Throughout the past decade, the role of movie theaters in American society has felt like a rollercoaster. Their popularity in the 2010s was high, but the COVID-19 pandemic drastically limited audiences for a few years. Then, as people became eager to be active in their communities again, popularity surged — especially with the “Barbenheimer” boom in 2023. However, since the pandemic and the rise of streaming services, overall attendance has decreased, leaving an impact on what it’s like to go see a movie as well as theaters’ roles in their communities.
Movie theaters are certainly a vital part of a community, including for Mayah Grover ’28, who shared the importance of movie theaters during her middle school years.
“The movie theater was the place to go … there’s something so important about seeing films the way they were meant to be seen — on these big screens — given all the work that’s put into producing them.”
Film & Media Studies professor and department founder Robert Sickels, who goes to the Cinemark in Walla Walla once a week, agreed. He said that seeing a movie on a big screen was like seeing a piece of art in a museum.
“The difference between looking at a picture of a painting in a book and seeing the painting in real life [is that] you’re seeing it in its purest form,” said Sickels.
A movie theater can serve as more than just a place to watch movies. It can be a community gathering place and an easy way for people to spend time with their friends and loved ones.
“Sometimes it’s less about the movie and more about finding a place to be with the people you care about,” said Grover.
Sickels also agreed with this notion that attending movies with others has benefits, such as conversations sparked from the movie.
“In intro to film studies, we go to the actual movie theater, at least once a semester, and it’s just the best… everybody’s really into it, and the conversation afterwards is always really great,” Sickels said.
Sickels also said that the ability to see a movie right when it comes out is exciting.
“We watched ‘One Battle After Another’, and it was thrilling … we were part of the culture in the moment that it was happening,” he said. “To be able to experience that was really cool.”
As movie theaters have become less prioritized in American culture, they’ve started to struggle financially and have to work harder to compete with online streaming services. Brent Lang wrote in an article for Variety that this struggle may have been a result of the pandemic. Post-pandemic, he said, “studios began producing fewer and fewer films and people fell out of the habit of going to theaters.” Even years later, these effects are still at play. Lang added that in 2024, box office revenue was down 23.5% from what it was before the pandemic.
This can be detrimental to the communities that build theaters and rely on them to stay afloat. Independent theaters especially depend on consistent engagement from the community – something that if done right can create vast amounts of good. The threat of streaming services and a trend away from prioritization of community spaces, however, mean that rallying to support independent theaters is more crucial than ever.
Passionate about the importance of theaters in communities, Rob McIntyre is the founder of the Gem Theatre in Athena, Oregon. After being closed for over half a century, 20 years of work culminated two weeks ago at their sold-out grand opening. Two concerts and one movie, all within one weekend, marked the end of tremendous effort from volunteers to create a new third space for their community.
McIntyre said that even before the opening, the project brought the community together, with over 70,000 hours across 400 volunteers of all ages helping to turn the shell of the building into a welcoming theater.
He added that the process of creating the theater as a community added something special to the space.
“There’s a vibe in there that you pick up when you walk in,” he said. “We left some sincerity. We left it on the walls, on the floor, in the ceiling and in the light fixtures.”
This kind of “vibe” can only occur in places like this that are built with the community in mind.
“And it’s likely going to bleed into the way it’s run,” McIntyre said. “We’re not trying to get rich off this … We’re providing it as an experience for our region that people just don’t have.”
Independent theaters seem to be holding up the traditional notion of what a theater is, while corporate theaters have shifted toward the other end of the spectrum. Corporate ones are heading towards a glamorous display of dress-up and themed popcorn buckets — if fans go to an AMC, for example, they will soon be able to buy 10 different merchandise and concessions items based on “Wicked: For Good” — while independent ones are sticking to the popcorn and projector.
Sickels said that while independent theaters have special elements that draw in certain audiences, the Cinemark in Walla Walla is an example of a corporate theater that is doing what independent theaters can’t. He said the Cinemark took over a space that used to house an independent theater called Hallett Cinemas, and since then, the variety of movies shown has greatly increased.
“They bring in all these anime films, [and] the Ghibli Fest … they’ve played a bunch of Korean films [and] Indian films,” he said. “That never happened under Hallett. So in this instance, that corporate ownership has actually been a boon for filmgoers in the community.”
McIntyre, however, emphasized that staying affordable and accessible is crucial, and that is something that’s hard to find in corporate theaters. A standard ticket at the Cinemark, for example, is almost $13 with tax. The Gem, McIntyre said, will try to cap its ticket price at $5 for movie showings.
“[We’ll] probably give our popcorn away for free,” he said, “so that means for $20, a family of four can go to a movie and have a bag of popcorn.”
McIntyre explained why this was important to him, referring to the Gem’s home of Athena, Oregon.
“We are underserved, out here, in the arts,” McIntyre said.
For example, he described a group of elementary school students that came to visit the theater while it was still in progress.
“They talked about it for weeks afterwards,” McIntyre said. “Most of those kids had never been to a theater to watch a movie.”
He said the Gem will aim to stay affordable so that any family can have the opportunity to go see a show — something that hasn’t been an option for people in the area.
Staying affordable will also likely be beneficial to the theater’s community as a whole. The Gem will help the community in indirect ways.
“A theater makes a community more livable … Maybe we’ll have some young families move to our town because of [institutions like the Gem],” McIntyre said. “That’s more students for the school, which translates into more money for the school.”
The Liberty Theater in Dayton, Washington is another nearby example of how such a small venue can have an effect on its community.
“I love how they kept it simple … and didn’t turn it into another mega theater,” one reviewer wrote.
They mentioned that the care that’s put into a theater “keeps a town alive,” and that they enjoy having “such a creative artistic community.”
The Liberty Theater describes itself as “a unique community place.” Like the Gem, they also aim to provide access to art in a place where it is limited.
“During a time when public school funding for the Arts has suffered, we are constantly pursuing our mission to preserve and enhance the Arts in Columbia County and Southeast Washington State as an indispensable dimension to our shared ecology and humanity,” their website reads.
While Walla Walla proper is somewhat limited in independent theaters, the Gesa Power House Theatre shows plays, concerts and other performances, and the Little Theatre of Walla Walla puts on plays and musicals.
Ultimately, whether corporate or independent, movie theaters remain essential spaces where art and community intersect. They offer shared experiences that streaming simply can’t replicate. In preserving and supporting these spaces, communities invest not just in entertainment, but in the cultural heartbeat that keeps them connected.
