Buying a ticket from the person behind the glass screen. Lining up for overpriced popcorn and a drink. Trying to snag a seat in the middle of the theater before the lights turn off.
The memory of going to the movies with friends seems like something from long, long ago in a completely different world from our own. For local, independent movie theater owners, the monumental task of keeping their doors open during a pandemic has felt like an eternity too.
No one knows the struggle of trying to keep a small theater open during a pandemic better than Josh Goldfarb, the owner of what used to be the David Minor Theater in downtown Eugene.
“At the beginning of the pandemic we were taking a wait and see approach,” Goldfarb said. “When we saw that the covid numbers weren’t coming down and people weren’t wearing masks or following the rules, it became clear that this was going to take a very long time.”
The David Minor Theater, named after David Minor, a close friend of Josh Goldfarb’s who died in a tragic bicycle accident, is a community landmark. Known for its quirky and couch-laden atmosphere, hybrid bicycle shop and beer served up to moviegoers on tap, the theater is a destination in Eugene for its showings of cult classics and indie movies.
But when COVID-19 restrictions went into place in March, the theater was forced to close its doors permanently after an 11-year stretch on 5th and Pearl.
Worst of all, Goldfarb said, the pandemic interrupted a massive expansion that was in the works. He and his business partner were part way through expanding to a brand new facility with luxury seating and a beer garden that now likely will never host a moviegoer.
“It was going to be the dream movie theater I always wanted,” Goldfarb said. “We were in the final stages of the reviews of the permits, and then the pandemic happened.”
Goldfarb said he and his business partner had upwards of $300,000 invested into the new location near 13th and Willamette, the gateway to campus. Their hope was to capture more of the UO community by bringing a theater to campus so that students living in the dorms or coming from class could conveniently go see a movie with friends.
When the pandemic hit, banks immediately cut off loans to all hospitality businesses, leaving Goldfarb and his partner dead in the water.
“Without funding we couldn’t move forward; without permits we couldn’t build; and without business at the old theater we couldn’t survive long enough to find out what would happen,” he said.
Goldfarb emphasized that when catastrophes like pandemics hit, it almost always affects small businesses the worst. While big conglomerates can pool their resources and weather the storm, small theaters don’t have that luxury.
“It’s like a hollywood tragedy. What’s bizarre is being so committed and dedicated for so many years of my young adult life and not having a lot to show for it,” he said. “The silver lining for us is that the pandemic didn’t happen two weeks later — from what I understand, we would’ve been on the hook for all the expansion loans.”
While repairing and selling bicycles had never been the true function of the David Minor Theater, the makeshift bike shop behind the building has always been a side hustle for Goldfarb. Now, he’s decided to turn it into a full time job.
His new shop, 360 Cycles, is located on West First Avenue, but he hasn’t fully given up on the dream of once again running a movie theater.
“We’re optimistic that there’s going to be a place for us in Eugene, Oregon, but it might take a while,” Goldfarb said. “We haven’t lost our interest or our enthusiasm, and we still think we’re relevant in the Eugene scene.”
Heading north to Corvallis, Darkside Cinema is the primary indie theater near Oregon State University campus. Owner Paul Turner — known among Corvallis moviegoers for his sarcasm and wit — is someone who has truly seen the ups and downs of the small movie theater industry and knows what it takes to survive.
“Cinemas have been around for a long time,” Turner said. “Something like this is a blip compared to 2008.”
While he recognizes the gravity of the situation, he is confident that Darkside Cinema will come out on the other side mostly intact.
“We are relying on loans, grants and donations to keep from having to close and give up our space,” Turner said. “We’re very lucky our landlord is cool and gets that we are all in this shit together.”
While theaters are still shut down, Darkside Cinema has switched to a “virtual cinema” format where people can stream movies from the theater listings. However, Turner said that there just isn’t enough money in it to support the business.
“It keeps our flag flying, but it is not profitable,” he said. “There is really no way to make money on the scale that we operate upon. Netflix works because of volume.”
With new leadership of the country, Turner said that he’s hopeful President Joe Biden’s more serious COVID-19 response will lead to a quicker end to the pandemic. He said that he’s optimistic that cinemas will reopen by fall and that Darkside Cinema will still be around when the dust settles.
“It’s either that, or we all have to get real jobs. So, we are heavily invested in getting open again,” he said.
Turner believes that while things may seem bleak right now, support from the community post-lockdown will undoubtedly return to pre-pandemic levels.
“Cinemas rock because they are a destination,” he said. “As much as the introverts rally around lockdown, we will have the door coming off the hinges once we can show movies safely again. I’m old. I’ve seen this shit before.”
The last cinema is one every UO student should visit before they graduate (sorry seniors) — the Broadway Metro.
The Broadway Metro is Eugene’s largest independent movie theater, and they show everything from cult classics to indie movies to blockbuster films.
Edward Schiessl, the managing director and co-owner of the theater, said that the pandemic couldn’t have come at a worse time. Unlike the David Minor Theater’s silver lining, the Broadway Metro did recently expand.
“Our overhead is unusually high right now — we just expanded last year, so we are servicing a huge amount of loans in addition to the lease payments on a sizable downtown footprint spanning two addresses,” Schiessl said. “We’ve been essentially surviving on loans, grants and credit cards so far, and it’s been a real scramble.”
While Eugene movie theaters were allowed to open when Lane county went into Phase 2 in June, Schiessl said that it simply didn’t make sense financially to show movies at all. While the Broadway Metro did open for eight weeks in September and October, guidelines restricting them to 15% capacity and half as many showings per day didn’t allow enough ticket sales for it to be a financially viable option.
“Ultimately it was more costly to be open for the public shows than not, so we phased them out in early November,” he said. “For public shows to be profitable, we need to be able to operate at roughly 75% capacity on the weekends and evenings, and that just isn’t going to be a realistic or safe option for quite a while.”
Up until the current freeze, Schiessl said that the Broadway Metro was renting out its theater for private showings of new and classic films for as little as $100, which included a $50 concessions credit. They plan to continue this as soon as Lane County moves out of the “extreme risk” rating.
The theater has also been offering curbside pickup and contactless doorstep delivery of popcorn and growlers. In addition, they’ve started a DVD and Blu-ray video rental library similar to Netflix’s mail-in model where people can trade out movies from their library of over 7,000 choices. Broadway Metro has been wanting to offer these services for a long time and hopes to continue them even after COVID-19 passes, Schiessl said.
But even with these services, the theater isn’t bringing in the kind of revenue it needs to remain profitable. Schiessl said that even between the three streams of revenue, it’s only a fraction of what the theater needs to stay open.
“We’ll limp through one way or another, but it’s going to be a long, brutal road back to being a sustainable business.”
Schiessl said that while he believes that the small theaters in Eugene will recover, they’ll need the full support of the community to do so.
“We’ve been really fortunate so far to have had such strong support from students and other community members that have subscribed to the video library or rented auditoriums for private screenings,” he said.
While these services don’t cover all of the theater’s costs, Schiessl said he was still grateful to the community for helping them get through this difficult time.
“Failure isn’t really an option for us,” Schiessl said. “The path forward remains unclear, but we’ll keep rolling with the punches till we can make our comeback.”
Edward Schiessl sits in a chair inside the empty theatre. Schiessl is the co-owner of Broadway Metro on Willamette St. in Eugene, Ore. Broadway Metro rented out their theatres for private sessions until Gov. Kate Brown extended a state of emergency declaration to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Kevin Wang/ Daily Emerald)
