Movie Theaters Fight to Stay Open

Kathleen Freiburger saw her first movie ever at Park Theatre, a small movie theater in Wisconsin’s Northwoods.

She’ll never forget seeing “Titanic” there when she was in high school after waiting in a long line that ran down the sidewalk. As an adult, she’d often bring her children to see movies like “Cars” and “Frozen.”

“It was always just a nice small town theater,” Freiburger said. “It was something special to have in town.”

She and her husband now own the theater in Park Falls, a small city of around 2,400. But the historic movie house, which opened in 1950, will roll the credits for the last time at the end of November. During a time when more people are streaming movies at home, Freiburger said they were no longer able to make the business profitable.

“It’s really hard for a small town, one-screen theater to survive,” she said.

Freiburger said the movie theater was important to the community. Besides a bowling alley, she said there aren’t many other forms of entertainment for residents of the two-stoplight town.

“It’s sad, it’s heartbreaking, because it’s such a piece of history for our town,” she said.

Movie theaters were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced some cinemas across the nation to close. A poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that more people are now choosing to stream movies at home.

Trying to get people to go to the movies in a small town is even harder, Freiburger said.

“When you can stay home and just stream a movie, I think most people are going to do that,” Freiburger said.

In 2024, movie ticket sales were down 23.5 percent compared to pre-pandemic numbers, according to a Variety report. Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece, the director of film studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said the challenges that independent movie theaters face are often heightened in a smaller community.

“When you’re in a small population area, you already face a lot of struggles in terms of balancing what kinds of mainstream versus more niche films your very small population wants to see,” Szczepaniak-Gillece said.

Szczepaniak-Gillece said most cinemas make the majority of their revenue from concession sales. That’s true in the case of Park Theatre, according to Freiburger, who said selling candy and popcorn is essential.

But Freiburger knows some people sneak in their own candy.

“When people do that, then we’re making no money whatsoever,” Freiburger said.

Szczepaniak-Gillece said it can also be difficult for smaller movie theaters to work with the larger movie distribution companies, which can dictate how long a movie plays or require advance payments.

“It’s almost impossible to make any kind of profit when they’re not willing to work with you,” Freiburger said.

Park Theatre started hosting comedy events and concerts in recent years. But that wasn’t enough to keep the business afloat.

“It’s just becoming too much of a financial burden on us personally to be able to keep it going, especially with winter coming and the heating bills,” Freiburger said.

Lee Barczak and his wife own the Neighborhood Theater Group, which operates the Avalon Atmospheric Theater, Times Cinema and Rosebud Cinema Drafthouse in the Milwaukee area. Barczak said his ticket sales are down around 38 percent compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like Park Theatre, Barczak also said he makes most of his revenue from concession sales.

“That’s why food and beverage sales become absolutely crucial to every movie theater,” Barczak said. “You can’t make enough to have any kind of a profit just on tickets.”

Some movie theaters are thinking outside of the box to stay alive. But Szczepaniak-Gillece said she believes it’s not about having an arcade in the building or other amenities.

“It’s about tapping into what people in the area want to see,” Szczepaniak-Gillece said. “It’s about inspiring them in terms of what the movies can be like and how it can be a community experience again, and it’s about reminding them that there’s a certain magic there that you just can’t access at home in the same way.”

The Rivoli Theatre in Cedarburg opened in 1936. Housed in a former dry goods store, the movie theater has been a staple in the heart of Cedarburg for decades.

These days, the cinema is almost completely run by volunteers. Jerry Voigt helps manage the hundreds of people who step up do everything from taking tickets to selling concessions.

“So the volunteers, that’s our core workforce,” Voigt said. “And again, you couldn’t operate it (theater) if we had to pay people to run the concession center, take tickets and oversee the whole operation — it wouldn’t work.”

The single-screen cinema hosts private birthday parties and shows many older movies, as well as Christmas movies during the holiday season. The theater also has a donation jar which sits on the concession stand. Last year, that brought in $15,000.

“It’s something where the community totally supports the Rivoli (Theatre) and they would not let it go,” Voigt said. “They would not let it close.”

Listen to the WPR report

Park Theatre in Park Falls will close for good at the end of November was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.