cinema United (formerly the National Association of Theatre Owners, or NATO) says that about 76% of Americans ages 12 to 74––or approximately 200 million people––went to a movie theater at least once in 2024.
“Ours is truly a Main Street industry with movie theaters anchoring communities of all sizes across this great nation,” says Cinema United president and CEO Michael O’Leary. “Nowhere is this sense of community more evident than in venues run by local enterprising entrepreneurs who bring their artistry, vision and passion for movies, good food, wine and camaraderie to their cinemas each day.”
One of those enterprising entrepreneurs is Ky Boyd, director of Rialto Cinemas, which operates theaters in Sebastopol, Berkeley and El Cerrito. Together, Rialto accounts for 14 “screens” in the Bay Area.
“I do this out of a lot of passion and love and dedication to the art of cinema,” he says. “I’m certainly not getting rich. So we have to be somewhat religious about our message: If you value theaters and what we do, you need to come out to the movies. The sad thing is, we’ve lost more than 30 screens in Sonoma County since the pandemic.” [In March, Summerfield Cinemas in Santa Rosa became the latest closure casualty.]…