On the left hand side of the main lobby in the Broadway Metro, an old movie projector sits next to a concessions stand with taps for alcoholic drinks — and, during pre-COVID times, a kitchen where quality meals are prepared for film watchers. Down the hall and to the left is the older part of the theater, where retro movie posters line the walls of a small, intimate space. The red carpeted floors create a cozy feeling that only grows when you enter a theater about a quarter of the size of what you get at a Regal.
This is the experience at the Broadway Metro, Eugene’s only independent movie theater to survive the pandemic.
COVID-19 lockdowns were “pretty devastating” for the theater, Edward Schiessl, the managing director and primary owner of the Broadway Metro, said. “Like most cinemas, we were shut down for most of the last year. When we weren’t shut down, we had lots of restrictions on capacity and food and drink, which is the only place we really make money.”
Open since 2013, the multiplex theater originally had four smaller auditoriums with an entrance on Broadway Street in downtown Eugene. Shortly before the pandemic, the theater finished developing a two million dollar expansion and only recently finished connecting the original multiplex to the new development on Willamette Street, which has three large theaters and a new lobby to feed all seven theaters, Schiessl said.
Because the expansion was completed just before the pandemic, the shutdown had a more devastating impact, he said. Governmental financial support was based on 2019 taxes — from before the expansion was in operation. The theater has managed to stay afloat with grants and loans as well as side operations such as allowing theaters to be rented out with concessions and renting from a library of 11,500 DVD and Blu-ray videos on a subscription basis. Yet the Delta variant has led to fewer visitors and another stretch of lower income, Schiessl said.
“If we can limp along with some reasonable attendance, we could probably stretch for a year or more,” he said. “But if we have to fully shut down or there’s 12 people a day like there was yesterday, that’s going to get us 5 or 6 months at best before we’re out of money.”
Although indie theaters have struggled during the pandemic, with beloved local theaters like the Bijou and David Minor Theater closing down, many community members still value the unique experiences they provide.
“The viewing experience was so intimate,” Ella Hutcherson, a UO student who recently visited the Metro for the first time to watch the indie movie “Lorelei,” said. “It’s got that small feeling that I think is really special in a movie theater that’s not one of those chains.”
Indie theaters have the freedom to play lesser known or unconventional films that aren’t found in mainstream theaters. “The Metro was initially a supplement [to another theater], but just sort of gained its own identity,” Schiessl said.
Becoming an independent theater, rather than being tied to a parent theater, allowed the Metro to “get more of the buzzy indie stuff” as well as mainstream films, he said.
“We have a fair amount of indie films that are sort of off the beaten bath, that are future cult classics,” Schiessl said. “We play a lot of things that are very small movies, but they’ll end up playing for a long time just by word of mouth.”
A community of regular Metro attendees will come to see small-budgeted movies like “Pig”: a Nicolas Cage film about an Oregon hunter returning from the wilderness to discover his pig was stolen. Small films, like “Pig,” with little recognition nationwide are played for weeks on end at the Metro because praise spreads like wildfire through Eugene’s community of indie film lovers, Schiessl said.
The Broadway Metro is also a meeting place for a wide variety of film-loving communities and festivals. It has hosted the DisOreint Asian American Film Festival, Encircle Films, filmmaking groups like the Lane County Filmmakers and the Eugene Film Society, for which Schiessl is a board member.
“We have the ability to be kind of an anchor and a venue to match those groups together,” Schiessl said, “because we have this large audience of just film enthusiasts, and all these groups do programming and filmmaking.”
Like many moviegoers, Hutcherson appreciates that independent theaters provide an opportunity to see movies that “are really good,” but not well known. Buying tickets for these movies also supports independent filmmakers during a challenging time for indie films, Hutcherson said.
“You’re doing a service to the film just by going to the theaters,” she said. “I don’t know what more you would ask from a movie going experience.”
