Leann Owen worked at Charlotte's Eaton Theatre for two decades before she bought it.
Owen, 51, sold tickets, popcorn and candy to customers who walked through the theater's double doors in the city's downtown and oversaw showings of first-run films from the movie theater's projection room.
While she worked Owen daydreamed about the improvements she'd make if the historic theater, a fixture since 1931, was hers.
"I would walk around thinking, 'If I owned it I would...,'" Owen said. "I love it and for a while there I thought they (the previous owners) would never sell it."
Two years ago they did. Owen bought it, took on a mortgage and got to work, turning spaces on either side of the theater into a 1980s-style arcade with vintage games and a virtual reality game space.
"People walk in and they know your name," Owen said. "They come in for the movie and they’ll play games before and after. We don’t make a lot of money but I didn’t buy it to make money."
The theater hosts field trips, free summer movies, weddings, birthdays and anniversary parties and before COVID-19, it was a busy spot on nights and weekends.
Families parked their cars along South Cochran Avenue or in a city lot and took their kids to see the latest Disney flick or blockbuster playing on one of the theater's two screens for $5 a ticket.
That was halted in mid-March, when every theater in Michigan shut its doors. Multiplexes remain dark, awaiting eased restrictions and new release dates for films.
"It’s devastating, and nobody knows what the next week is going to bring, let alone the next month," said Matt Bieth, a movie broker who helps secure the film rights for 28 independently-owned theaters in Michigan and Ohio.
Greater Lansing's three small historic venues — Eaton Theatre, Sun Theatre in Williamston and Sun Theatre in Grand Ledge — face a unique challenge. Their owners must maintain buildings that are nearly a century old while they grapple with the loss of ticket sales during their most profitable season, summer.
"The theater is a fixture in the community," said Lisa Robitaille, who owns Sun Theatre in Williamston with husband Dan. "We have always been there for them. A lot of people ask, ‘When can you open?’ I don’t know, I tell them. Good question."
Nostalgic gathering places
A visit to Sun Theatre in Grand Ledge doesn't come with easy access to plush reclining seats or a concession stand that sells beer and wine, but when you step under the vintage marquee on South Bridge Street to buy tickets there's a good chance you'll meet Isabelle.
Owner Chuck Pantera's dog, a 10-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, often visits the ticket booth, sticking her head under the slot used to exchange money for tickets.
"Everybody pets her and loves on her," Pantera said.
Isabelle is as much a fixture at the theater as the vintage sign that sits above its front door just inside the entryway, depicting a smiling popcorn box, ice cream bar and soda cup with straw.
"You look like you could use a snack!" it reads. "We'll meet you in the lobby."
Nostalgia is as much a part of a trip to the area's three small theaters as popcorn and candy.
You'll find a "cry room" on the second floor of the Sun Theatre in Williamston. It's been there since it opened in 1947, offering seating for six and featuring a glass wall that overlooks the auditorium screen. Speakers inside it broadcast the sound of whatever movie is playing.
The Sun has been in the Robitaille family since the late 1970s. Dan Robitaille has been working there since he was a boy and the couple raised their two children, Madison and Danny, while running it.
The venue is a community gathering space, Lisa Robitaille said.
"We have a lot of regulars that come in and sometimes they don’t even know what film they’re coming to see," she said. "They just want to get out of the house. We have parents who feel comfortable dropping their child off and letting them watch a movie here."
Eaton Theatre's lobby features red walls filled with framed photos and newspaper articles that chronicle it's 89-year history and a chandelier reminiscent of one that hung there when it first opened.
"Bigger theaters have big leather seats and extras but small theaters carry detailed architecture," Owen said. "When you walk in and see that chandelier and see those colors and the arcade it brings back those memories. It just definitely has a warm feeling when you walk in and that’s so important."
In Grand Ledge, Pantera has offered popcorn sales on just a few occasions since mid-March. In April the Sun raised $3,000 for its out-of-work employees selling bags of popcorn that were delivered curbside and then, a few weeks later raised $9,000 for the local food bank.
"My customers are the best in the world," he said. "They step up and take care of each other."
The Eaton and Sun in Williamston have opened for snack sales too. Customers can buy popcorn and snacks from the concession at the Eaton every evening. At Williamston's Sun, it's offered less frequently.
"I have people come in and say, 'Are you okay?'" Owen said. "We’re still here."
But that doesn't mean small theaters aren't struggling, say owners.
Within the first year of when Owen assumed ownership of Eaton Theatre its popcorn machine and projector broke.
"We had speakers going out, things breaking," she said. "It was just one thing after another."
Then COVID-19 arrived in Michigan, theaters shut their doors and a waiting game began.
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When will they open?
In Williamston and Charlotte, the Robitailles and Owen have filled the last four and half months with projects they couldn't have completed while showing films.
At the Sun, the concession area was remodeled, floors were painted and seats repaired. At the Eaton Theatre Owen repainted the interior, remodeled the lobby adding a chandelier and expanded the concession area.
"I had a feeling we’d be shut down longer than expected just because of how things were progressing," Owen said.
A deferment on mortgage payments for the theater and a federal loan have helped her, but Owen has concerns about funding the theater's upkeep if it can't open in August and September.
Heating the Eaton costs anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000 a month, she said.
"I don’t know what to do once winter comes because I have to turn the heat on to keep the pipes from busting," she said. "If we have to start worrying about the furnaces and paying the mortgage again it’s going to be tough. There’s still a lot of uncertainty."
The Robitailles have concerns too. They own the Sun, but still have expenses, Lisa Robitaille said.
"Of course we were concerned with money because the summer time is our busiest time," she said. The season is usually filled with a few blockbuster releases and local families coming to the Sun to watch them while students aren't in school, Lisa Robitaille said.
Small theaters that show new films a few weeks after they arrive in larger venues will lag behind eventual multiplex openings, Bieth said.
"Basically there are no landing dates for these large films," he said. "They can’t commit because they don’t know when larger theaters will open so everything is basically up in the air."
Pantera predicts it will be November before his theater opens. He doesn't worry about the business surviving the pandemic. His overhead costs are low, he said, because he owns the building.
But he does worry about the possibility that more studios will opt to stream new films online rather than in a theater first.
Small theaters in the Upper Peninsula that have opened have struggled to make money playing older movies while they wait, Bieth said. Up front costs for the rights to show the films often overshadow what they make in ticket sales.
"Theaters are big buildings," Bieth said. "They’re expensive to heat, expensive to cool. If you have 10 to 12 people coming in a night, you’ve lost money."
If theaters opened this month, the Sun in Williamston and the Sun in Grand Ledge wouldn't open until sometime in August.
"It’s going to be a really tough time for theaters to open," Lisa Robitaille said. "We could easily social distance. We could rope off every other row and tell people to leave two seats between their group and another, but I'm worried about when we'll be allowed to open. That’s going to really effect us this year because this is our busy time and we’re not showing movies."
Owen said if COVID-19 cases continue to rise, she worries it could be next year before the Eaton can show movies again.
"I’m going to fight hard to make sure we reopen but it is stressful," she said. "I worked really heard to get to this point and I’m not going to give up now. I wanted to bring back the history of the theater for a long time and to give up now, that’s not an option."
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.
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