COVID-19 Updates…Temporary Closure

Dear Stanley Theater Community,

It is as usual our honor to serve our community. COVID-19 has posed some challenges for us to navigate and to make adjustments. Most recently, our largest obstacles have been Hollywood decisions and limitations on crowd sizes.

In case you case you haven’t seen certain updates from multiple movie companies in the news informing customers of movie cancellations, rescheduling, announcements of their new “platform” for how they will change releasing their movies, and movie streaming options…we would like break this down for you.

Hollywood, too, is making business decisions of how to earn the best investment of their product back without earning a loss on an otherwise profitable movie. Factors that they have been considering before releasing their movies:

-Over half of the movie theaters domestically are still closed
-Crowd size limitations
-Customer timid fear of COVID-19
-Profitability
-Streaming window of interest and profiting on opportunity
-Less cost in theatrical distribution of movie print, posters, promos

Therefore, they have been rescheduling movies to fit a better time window to make the most profit with the COVID-19 challenges. Their options are to move the movie date, archive the movie until later, releasing less than mediocre movies from their playlist, or choose to stream the movie online instead.

The “window” of time from when a movie is released to movie theaters screens and then to television screens~ which as a standard expectation of at least 12 weeks (to ensure movie theater exhibition exclusivity) ~has now dwindled to 0 to 4 weeks or skipping the movie theaters all together.

So, where does this leave movie theaters? We are all playing a large game of patience and hoping to maintain our standard bills, if possible. Not every weekend will now entail an opening of a newer feature to play on our screen. In fact, new features offered by Hollywood to play will be minimal to monthly for the next couple of months. Theaters are having to choose older titles or gambling on the less than mediocre movies presented on the box office playlists. This leaves many theaters to eat up their savings or hope to have a minimally profitable movie to help pay the debt that other movies have left in wake.

At the Stanley Theater, we choose to remain patient for the next movie that we feel will be worth opening for. We have tried the older movies playlists and less than mediocre movies which have left us in negative profits. Although we were elated to play The War with Grandpa and Croods 2 these last weeks, these has been to only new movies to play since March.

Therefore, to remain true to our customers while remaining effective through this unprecedented time in COVID-19, we have chosen to remain patient for the upcoming features: Tom & Jerry, Boss Baby 2, 007: No Time to Die, Peter Rabbit 2, Raya and the Last Dragon, Fast & Furious 9 and Cruella.

We will be temporarily closing from December 7th until further notice

Not to fear, we will re-open soon to our loyal patrons. However, there are ways to still support us while we are closed:

-Curbside Popcorn: We will continue to do Curbside Popcorn every weekend Friday and Saturday from 4-8pm. We will be closed on Christmas weekend. This helps us pay our fixed costs so please consider our Delicious Movie Popcorn on your movie nights! You can call ahead, drive-up to order, Stop-in or order online: stanleytheaterpopcorn.square.site

-Gift Card: The purchase of gift cards locally at the theater or online and emailed help us maintain a cash flow, and give the gift of popcorn.
Gift cards can ALSO be used on the Curbside Popcorn Website as a form of payment! Stop by during Curbside Popcorn Hours or order yours online: squareup.com/gift/B6RMC0V5F4PDQ/order
-Private Rentals: We are available for private movie rentals! Whether for a Christmas Party, Birthday Party, Special Event, or just the need to do something unique and rent the whole theater to yourself. Contact theresa@stanleymovietheater.com if you are interested.

Thank you for your understanding and support through these hard decisions.