Jean and Peter Mahler missed the movie “Knowing” with Nicolas Cage at Showcase Cinemas in Buckland, so on a recent Thursday afternoon, they caught the matinee at Parkade Cinemas & Entertainment in Manchester, one of a handful of second-run movie theaters still surviving in Connecticut.
The movie was alright, but the Manchester couple gave the theater rave reviews, especially its $4.75 matinee ticket price.
“The theater is clean, and the staff is very friendly,” Jean Mahler said. “The price is a consideration for us, and being senior citizens, it’s a primary consideration.”
“You can’t beat the price,’’ Peter Mahler chimed in.
Herb, Ali and Abraham Davis, three brothers who operate the theater with their extended family, rely on customers like the Mahlers to keep coming back. They and others who operate some of the fewer than two dozen independent, second-run and art-house cinemas in Connecticut say they’re weathering the current recession by building a steady following and offering a good value.
“Surprisingly, we’re doing well in this economy,” said Ali Davis, whose cinema’s regular admission is $6.50 compared to $10.50 at Showcase. “When things aren’t going well, people need the escape that a movie provides. Here it’s affordable.”
Operators of the art houses say they’re affected by different business forces than the second-run theaters and fill a niche that sets them apart from the big movie chains. Some avoid children’s movies, and some, such as Cinestudio at Trinity College in Hartford, don’t even serve popcorn.
“I have a devoted clientele that sees my theater as the theater of choice,’’ said Arnold Gorlick, longtime owner and operator of Madison Art Cinemas in Madison.
But staying in business takes innovation, the theater operators say, and few have been as entrepreneurial as the Davises since they took over the cinema on Broad Street nearly three years ago.
They’ve held comedy nights and open mic nights and courted area recreation programs, which now bring more than 1,000 children to movies in the summer. They’ve got big plans for a park, picnic benches and outdoor concessions at their business, which is tucked behind a thriving part of the Manchester Parkade and a boarded-up, graffiti-tagged plaza. A Storrs-based church is planning to hold services at the theater if it can gain local zoning approval.
Neither the National Association of Theatre Owners nor the Connecticut Association of Theater Owners keeps separate statistics for second-run or art-film theaters.
Nationally, total box office grosses and ticket prices were up in 2008, compared to 2007, but the number of U.S. cinemas declined from 5,545 in 2007 to 5,403 in 2008.
Still the number of screens has risen in 2009 to 38,990, compared to 38,834 in 2008, according to the national association.
Anecdotally, the smaller theaters say they are faring well despite stiff competition from the multi-screen chains and a complex set of economic factors, including release dates controlled by the big chains, a shorter window in which movies go to DVD rental and varying percentage takes demanded by film companies.
“I think theaters do a tad better in general in this economy,’’ said Andrew Rossetti, secretary-treasurer of the Connecticut Association of Theater Owners.
Film companies demand 60 percent of ticket revenue for first-run movies, a figure that drops the longer a film has been out and that declines to about 30 to 40 percent at second-run theaters, operators say.
Years ago, movies wouldn’t go to television or video rental for a year; now the window is tightening so much, it’s hard for theaters, especially second-run theaters, to compete, operators say.
“Sometimes movies are in the video stores while they’re still in the theaters,’’ Rossetti said.
Tom Mahoney manages Edmond Town Hall Theater in Newtown, which is unusual because it’s housed in town hall. With tickets only $2, business is holding steady, he said. But with only screen, Mahoney has to make smart choices about the movies he selects.
He and Ali Davis of Parkade Cinemas said second-run theaters have to wait for nearby multi-screen chains to release movies to them.
Gorlick, the longtime owner and operator of the Madison Art Cinemas in Madison, said he has had the following and clout to open such movies as “Slumdog Millionaire” ahead of area multiplexes.
“The economy is irrelevant to the movie business,” he said. “It’s the last place people have left to entertain themselves.”
But he said he is struggling right now because of a “brutal” shortage of good art films.
During the times when fewer art films are available, Gorlick said he reluctantly will show a commercial film such as “The DaVinci Code.”
“I hate to do it,’’ he said. “It’s like punting in football.”
