Buoyed by signs of life at the box office, theaters work to get more people in the seats

Right on cue the historically movie-mad Memorial Day weekend came with a New York Times story about Hollywood s desperation to get movie-goers back into theaters for that big bold and larger-than-life IMAX experience Luckily for the Twin Cities Megan Feeney has a similar mission but for different reasons area civics and practices I think really even though movie-going can seem very trivial or that it s just entertainment or a diversion it indeed can be a wholesome nutritious part of our lives declared Feeney sitting in a coffeeshop last week near her Minneapolis-St Paul Film Society office down the block from the St Anthony Main Theater This book Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Public by Robert Putnam talked about our social isolation and it came out in so that has since been exacerbated by social media and this social media loneliness everyone talks about It s about how we ve lost all these institutions that knit us together whether it s religious institutions unions or even local political and civic organizations We just don t tend to gather statistically as much as we used to And he includes media how we consume media and of program television was the first thing that pulled us out of movie theaters and into our homes and isolated us in the way that we consume And his argument is also that there s an opportunity lost with just consuming television and not being out in the world being civic Of curriculum social media has made that ten times worse where you can feel like you re being civic but it requires not walking out of your house Despite the name research is showing that social media is isolating for several people So I just think that going to the movies is such an easy way to get back into the world And it doesn t even have to feel like a civic duty of discipline because going to a movie is rewarding in and of itself It s entertaining depending on what the movie is that you re seeing and you re with other people and I have identified people to be hungry for that through my work with the Minneapolis-St Paul Film Society Related Send a woman to the moon It happened on film in According to Fuel Cycle the coronavirus pandemic caused a dramatic drop in movie theater attendance with global box office revenue falling from billion in to billion in The recovery has been slow with NPR reporting that the first nine weeks of demonstrated improved ticket sales billion but still lagged behind the pre-COVID weeks of billion I know that we re swimming against the tide but it s certainly almost funny that it s become counter-cultural to go to the movie theater declared Feeney Towards that end shortly after COVID abated and social-distancing regulations were lifted Feeney launched the Film Society s Cinema Club On the second Saturday morning of each month at the Main theater the series motto It s like Book Club for Cinephiles presents a new film with Feeney and other film critics leading the pre- and post-film discussions Almost three years after its debut Cinema Club showings are wildly popular and proving all the get-out-of-your-house experts correct We regularly are selling out this -person theater on the second Saturday of every month It s a m it s not even a convenient time really on a Saturday and we fill it up and people are just really excited to be there mentioned Feeney who received a PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota and whose dissertation about movie-culture-as-community-building turned into her book Hollywood in Havana It s so much more rewarding than sitting at home going through the Netflix page looking at the thumbnails and going What do I watch Nothing s curated for you and it s just so unrewarding right I mean I can spend an hour just wasting my time trying to figure out what to watch and right here with the Film Society they curate great films and bring them to this beautiful theater So part of the inspiration for it is the isolation of watching alone and partially the idea of talk cinema at the Mann theaters back in the day and partly inspired by going to the Minneapolis International Film Festival and seeing a Q A and how rewarding that is to indeed think about the film and talk about it with the audience afterwards The word immersion c comes from the Latin immersionem to plunge in dip into sink submerge meaning absorption in certain interest or situation Currently the ability to immerse oneself in any single thought let alone any arts entertainment experience is a challenge Live and recorded music books video games dining out and nature getaways are immersive experiences and not for nothing are all-immersive high-def super screens like Las Vegas s The Sphere and Arte Museum-The Immersive Art Experience franchising Feeney admits to feeling a certain nostalgia for the glory days of movie theaters packed with strangers sharing gasps laughs tears and popcorn while too often the modern movie-going experience has been reduced to movie-staying-in The luxury of in-home streaming comes with real-life options and distractions that abound and intrude and great movies can become part of the furniture As a latest screening of the amazing must-see-in-theaters Sinners proved to this movie lover the in-theater experience is an developing and engaged experience versus a passive one and a shared experience whose charms a large number of people have either forgotten about or never had Feeney I feel like we just kind of have to break the seal and get people to remember to come back once and remember how rich this in fact is To turn off all the distractions and really give yourself over to this film preferably a good film like Sinners that gives you something that you want to think about and talk about with the people that you came with right Proof of concept for me happens over and over again with Cinema Club but this last one we did a French film When Fall is Over and I got the screener and watched this one at home because that s what I do as offerings director I was like Yeah it s good enough let s do this one To do that and then watch it with Cinema Club on the big screen just reinforced that the theater setting enhances viewing every time Related Former Washburn contestant and QB guru Quincy Avery star of new Hulu documentary Being with thoughtful people and I do research ahead of time and give a preamble about the filmmakers work and these themes that I see and so I m more prepared that way too but so is the audience That s not every experience in a movie theater obviously but this text turned out to be so much more rewarding so much richer than what I had experienced at home with the distractions I got so much more out of it I mean I don t remember movies that I ve watched at home They don t stick I need the whole get-away-from-everything-go-experience-it and I ll think about it as I m driving home or talking about it afterwards It just has more resonance Moviemakers desire for audiences to go back to the theater was voiced at this year s Academy Awards when Sean Baker winner of the Best Director Oscar for Anora implored Streaming has its place but there is nothing nothing that compares to sitting in a dark room surrounded by strangers experiencing a story unfold on the big screen If we want independent voices to thrive we need to show up for them We need to buy the tickets fill the seats and keep theaters alive Sean Taubenberger office coordinator for the Film Society agreed with Baker s assessment the other day as he stood in the Main lobby during a matinee showing of another must-see-in-theaters feature the amazing locally made documentary Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted What you see here at the Main is a place for people to get together and experience art together he mentioned Because in a lot of approaches the cinema is essentially an exhibitional space to promote understanding to promote unity to promote the ability to learn You re seeing new perspectives you re meeting people and you re also experiencing these art forms with hundreds of people at times And we deal with a larger issue post-COVID of films that do not have large distribution and are hard to find sometimes and so the fact that we re here it s really critical for us to maintain the ability to show films to people that otherwise they wouldn t be able to see Post-COVID I ve seen people really make an effort to come out and put themselves forward into spaces like these Before COVID I think people took theaters for granted in a certain way But then at a certain point when you spend so much time inside you start dying for the need to be experiencing something with more people than just yourself And there s something that is inexplainable about experiencing something life-changing with hundreds of people at the same time It s like you re all eating the same meal and it s like the best thing you ve ever tasted in your life Megan Sweeney founder of The Minneapolis-St Paul Film Society s Cinema Club in front of the St Anthony Main Theater in Minneapolis Credit MinnPost photo by Jim Walsh To that end area theaters like The Parkway Trylon Cinema The Riverview The Heights Landmark Lagoon now undergoing upgrade renovations and more are answering the call with special screenings and events The new-and-improved Edina Theater has a full bar and reclining seats with seat warmers and a new tenant in the Film Society which hosted the th edition of the International Film Festival on th and France Avenue for the first time last month The Edina Theater is just such an anchor to that neighborhood the th and France business district with the marquee and everything and they were totally open to it stated Feeney And because of that we could bring in films from around the world over seven days But then we had to go out and get the audience and the audience was so there because the owners Mann Theaters and previous owners Landmark have developed a coveted audience of independent and international film-going people It was awesome The force that came back to that theater in April was so great to see Early April right People coming out of hibernation Maybe that s the time that it s one of those times that it is good to be on your couch It s too cold or dark to get out but people came out to see the movies but also see each other and it was just great to see You know the business district not just the theater was a-buzz The scene was validation for Feeney who has been preaching her get-back-to-the-theaters gospel for years Of curriculum there s a time and a place for watching at home you re exhausted you just want to watch a half-hour show or whatever she reported But just remember that there s something different about going to a theater Just remind yourself Go get out there And you can do both right There s a time and a place for consuming content at home and then there s a time and place for making it a social event or a more contemplative event at the theater The post Buoyed by signs of life at the box office theaters work to get more people in the seats appeared first on MinnPost