The Last Picture Show? Small movie theaters remain hopeful despite shutdowns

Small independent movie theaters are among many businesses closed right now, as they are not considered essential in the fight against COVID-19.

However, from the Monadnock Region to the White Mountains, a small movie theater is often an essential part of small-town life in New Hampshire, adding culture and bolstering other businesses, as well as community connections.

Whether privately owned or a nonprofit, these businesses rely on their communities at the best of times.

“Basically, it’s a tax write-off,” said Vanessa Amsbury-Bonilla, who owns the Peterborough Community Theatre with her husband, Kevin Goohs.

When the longtime Peterborough residents bought the theater — which opened as The Gem in 1914 — a year and a half ago, they knew they would have to keep their day jobs.

“It basically doesn’t make any money,” she said. “We wanted to continue the theatre for the community, so we took it on and we will continue to do that.”

Because of this year's Oscar season, the theater was in a good place financially when it closed several weeks ago as a measure to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Over in the White Mountains, Bethlehem’s Colonial Theatre, which opened in 1915, has always been seasonal, open from May to October. For the past two decades, it has been a nonprofit, serving its community in numerous ways, said Stephen Dignazio, executive director at the Colonial Theatre.

“Since our job is to get a whole bunch of people in one place, that’s kind of counter-intuitive right now. Of course, we’re nervous about it,” he said.

Last week, however, before Gov. Chris Sununu’s Stay at Home order that is in place until at least May 4, Dignazio said he was hopeful of the theater opening on time. The theater’s planned opening date was May 2.

“So obviously, that’s not happening. We haven’t made any decisions so far as to when we’ll open," he said this week.

Amsbury-Bonilla said she is hoping her theater will not have to rely on any business loans being made available, but said she knows the support from the government is there.

“Certainly COVID-19 is having an effect on all businesses, large and small, and especially those, like movie theaters, who can’t adapt their services to include social distancing,” said Lorna Colquhoun, communications director at the N.H. Division of Economic Development Business and Economic Affairs. “The Department of Business and Economic Affairs has created a business resource page in which we have links to topics of interest to small businesses, including contact information with the Department of Employment Security, if they have layoff employees; public health update, and loan and grant programs.”

The resource page includes a link to federal resources available to New Hampshire businesses bolstered by the recently established federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which made a $350 billion loan program available to businesses with fewer than 500 employees.

“Businesses that are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are encouraged to check out what is available to them, from Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the Small Business Administration, to programs like the Capital Access Program, a flexible credit enhancement offered by New Hampshire banks. The Community Development Finance Authority has several programs, including grants, loans and tax credits and the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center offers has advisors who can help business owners with their concerns, from cash flow to supply chain interruptions,” Colquhoun wrote. “These are challenging times, but there are resources available for small businesses all over our state to help them mitigate the effects and we encourage them to check our resource page and get connected with organizations and programs that can help.”

Amsbury-Bonilla said the Peterborough Community Center has a symbiotic relationship with the community. Essentially, the theater is there for the community and the community is there for the theater, she said.

This week, she put out a call for donations and is selling gift certificates and “Corona Coupons” on their website (http://pctmovies.com). Corona Coupons cost $20 and will be available for pickup once the theater is reopened. The coupon gets theatergoers 50 cents off any size popcorn for an entire year, and the first 25 customers are to get a free travel mug.

“Our outlook is really good. I’ve had a wonderful community response to the campaign I put out there,” Amsbury-Bonilla said. “The community is such an important part of the theater. We advertise ourselves as the Peterborough Community Theatre, recognizing that without the community we wouldn’t exist.”

On top of the campaign, the theater’s landlord told them they could to skip April rent, she said.

“She was really, really kind. We’re going to be fine,” Amsbury-Bonilla said. “I feel like we will survive; we will have no troubling getting through.”

The Colonial Theatre is both an art-house movie theater and a venue for live events, Dignazio said.

“We do touring artists,” Dignazio said. “We generate our own film series. We do live kids’ entertainment during July and August. … We’re kind of a community cultural center.”

The theater’s nonprofit mission includes arts preservation as well as historic preservation and economic development for the community. Because of all that it does to partner with and fundraise for the community, it receives and relies on grants to keep its doors open.

“We partner with just about anybody. Fundraising for them and that kind of thing,” he said.

Dignazio said that, based on his experience with government aid during the 2008 Recession, he is confident the government support will be there. However, he is worried what would happen if the season were to be canceled this year.

“We’ve had a couple of banner years,” he said. “For right now I don’t really perceive this as an existential threat for the theater, but if we have to be closed for the whole season, it could be challenging for next year. … Everybody’s in a state of flux right now.”

While many movie theaters, including drive-ins, are closed till further notice, in Jaffrey, the Park Theatre has launched an online effort to keep audiences engaged. Construction of the Park Theatre, which took about 10 years for grassroots organizers to raise enough money enough to start, is nearing its planned mid-2020 opening. Last month, the theatre announced in a press release it would be producing a livestreamed program as well as have a website dedicated to streamed movie recommendations “to help people confined at home be entertained and informed.”

The twice-weekly Monadnock Tonight! is a 30-minute program started March 24 and has been hosted by Steve Jackson, CEO and managing director of the Park Theatre, and has included guests such as classical guitarist Ted Mann and pianist Virginia Eskin. The show also includes interviews with health officials and state and local government representatives. It airs Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5 p.m. The program is broadcast live simultaneously on Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Periscope, Twitter, and Vimeo.

The Theater also introduced ParkPixFlix, a curated website with the Park Theatre’s picks of films of all genres that are available free online.

“There will be a great deal of time spent at home. We felt the Park Theatre could add something positive to the lives of our communities during this unsettling period. These programs will be produced by and produced for the Monadnock Region. We can’t wait to unwrap the new Park Theatre to the public later this year. Until then, we are going to bring the Park Theatre to the people,” Jackson said in a press release.

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