Son of The South

 

 From the Capri Theatre:

"...only five movies have brought in over 100 people for their four day run, and only one, Son of the South, made it over two hundred and near what we used to call average.

That Son of the South run made us the highest grossing screen for that film in the country.

 But...but...but...The Montgomery's Capri is closed for as long as five weeks because of mechanical failure. Here's the complete explaination:

The reason for closing is our digital projector is out of service due to a bad Integrated Media Block™(IMB) which is sort of the brains of the operation. Because they do not make our projector anymore, the manufacturer no longer makes the IMB, which much to our surprise, is therefore not covered by our extended warranty. We are going to have to pay at least $4,000 to get the third party part and then find someone to install it. I do hope it doesn't take five weeks, but we have to face that possibility.

As an aside,this will be the fourth IMB we have put in the projector. The previous ones were covered by the extended warranty. The current one was giving indications of trouble several weeks ago. It was then we started the process of dealing with a failed IMB. And it still may be another five weeks before we can get it replaced.

If you are wondering how an eight-year-old digital projector could be made inoperable so easily, as I have said before, digital projectors are just computers with big light sources. If the motherboard goes bad on your eight-year-old computer, you probably just buy a new computer. Projectors are much more expensive than your laptop, and we were hoping to get a couple of more years out of this one.

This is not directly related to our problems with Minari, which caused us to cancel a weekend of shows. That was a bad eight-year-old RAID drive which showed no indications of being bad, but was, in fact, digitally ripping up the film. Thankfully, I bought a spare drive last fall, and once we isolated the problem, I put in the replacement drive. Then I bought three more hard drives in case the others decide to fail - they're eight-years-old, too.

I guess the bright side is hard drives that cost $300-$400 each eight years ago now cost about $75.

On the realistic side, we've got lots of other aging digital equipment that can take us out without notice.

While all of this is going on, the house lights have been infected with a gremlin that has already cost us hundreds of dollars trying to track down and repair. So far, every "cure" has lasted a few days and started again.

And you saw, of course, what happened to the marquee.

Our 35mm projectors are over 60 years old and I could probably get them running in less than 24 hours. If only there was film. Progress!

This is probably a good time for an interim report on how the Capri Theatre has been doing since it reopened the day after Thanksgiving last November.

We've certainly had a series of quality films that would have done much better in pre-pandemic times. Several have Oscar Nominations for Best Picture, as well as other noms. Nonetheless, only five movies have brought in over 100 people for their four day run, and only one, Son of the South, made it over two hundred and near what we used to call average.

That Son of the South run made us the highest grossing screen for that film in the country.

All movies are doing lousy almost everywhere they have opened, so much so most of the distributors have stopped reporting grosses. With New York and Los Angeles returning to the fold, maybe we'll again get to see how well films are doing. Or maybe that will be another change in the industry.

If we were a profit oriented endeavor, it would make more sense for us to stay closed, or just close up forever.

We choose instead to open (safely) and continue our mission of providing a venue for those who are able and feel safe doing so, to see movies and have a little bit of normalcy back in their lives. In the last few weeks we were starting to see some regulars returning to the theatre, letting us know they've had both of their shots (I got my first one Tuesday). We are happy to have them back.

Maybe, as vaccinations reach the rest of the community, there will be a surge of movie going. Or maybe the general public has acclimated to streaming and would rather only leave their couches for very special "event" movies. Maybe the showing of movies will become a once in a while very special event thing, with films targeted to niche audiences relegated to streaming and cable.

We just don't know, but we will do our best to adapt.

Part of that adaptation is to make the Capri Theatre more stable, part of which is to make the Capri more of a multi-use venue. This will be a years long process. Our first step is the Marquee Magic campaign.

This campaign is to replace the aging and decrepit marquee with something that better matches the design of the theatre. We will improve the outside look of the theatre, not only making us look good, but also brighten up the neighborhood.

We also plan to retire our debt from the building remodeling a few years ago. This is the most important thing we can do to stabilize the Capri Theatre.

We've got $250,000 to go and lots of people to call for the campaign. We will soon start a crowd funding campaign to finish things off and maybe exceed our $750,000 goal.

During the last year, the Capri supporters have been very generous towards the theatre, making extra donations and renewing their memberships, usually at a higher level. We can never thank you enough for that generosity. It literally kept us going.

We will do everything we can to get open as quickly as possible. We hope everyone will soon be able to come to the theatre to see movies and other presentations.

In the meantime, get your shots when you can and keep wearing your masks, we want you to stay healthy and coming to the Capri.

Stay Well

Wear A Mask - It's The Polite Thing to Do.

Martin McCaffery, Director Capri Theatre