Bree Maniscalco on Leading Cinema St. Louis

When you guys purchased this movie theater, I felt like around that time, I kept seeing all these think pieces about how movie theaters were dead.

And everybody was just going to stay home, the comfort of streaming.

We can get more options than ever.

We can hit pause when we want to go to the bathroom.

And maybe with all these germs from COVID, we just don't want to go to the movies anymore.

It feels like those think pieces have changed.

Have you seen a shift? People saying, no, I want to go out.

I want to be in person.

definitely i mean first i have to drop a i'm perpetually thanking our board because when we brought this idea to them um it was one of those things we're coming out of covid we saw the theaters that we were using either going up in price becoming less available or sadly two of them are now gone the tivoli's gone plaza front neck is gone so we approached the owners of the high point and said if you ever think about selling We would love to be considered.

And I'm glad that we had that conversation because the timing was right and it all worked out.

And the board was very receptive and didn't say, are you crazy, Bree? We just came out of COVID.

Why on earth would we buy a movie theater? Our president and vice president went to explore it and they then spent the next like three hours at a coffee shop trying to figure out how we could make it happen.

So huge thanks to my board and the donors that helped us cross that finish line to purchase it.

But yeah, it has been sort of this revival.

I think that generation was so starved for community experiences during COVID that now they're discovering sort of this tactile, rich experience that they feel so neglected about.

with.

And so we're seeing so many younger generations come out to the movies.

We were able when we bought the theater, we were able to bring our 35 millimeter back up to running conditions.

So we often play 35 millimeter screenings, which that again, with mainly every audience, but specifically this younger generation, they're really grasping on to that.

They're

seeking

that

out.

Yes.

They want like actual film, not the digital sort of flattened product.

When you guys purchased this movie theater, I felt like around that time, I kept seeing all these think pieces about how movie theaters were dead.

And everybody was just going to stay home, the comfort of streaming.

We can get more options than ever.

We can hit pause when we want to go to the bathroom.

And maybe with all these germs from COVID, we just don't want to go to the movies anymore.

It feels like those think pieces have changed.

Have you seen a shift? People saying, no, I want to go out.

I want to be in person.

definitely i mean first i have to drop a i'm perpetually thanking our board because when we brought this idea to them um it was one of those things we're coming out of covid we saw the theaters that we were using either going up in price becoming less available or sadly two of them are now gone the tivoli's gone plaza front neck is gone so we approached the owners of the high point and said if you ever think about selling We would love to be considered.

And I'm glad that we had that conversation because the timing was right and it all worked out.

And the board was very receptive and didn't say, are you crazy, Bree? We just came out of COVID.

Why on earth would we buy a movie theater? Our president and vice president went to explore it and they then spent the next like three hours at a coffee shop trying to figure out how we could make it happen.

So huge thanks to my board and the donors that helped us cross that finish line to purchase it.

But yeah, it has been sort of this revival.

I think that generation was so starved for community experiences during COVID that now they're discovering sort of this tactile, rich experience that they feel so neglected about.

with.

And so we're seeing so many younger generations come out to the movies.

We were able when we bought the theater, we were able to bring our 35 millimeter back up to running conditions.

So we often play 35 millimeter screenings, which that again, with mainly every audience, but specifically this younger generation, they're really grasping on to that.

They're

seeking

that

out.

Yes.

They want like actual film, not the digital sort of flattened product.