The 'smarthouse' movies that helped indie theaters survive the pandemic, from box-office flops like 'West Side Story' to hits like 'Dune'
- Indie movie theaters in the US evolved their programming strategies during the pandemic.
- Many played commercial movies with broader appeal like "Dune" and "No Time to Die."
The pandemic has devastated the US theatrical industry. But it's slowly recovering, and indie movie theaters in particular have shown a resiliency as they adapt to the changing market.
Insider recently spoke with operators from arthouse cinemas in the US about how their theaters stayed afloat during the last two years. The most common thread was that they evolved their programming strategies to play big-budget commercial films that they may not have before the pandemic.
Adam Birnbaum, the film programming director for Avon Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut and a consultant for independent cinemas throughout the US, told Insider that many theaters programmed movies with broader appeal.
The movies most commonly cited by the theater operators that Insider spoke to included:
- "Dune"
- "In the Heights"
- "No Time to Die"
- "West Side Story"
One of those theaters was Somerville Theatre in Somerville, Massachusetts. Ian Judge, the theater's creative director, said "Dune" and "No Time to Die" were the most successful movies for the theater last year.
Movies like "Licorice Pizza" and "The French Dispatch," which would typically play at arthouses, performed well too, he said, but not as well as they would have in a normal year. He said the arthouse business "hasn't returned to normal yet."
"Strategically speaking, for better or worse, decisions have been predicated on what movies are being made available," the Avon's Birnbaum said. "You have to make decisions based on what's in front of you."
Indie theaters had to attract different demographics during the pandemic
"West Side Story" was Avon's most successful movie last year, Birnbaum said, even though it flopped at the overall box office. The Steven Spielberg-directed remake, which cost $100 million to produce, made just $38 million in the US.
"'West Side Story' is a perfect example of a movie that with a robust movie pipeline, it might not have been a movie we would have played in the past," he said. "But it felt like the right movie at the time."
Andrew Mencher, the programming and operations director for Avalon Theatre in Washington, DC, called these "smarthouse" movies. He said any arthouse cinemas that weren't expanding their programming were "further behind."
Mencher said the best-performing movie last year for the Avalon was "In the Heights," another musical that underperformed at the box office on the nationwide scale with $30 million (it was available simultaneously on HBO Max). But for the Avalon, it was the first movie shown at the theater after over a year of being closed due to the pandemic.
The movie was also one of the standouts last year for Chicago's Music Box Theatre, said the general manager, Ryan Oestreich. The theater, known before the pandemic for playing new arthouse dramas alongside classic films and cult horror favorites, even played "Godzilla vs. Kong" last year.
"Our demos trended on the older side, but now it's the 20-and-30-somethings coming out," Oestreich said.
Arthouse cinemas are still doing what they're best at
Just because indie theaters have adapted to the changing market, doesn't mean they've given up on what made them popular in their local communities.
The execs that Insider spoke to said they're still playing arthouse films, but that they are fewer and farther between now. The Anthony Bourdain movie "Roadrunner" and the Nicolas Cage-starring "Pig" were hits for Cinema 21 in Portland, Oregon, according to the theater operator Tom Ranieri ("Pig" was filmed in Oregon and the director, Michael Sarnoski, visited the theater last year, Ranieri said).
They are also still programming events that set them apart from the larger theatrical chains.
The Texas Theatre in Dallas, for instance, was renovated while indoor screenings were shut down during the pandemic, and added a second screen for the first time since it opened in 1931. The second screen allowed it to play more popular movies, like "Spider-Man: No Way Home," said Barak Epstein, the owner.
But it also offers repertory programming of older films like "A Clockwork Orange," which sold out in September, and throws events, like a screening of "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2" with a live drag show.
"We don't have all of our eggs in one basket," Epstein said.