Published:
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Movie house confronts its own digital divide
Switch from film reels may doom Arlington’s Olympic Theatre
By John Wolcott
HBJ Freelance Writer
ARLINGTON — The city’s popular single-screen movie house, the venerable Olympic Theatre, may go dark sometime in 2013 as Hollywood completes its transition from film reels to digital media.
To stay in the game, owner Norma Pappas needs to make the switch to digitized movies. But at $50,000 to $75,000 for new digital equipment, and maybe a new screen and sound system, her only solution may be to clear the marquee and lock the doors.
For 73 years, the Olympic has drawn people to Arlington with its reasonable ticket prices, fresh popcorn, candy and drink counter, old-fashioned plush seats and movies often as fresh as they’d find in competing mega-screen theaters.
In recent months, Pappas has screened “War Horse,” “Mirror, Mirror,” “The Avengers” and dozens of other first-run films. She focuses heavily on family and kids’ movies as well as PG-13 films.
Her low ticket prices — $7 for adults, $5.50 for seniors and children 3 to 12, with Tuesday 2 p.m. matinees at $4.50 — reflect Pappas’ goal of attracting patrons with the best movies around for much lower prices than a multiplex.
“I’ve spent 35 years running the business, hiring local students to help out, driving to King County to get our films and climbing the stairs to the projection booth to wind and project movies the old-fashioned way. But I’m getting tired and since I don’t have the money to invest in an expensive conversion to digital movies, I may just have to close it down,” Pappas said wistfully, but with a hint of relief in her voice.
The new digital projection equipment would cost at least $50,000 and probably more, she said. She might have to replace her 10-year-old screen so she could run the 3-D movies that are drawing big crowds.
“I might also need a new sound system, too, although I’ve already put in a surround-sound Dolby system fairly recently,” she said. “It depends on whether it would be compatible with the new equipment.”
Facing the same challenge, the single-screen Edmonds Theatre, the only other single-screen theater operating in Snohomish County, has already made the digital conversion. The theater began digitally projecting movies April 13, part of the owners’ $50,000 investment over the past five years to modernize the 1923 facility, according to its website (www.theedmondstheater.com) and Facebook page.
In Concrete, the east Skagit County community of 800 residents is being invited to donate to the Concrete Theatre owners’ digital conversion project, estimated at $50,000, according to news media articles, the theater’s website (www.concrete-theatre.com) and its Facebook page. For $300, patrons can have their name put on a brass plaque on a theater seat to help the cause. Since the fundraising began April 15, the campaign had raised $8,200 from local residents and businesses as of May 6.
But in Arlington, it’s not only the high cost of converting to digital equipment that is a challenge. There’s also Pappas’ growing reluctance to continue running a sole proprietorship business after more than three decades, a personal factor she can’t ignore.
So far, the digital issue and the future of the theater are just beginning to surface.
The theater has a following on Facebook, where visitors frequently comment about the potential demise of the Olympic Theatre. One person has even created a Save the Olympic Theatre Facebook page, but Pappas said no one contacted her about soliciting the community for money to solve her problem.
“The best thing might be if someone formed a foundation and raised funds to continue running the theater with new digital equipment,” she said, explaining that a foundation could allow her to retire while the theater carries on.
“I don’t like taking handouts from people,” she said, referring to suggestions from some residents that a collection could be taken up to save the historic theater. She suggested that after 35 years of dedication to her business, she liked the thought of filling her life with other things for a change, including her family and horses.
Her father started her in the theater business years ago to help him with his dreams.
“My dad loved movies,” she said. “At one time he owned a theater in Des Moines, another in Cle Elum and then this one in Arlington in 1977. I began running the Arlington theater when I was in my 20s.”
The Olympic Theatre has been a main street institution for decades in Arlington, with Pappas owning and running it longer than anyone else.
Arlington residents brag on the 300-seat, single-screen movie house in Old Town, where many buildings have been remodeled but others still recall small-town storefronts of the 1950s.
Distinctive and popular Arlington Hardware, antiques stores, diners and a variety of retail businesses will continue to draw people to downtown Arlington, but the Olympic Theatre may become an antique itself, simply a shuttered historic site.
Or, some other fan of old movie theaters may step up to take on future decades of showing movies to new generations of patrons.
Only time will tell, but there’s not a lot of time left, Pappas said.
|
