Multiplex theaters have become a fixture of the suburban American landscape. And like their neighbors, big box stores and strip malls, the multiplexes offer pretty much the same fare from one locale to the next. Hollywood blockbusters screen next door to one another in theaters boasting as many as 20 screens.

In Montgomery, Alabama, Martin McCaffery has been running the single-screen Capri Theatre in the city’s historic Cloverdale district for 25 years. At one time a segregated theater, the Capri was the first to bring the works of both Spike Lee and Ang Lee to the state of Alabama. “Mike Leigh too,” McCaffery notes. In 1989, his theater’s screening of The Last Temptation of Christ brought picketers and condemnations from the mayor, city council and even the governor of Alabama.

Describing the difference between watching a movie at the Capri and going to one of the nearby multiplexes, McCaffery says, “It’s the difference between going to a restaurant and going to McDonalds. We know about film; we know what we’re doing.”

The Capri is the only theater in Alabama where viewers can see Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In and Israeli animated war pic Waltz with Bashir. Other 2009 offerings include Milk and Che: A Revolutionary Life. The theater is also supporting regional filmmakers through the Southern Circuit exhibition program. And while the big theater chains may offer more screens, McCaffery is hopeful his micro-scaled operation will sustain itself, even through the economic downturn: “We’re too small to die…and too stupid to quit.”

Saving Art House Theaters

Russ Collins is co-chair of the Sundance Institute’s Art House Project, a national partnership working to build audiences and develop a community of theater owners committed to independent film. To date, 12 theaters around the U.S. have been selected for the Art House Project, a major perk of which is having exclusive access to films from the Sundance Film Festival.

The Art House Project hosts a convergence, which Collins chairs, in conjunction with Sundance’s annual festival. The January 2009 convergence drew representatives from 50 theaters around the country. A major theme, says Collins, is the need for communities everywhere to acknowledge and support local, community-based, mission-driven movie theaters as cultural resources, along the lines of regional playhouses, museums and libraries.

Collins also runs the Michigan Theater, “the place for serious movie lovers,” a historic movie palace in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Like a growing number of theaters around the country, including McCaffery’s Capri, the Michigan is a not-for-profit enterprise, sustained by memberships, donations, grants and corporate sponsorships.

There are at least 500 independent community-based art house theaters in the U.S., and Collins surmises that there may even be thousands. “There will be more and more every year,” he prophesies, “because film is arguably the most important art form created in the 20th century.”

Collins points to the baby boomer generation, exposed to film societies and film studies during their college years. As this generation increasingly provides the philanthropic lifeblood that sustains community and regional arts endeavors, their interest in film is vital to art house theaters. These types of theaters, which screen harder-to-find indie works, foreign films and even early silent movies, simply can’t rely on box office to stay afloat.

But boomer nostalgia won’t be enough to sustain some theaters. In Montgomery, McCaffery has seen a significant decline in attendance and revenue in recent years. His 2008 box office was down 24 percent and projections for 2009 are even bleaker. While 46 percent of his budget comes from membership dues and donations, he relies on attendance for the remaining 54 percent.

Watching his clientele age, McCaffery laments that young people are not coming to his theater. During speaking engagements at his local college, McCaffery regularly asks students how many have ever, in their lives, watched a movie in a theater. Only half raise their hands.  Read more >>