With the evolution of streaming services, more and more movies coming out in 3D and IMAX and the requirement for how long to show first run films in the hands of the studios, things aren’t all that easy for small town movie houses.
Across the country, independent theaters have been closing due to financial strain or merely being overmatched by the larger cinemas with more screens and thus more options.
It’s not a business that people get into for the money, but it provides a service to the community in more ways than just simply showing a film.
That’s why through all the changes – increased fees, access to movies – the Peterborough Community Theatre and Wilton Town Hall Theatre have remained open, and more importantly, relevant. And there’s no plan of that changing.
When Vanessa Amsbury-Bonilla heard a rumor that the local theater was for sale and if nothing happened soon, would be in danger of closing down, she was determined to make sure that didn’t happen.
Having lived in Peterborough for the last 14 years, Amsbury-Bonilla was a faithful patron, usually choosing the Thursday night showings because “there’s a magic that happens when you’re in the theater.” The posters and marquee change to display what movie was set to next grace the screens of the 95-seat community establishment.
That’s really how Amsbury-Bonilla views the oldest theater in the state. It’s not just a place to go watch movies. The theater is part of Peterborough and the people of this area deserve to see it stay open. That’s why she and her fiance, Kevin Goohs decided to buy it.
“People have recognized this is a gift to this community,” Amsbury-Bonilla said.
Going into it, they knew it wasn’t a business they were going to get rich from. It’s actually a break-even-at-best endeavor, where Amsbury-Bonilla still requires a day job, as the church administrator at the Unitarian Church just across Main Street. Since they have no paid employees, most nights she’s at the theater, selling tickets and concessions, and playing the movie, greeting those who have come for that small, independent theater experience. Her daughter, a senior at ConVal, helps on Friday nights and Sundays, and Goohs’s two daughters are there for the two Saturday showings.
Their payment? “Free candy, drinks and all the popcorn they can eat,” Amsbury-Bonilla said.
The biggest night is Saturday and Amsbury-Bonilla said, “I consider half full a success. If I can get 45 people, I’m happy.”
What you won’t see at the Peterborough Community Theatre is first-run movies. Because of studio control on box office percentages and how long each film must be played, she’d have to show them for multiple weeks and it just doesn’t work for a theater that size.
“We don’t have the reach to keep anything for four weeks,” Amsbury-Bonilla said.
Typically, the theater will get movies four weeks after the release date – and for one week only. Amsbury-Bonilla said it’s rare to show something for more than one week because with only one screen, there needs to be a real buzz about it to warrant an extra seven showings.
“If it bombs, it bombs for a week,” she said.
She tries to provide a mix of popular titles like “The Grinch,” which opened Friday and closes Thursday night, and independent films that are not readily available elsewhere.
“It’s a balance of having a little bit of everything for everyone,” she said.
Amsbury-Bonilla had been on the lookout for something different, something new. And she definitely found it.
“You need to have a passion for this, have an excitement about it,” she said.
She knew how important the theater was to the people who frequent it – like the two ladies who come to almost every Wednesday matinee. The theater is 104 years and Amsbury-Bonilla just couldn’t imagine Peterborough without it.
“There would be a huge hole, literally and figuratively,” she said. “It creates a sense of community.”
For 45 years, Dennis Markaverich has owned the movie house upstairs from the town’s administrative offices. It has come with its ups and downs, but Markaverich is one of those community theater owners who’s in it for the long haul so he’s just handled each challenge as they come.
The expensive switch from a projector to digital, the increase of multiplexes that threaten to lure patrons away and streaming services are just a few that have cropped up over the years, but somehow Markaverich has stayed viable.
Just like Amsbury-Bonilla said, you’re not going to get rich in this line of work, but Markaverich isn’t concerned with that – as long as he can pay the bills. He has a pair of part-time employees, but for the most part, he’s there every showing and does it all, from concession stands to running the equipment. It’s a stark contrast from when he also owned the Peterborough Community Theatre in the early 1980s, where he had upwards of 20 people on the pay roll.
“I need the money to survive and exist, but I just enjoy this,” Markaverich said. “You’ve got to do this because you love it. If you’re in it for the money, go get a job.”
The customers are what makes it worth the long days – many of whom he’s gotten to know over the years, he said.
“We have a wonderful customer base. I see the same faces all the time,” Markaverich said. “There isn’t a show that goes by where I don’t recognize people.”
Like the Peterborough Community Theatre, the Wilton Town Hall Theatre doesn’t show first runs. It just doesn’t’t make sense, Markaverich said, considering he’d have to show them for at least four weeks and with the studios getting a large percentage of the box office sales. It’s too long for the small two-screen theater.
“We just can’t do that. We’re a little town and only so many people will come to it,” Markaverich said. “The reality is that it’s really getting difficult to get movies.”
Plus, those really aren’t the style of movies he wants to show anyway. He doesn’t do kids movies except for rare instances, but he mostly considers the Wilton Town Hall Theatre an art house. It’s where you can see the movies that you’ve never heard of, but will likely be up for Academy Awards.
The big theater has about 200 seats, while the screening room has 68. That’s where he plays the classic silent films one Sunday a month that always brings in a good crowd.
“I have more people for the silent films than the regular ones we show sometimes,” Markaverich said. “They work well here because of the ambiance of the old theater that actually showed silent movies.”
Barry Scharmett, a Temple resident and owner of the Milford Drive-In, knows that people can see the same movies he shows at other theaters.
But it’s the experience that keeps people coming back every summer. It’s a family-oriented spot to see not one, but two movies in a night, and comes with a very manageable price tag.
A car of six can see a double-feature of new releases for just $27. Milford has two screens, one 40-feet by 80-feet and the other 50 by 100, and has been showing first run movies since the 1970s.
“You’ve got to play what’s just come out or they’ll go elsewhere,” Scharmett said.
His movies typically play for two to three weeks, but with two screens and four time slots a night, there’s new titles being added quite often.
In an effort to be a little different, Scharmett has gotten into showing simulcasts of the Dead & Company and the original Grateful Dead on tape. He’s had live boxing on the big screen, including the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight. Scharmett does that three to five times a summer, depending on what’s available.
“Alternative content has turned out to be pretty good for me,” he said. “If I know it’s decent stuff and people are going to come out for it, I’m going to show it.”
His parents bought the drive-in in 1969 and as one of only three remaining in the state, Scharmett knows how important it is. People are looking for that trip down memory lane from when going to the drive-in was the family entertainment for a weekend night in the summertime.