By KEVIN HARDEN/Oregon Capital Bureau
Movie theater owners across Oregon who have spent a tense year watching their revenue drop to nearly zero hope new legislation offers financial relief.
A bill introduced March 16 by Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland, would fund state grants for movie theaters hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. House Bill 3376 provides the Oregon Business Development Department $8.7 million to create a grant program for indoor movie theaters. Grants could be $50,000 per movie theater, plus $10,000 for each screen, if theaters have more than two screens.
The House Committee on Economic Recovery and Prosperity was scheduled to take up the bill during an online public hearing and work session Thursday.
Currently, movie theaters in counties with lower COVID-19 risks can reopen with 50% capacity. Most also can sell concessions under updated state guidelines.
Members of the Pacific Northwest Theatre Owners Association approached Nosse in the past few months about providing some state financial help. A handful of other states and cities have provided similar grant programs to theater owners.
Nosse’s bill could give grants to all theaters in the state, including large chains like Cinemark and Regal. Nosse said the bill could be amended to “just focus on theaters that are small and primarily locally owned.”
Will state grants be enough to keep some struggling local theaters afloat? Absolutely, says Tom Ranieri, owner of Portland’s Cinema 21. “Basically it was a wipe-out year,” he said. “Getting that money, if it comes, we feel like it would be a lifeline for us. It could help stop the flow of red ink and hopefully let us make it to the other side of this.”
Drew Kaza, owner of Sisters Movie House in Central Oregon, sees hope in the legislation. He doesn’t like the look of small theaters’ future in the state without financial assistance.
“We’re on the brink of dying,” Kaza said. “If we don’t want to see movie theaters become extinct in this state, we need to do something to help them.”
Even if state grants are provided, both Ranieri and Kaza said the next few months could be a wild ride for independent theater owners because of limited first-run film releases and competition from streaming services.
“I really think we’re going to have a rough patch between April and September since nobody knows what’s going on,” Ranieri said. “We’re going to take baby steps to return to some sort of normalcy.”
Fees stay the same
It’s been more than a year since Gov. Kate Brown signed two executive orders as part of COVID-19 safety measures that effectively shut down indoor movie theaters, live theaters, restaurants, bars, pubs, gyms, barber shops and similar businesses. Some restaurants and pubs were able stay afloat by offering takeout food but no indoor dining.
Movie theaters, especially small independent theaters, weren’t so lucky. Unless they could sell popcorn, candy and soft drinks through the front doors, they weren’t operating.
It didn’t sit well with many theater owners as they watched nearby restaurants and pubs reopen with limited indoor seating.
“My business wasn’t allowed to operate even when restaurants and other businesses were,” said Jeff Martin, owner of Tigard’s Joy Cinema. “The Joy Cinema was, in fact, the only business on our stretch of (Highway) 99W that was ordered to not operate by the state through the entire course of the lockdown. Yet my fees to the state, city and county have remained the same as always.”
Newberg’s 350-seat Cameo Theatre wasn’t able to show movies, but owner Brian Francis sold concessions on weekends to make a little money. Francis also operated the 99W Drive-in Theater with about 50% capacity, which helped keep his company’s head above water.
That little bit of revenue won’t be enough for his two theaters to survive, Francis said. “We would be very much in favor of this bill,” he said. “For example, our downtown indoor Art Deco Cameo Theatre, through all of the periodic openings and closures, managed to attract about 3,400 paid admissions in 2020, which was down a shocking 14,050 admissions over 2019.”
Other theater owners tell a similar story. Kaza’s four-screen, 315-seat Sisters Movie House, which includes a small café, has seen its revenue drop between 70% and 95% in the past year. Ranieri’s Cinema 21, which expanded seven years ago to three screens and about 600 seats, was able to host private showings through part of 2020, but that ended in mid-November and didn’t bring in enough revenue to keep the doors open. He hopes to continue private screenings through March and reopen to the public in late April, in time for the summer movie season and the Oscars.
William McElderry of Skylight Entertainment Inc., owner of the Hood River Cinemas, said his revenue dropped about 97% last year. “All our theater employees are gone,” McElderry said in testimony submitted for the committee hearing. “We have no guarantee that ‘normal operations’ will return anytime soon. The goalpost has moved so many times that we really have no clear picture when, or even if, we can open and cover costs, let alone make a profit.”
Federal funds for some
HB 3376’s possible grants aren’t the only source of funds that local theater owners could tap. Federal and state programs adopted last year offered millions in funds for small businesses like indoor movie theaters. The $349 billion Paycheck Protection Plan included in the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, provided funds to keep small-business employees on the payroll. In mid-July 2020, Oregon lawmakers allocated $50 million of the federal funds to theater venues and other cultural groups. Indoor movie theaters weren’t included in the program.
Ranieri and Kaza said the PPP funds didn’t offer much help to independent movie theaters because they usually don’t have big payrolls. “Unlike restaurants, we don’t have a high number of employees,” Kaza said. “But we still have fixed costs.”
In the amended federal CARES Act, adopted in early March, independent indoor movie theaters could be in line for part of the $16.25 billion Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program. Applications for the program should be available beginning April 8 through the U.S. Small Business Administration. Indoor movie theaters forced to close during the pandemic could be eligible for grants of up to 45% of their gross 2019 revenue through the program.
Need some relief
Independent theater owners are throwing their support behind HB 3376. More than four dozen people, most of them theater owners or employees, submitted testimony in favor of the measure prior to Thursday’s hearing.
Act V Theaters owner Robert H. Perkins III of Beaverton, which operates the Cornelius Cinemas and owned the now-shuttered Forest Theater in Forest Grove, said the legislation would be important to keep the small businesses open. “My company is pretty much at the breaking point,” Perkins said. “But I am determined to see this crisis through.
Leah Tillotson, co-owner of St. Helens’ Columbia Theater and the Mt. Hood Theater in Gresham, said support of HB 3376 should reflect the public’s support for local, independent theaters.
“The people of Oregon have always supported these historic one-screen theaters,” she said. “We will need help if we are going to make it. Oregon would not be the same place without these unique and valuable theaters.”