ALBION — The Bohm Theater is often described as a beacon for downtown Albion.
Opened in 1929, the historic 400-seat venue at 201 S. Superior St. was given new life after becoming a non-profit operated by the Albion Community Foundation, which took over ownership as "Friends of the Bohm" in 2012 following four years of vacancy.
"The revitalization of the Bohm Theater was the kickoff to downtown revitalization in Albion," said Shane Williamson, acting executive director of the Albion Community Foundation. "We are of the mind that if we closed our doors and stopped doing services of some kind, we won’t open back up. And the Bohm has a long history of opening and closing. We don’t want to have that happen."
Most movie theaters in Michigan have been closed since March, when the COVID-19 outbreak created chaos within the industry. In mid-June, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer moved northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula to Phase 5 of the state's reopening plan. The rest of the state is still waiting to get the OK to reopen cinemas.
Calhoun County theater owners are preparing to offer a new experience once they are able to sell tickets again. In the meantime, they are doing what they can to survive the pandemic.
Movie magic
When the COVID-19 outbreak began, Hollywood essentially shuttered, new films shifted to streaming, and studios sent their biggest summer movies packing, either to the fall or all the way into 2021.
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The Bohm Theater, like many across the country, was forced to lay off nearly all of its operational staff.
"What can we do? We don’t want to close and we need to drive revenue," Williamson said. "We were already on a shoestring budget situation before COVID, this just kind of exacerbated it. We went from a place of positivity and said what can we do, and not what can’t we do."
The Albion Community Foundation repurposed some grants that paid for a screen, projector, movie rights, sound and some staffing to offer free outdoor movies on Friday nights in Holland Park and Saturday nights in Victory Park.
The Bohm Theater is also offering a private rental of it's 40-seat Bohm II theater at a 10-person capacity. The cost is $100 for two hours, where groups can bring their own movies, select from the theater's collection, use streaming services and play video game consoles. Guests can remove their face masks once they are seated.
The non-profit has also continued its 'Blues at the Bohm' and 'Bohm Country' concerts, events that are typically ticketed. The concerts have been streamed from the Bohm Theater stage or held outdoors at Stauffer Plaza.
Williamson said the key to the theater's survival is its ability to diversify.
"Movies were the bread and butter, but they were also the hardest," he said. "Hollywood takes so much of that money. Now, all of the revenue we bring in is our revenue, we don’t have to worry about 70% of it disappearing.
"Theaters like ours, we are of the mindset that we would not survive on movies alone after (COVID-19), so, we would love to do first runs and we feel that first runs are important in Albion at the Bohm, and we recognize that second-run movies might be good and allow us to do other things that people want to do."
Running concessions
Scott Moore was literally running concessions at JC Cinema on Aug. 7.
The co-owner and vice president of Moore Theaters, which also has venues in Coloma, Niles, Otsego and South Haven, wore a mask and gloves as he served a long line of cars at the Battle Creek location at 15375 Helmer Road.
As vehicles steadily lined his parking lot from 4-7 p.m. that evening for a weekly curbside delivery service of concession items like popcorn, glazed almonds, hot dogs, nachos and pop.
To meet the demand and ensure a speedy service, Moore personally delivered printed menus to each vehicle and he and two staff members would sprint into the building and quickly return with the items.
"Basically we are looking at other avenues of possible things with movies being put on hold," Moore said. "At the end of the month they have two movies coming out. Possibly we'll be doing some Xbox or Playstation gaming at the theaters, renting your own theater 10 people or less to watch a DVD or Blu-ray."
Moore said the family-owned theater has applied for PPP loans from the Small Business Administration. The National Theater Owners Association is petitioning Congress for support for the RESTART Act, which which will give movie theaters access to partially forgivable seven-year loans covering six months of expenses, as well as additional relief programs under the CARES Act.
When theaters do reopen, Moore said people should expect a "new normal."
"We want people to know that movie theaters will be back up and running and continue to be a great source of entertainment," he said.
'I'm not going anywhere'
The Bogar Theater at 223 E. Michigan Ave. in downtown Marshall has been showing movies since 1939, but has been on hiatus since March.
Mike Lounds, who owns the theater as well as two other downtown businesses, said the Bogar is ready to reopen as soon as permitted.
"I think there is enough people fed up that would come now anyways due to pent-up demand," he said. "We’ve all been watching our streaming service, but one thing we learned is we need an out-of-the-house experience and also get out and have a social experience as well. In the long run, that will stick with people.
"I’m not going anywhere, we’ll be open when we come out of this, it’s just going to be a different business model."
Nick Buckley can be reached at nbuckley@battlecreekenquirer.com or 269-966-0652. Follow him on Twitter:@NickJBuckley
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