Skip to content

Theatre owners excited to be able to resume operation

Barrhead’s Roxy Theatre tentatively set to reopen on June 17
Jeff Morrison-Roxy theatre-cropped
Barrhead’s Roxy Theatre co-owner Jeff Morrison hands out a serving of freshly popped popcorn during a June 12 popcorn sale. It was one of two sales the theatre has held during its forced closure during the coronavirus pandemic. However, Morrison hopes to reopen the theatre this late this week as movie theatres are a part of the province’s Stage 2 economic relaunch plans. Barry Kerton/T&C

Barrhead residents will soon get to smell and taste freshly popped movie popcorn.

Exactly how soon is yet to be determined, but it may be as soon as June 17, said Jeff Morrison.

"We knew the announcement was coming and that [movie] theatres were included in Stage II of the province's relaunch strategy," he said. "But we thought there would be more time between the announcement and implementation."

Morrison and his wife Elizabeth are the owners of the Roxy Theatre.

Last week the province announced that it would launch Stage 2 of its economic relaunch plan allowing a wide variety of business and institutions to open its doors, movie theatres being among them.

The couple who are long-time Barrhead residents bought the theatre for going on two years ago.

"I was looking for a change," Morrison said, noting he worked at Grizzly Trails Motors in the body shop for many years. "I had always wanted to have my own business, I just wasn't sure what it was going to be."

However, that changed when he and his wife were walking by the theatre one day and saw the for sale sign.

"She has always been a big movie buff, so we decided to make some inquires and we never found a reason to turn back," he said.

Elizabeth's background is in the food industry, working as a cook at many of the community's restaurants.

And by and large, Morrison said they are pleased with their decision but admitted like all business owners, coping with closure due to the coronavirus pandemic has been stressful.

"We could see it coming," he said, adding they were about to decide to close their doors temporarily due to the virus, but Alberta Health Services beat them to the punch.

Morrison added the closure has been a challenge because as a small business owner he has found that they are not eligible for a lot of the emergency relief programs the province and the federal governments have made available.

He said it has also been a challenge to learn what programs they might be eligible for noting the government websites are often scant in detail as well as conflicting information when they called government information lines.

That being said, they recently found and applied for a COVID-19 relief program and he is hopeful they will be successful.

In the meanwhile, the Morrisons are busy getting ready for their reopening.

Morrison said his wife is currently working with their movie brokers to secure films.

Initially, the Roxy Theatre until about the middle of July will show previously released movies due to the difficulty in getting new releases. Due to the world-wide shutdown of theatres, movie distribution companies delayed releasing their selections.

But the upside of that, Morrison said is that it gives them the freedom to select movies from a much larger library. He also added the movie distribution companies have also temporarily relaxed their screen share rule which will allow the Roxy to show more than one movie a day. 

Under screen sharing agreements, which theatres are obligated to follow, they can only show one movie per screen for the length of its run.

With the loosening of that restriction, the Morrisons are also planning to have multiple showing Wednesday through Sunday. On Wednesday and Thursday, they are planning to have a matinee and evening showings. While Friday to Sunday the Roxy would add a late show to its lineup.

Because of the relaxed screen share requirement, Morrison said there is a possibility that they would be showing multiple movies a day, in some cases up to three different ones. For the weekend late movies, for instance, he said they might show a horror film or something intended for an adult audience, such as a rated-R film.

As for the public health restrictions and guidelines, Morisson believes they can easily accommodate them. According to Alberta Health Services, screening rooms would be limited to a maximum of 100 people and that patrons must maintain physical distancing of two-metres. As the Roxy is a 249-seat theatre, Morrison said he said this should be easily accommodated. Appropriate signage will be posted and if physical distancing does become an issue, they may have to bring back the concept on an old-time usher, but he doesn't feel it will come to that.

"People are pretty good about these sorts of things," he said. "I'm just excited that we will be able to open again and entertain people ... from what I am hearing people are also excited that they will be able to go out and see a movie again."

Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com

TOWNandCOUNTRY

COVID-19 UPDATE: Follow our COVID-19 special section for the latest local and national news on the coronavirus pandemic, as well as resources, FAQs and more.

 

 



Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
Read more



Comments
push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks