The Sierra taken off death watch
By ANDREW MCGINN
There’s always that point in an action movie when the hero very nearly buys the farm — flattened by a train, impaled on spikes, unable to leap from a burning helicopter.
But in true Hollywood fashion, they avert the unthinkable with not a moment to spare.
A month ago, the board of the nonprofit Sierra Community Theatre was coming to terms with the worst — that there may not be a Hollywood ending in real life for a movie theater free-falling toward a pit of spikes.
With movie theaters everywhere facing an extinction-level threat from the pandemic, the board that oversees Jefferson’s historic, single-screen theater projected in October that it would be broke in December.
It was a good run: 1884-2020.
But then a lifeline appeared in the form of an announcement on Nov. 5 from the office of Gov. Kim Reynolds that the state is allocating up to $5.5 million of federal CARES Act funds for the Iowa Movie Theatre Relief Fund.
The program will provide up to $10,000 per-screen of short-term relief for eligible Iowa movie theaters hurt by the ongoing public health crisis.
The Sierra applied for assistance “by the end of the first day,” board president Tom Wind said.
Then, on Nov. 19, the Grow Greene County Gaming Corp. strolled into the theater with a surprise check of its own for $5,000, one of two surprise Give Back Awards presented that day by Grow Greene from its pot of casino gambling revenue. (Adopt-a-Family, which provides holiday food to local families in need, received a surprise check for $5,000 as well.)
“We’re in a whole lot better position now,” Wind said, calling the combination of state-directed aid and local grant money a “lifesaver.”
Applications to the Iowa Movie Theatre Relief Fund were due Nov. 16. The Sierra hasn’t yet been approved, but Wind sees no reason it won’t be.
As detailed by Reynolds and the Iowa Economic Development Authority, the total amount allocated would cover all 550 movie screens in Iowa.
“For our theater,” Wind said, “it’s a sizeable chunk of money.”
Wind said there had been some lobbying on the part of movie theater owners in Iowa who knew of unspent federal CARES Act money.
Sierra board member Jim Daubendiek made some calls, Wind said.
Like all theaters in Iowa, the Sierra spent this past April darkened on the governor’s orders to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. But when the Sierra finally reopened the first week of June, a showing of “Back to the Future” did just $69 in ticket sales and zero in concessions.
Attendance at the Sierra is down to an average of 36 per week, compared to 208 per week in 2019 and 241 in 2018. Crowds are wary of the virus, and Hollywood has slowed new releases down to barely a trickle.
The local theater has gone dark Mondays and Tuesdays as a result.
Without a congressional lifeline, it’s expected that 69 percent of small- and mid-sized movie theater companies will be forced to file for bankruptcy or close permanently, according to a joint letter dated Sept. 30 to Senate and House leadership from the National Association of Theatre Owners, the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association and a who’s who of directors and producers, including Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese.
The letter asked that Congress use unallocated funds from the CARES Act or enact new proposals to save the theater industry.
Nationally, that is yet to happen.
“Throughout this pandemic, we have worked to find a balance to protect the lives and livelihoods of Iowans,” Reynolds said in a statement. “In so many small towns and rural communities, a movie theater can be the lifeblood of main street.”
Taken together, the unexpected money will give the Sierra life beyond December — potentially up to three months, Wind said.
Hopefully, by then, a vaccine is ready and the Sierra gets the proper Hollywood ending it deserves.
- Log in to post comments