When it comes to entertainment, Seattle residents have a plethora of choices. Coffee house chats, city park strolls, dinner dates, live music, dramatic and comedic theater, professional sports, and vigorous outdoor activities make the to-do list of most folks. But of all the popular ways Seattleites spend their money and time to blow off steam and indulge in a brief escape from their daily urban routines, catching a movie is up near the top of the list.
There's no doubt The Emerald City is a movie-loving town. Each year the Seattle International Film Festival plays to long lines of casual to die-hard movie fans, and dozens of movie theaters are doing steady business throughout the city's neighborhoods.
The multiplexes, art-house theaters, and gargantuan IMAX screens located downtown and in the city's North End neighborhoods dominate area ticket sales.
However, for nearly a year now Paul Doyle has been building a dedicated core audience of South End movie lovers at his single-screen Columbia City Cinema.
"Things are going reasonably well. People are coming in, liking the place, and telling their friends and neighbors," Doyle observed. "Could we use more customers? Yes we could, but the attendance is growing. It depends a lot on the movie, of course."
Doyle opened the doors of his second-floor, downtown Columbia City movie house in May of 2004 with a healthy dose of community enthusiasm backing him up and a daunting degree of construction debt curbing the profits in his coffers.
"It is my first love," said Doyle, who has been in the movie theater business since the late 1970s.
Show business
Before launching into his Southeast Seattle venture, Doyle had started up three other theaters in the region. His first foray was with the Grand Illusion in the University District, followed by the Grand Tacoma in our neighboring city to the south. The Grand Bellingham in the north Puget Sound college town came next.
Feeling ahead of the curve and fighting both the city and a mound of debt, Doyle struggled to keep the Grand Tacoma financially viable, but he lost the battle mid-way through 1997, the same year he sold the Grand Illusion.
"[The Grand Tacoma] never turned a corner before I lost it," said Doyle, who added that people regularly approach him about a great, thriving theater in The City of Destiny: his old venture, The Grand Tacoma.
Around the same time Doyle had a falling out with his partner at the Bellingham cinema, and for the first time in years he found himself out of the movie business.
"I had the right idea in Tacoma and Bellingham," Doyle asserted. "Both of the theaters are thriving."
Seeking a steady paycheck, Doyle dove into another great love of his: writing. No shirker when it comes to prose, in 1992 Doyle saw 2,000 copies of his first novel, "Nioka, Bride of Bigfoot" published by the Daily Planet Press. While admitting the experience did not financially free him up to write fulltime, Doyle has managed to sell nearly 1,100 copies, all by word of mouth.
With novel writing off the table after he left and sold his theaters, Doyle turned to technical writing and ended up with a gig composing content for Microsoft's MSN.com. Then, in 2003, Doyle found himself down in Columbia City doing some fundraising when he spotted a "for lease" sign on the old Masonic Temple that had been sitting vacant since 2000.
Doyle finally gave into the temptation to look at the temple's space and immediately recognized its movie house potential. A friend of his introduced Doyle to a woman who enthusiastically offered her financial support to create a movie theater in the South End, and Doyle felt inspired to sign the lease.
However, she bailed on the project, but Doyle managed to network among the people he came to know through the woman. A short-lived non-profit organization was formed to raise funds toward the theater's startup costs. The effort managed to help Doyle pay the rent from May until December of 2003, but with more construction and renovation needed, he knew it would go under if more help didn't arrive.
"I went to community leaders, mostly developers, and said look, I know you guys want this to happen, but it's not going to unless you help," Doyle said. "They sent out invitations to participate in this project, and I got enough money to finish it. There were no cash reserves left, no money for rent, and no friends left on my side. But you know, we got open, before we were ready to open, and it's been good ever since. People just love the place."
Coming attractions
With the cinema's one-year anniversary on the horizon, Doyle said he still feels like the proverbial new kid on the block.
"People still come in the door and say they live a block away and are here for the first time," noted Doyle, who later added that getting people to know there's a neighborhood theater in the South End is one of his greatest challenges.
Much like his book, awareness of Doyle's theater has grown largely through word of mouth. While he advertises very little in the local newspapers, Doyle does send out newsletters and theatre updates to an e-mail list people can sign up for in the cinema's lobby or through the website. Other than such necessary, low-budget tactics, the cinema's reputation has been nurtured the old fashioned way by showing movies everybody wants to see.
"I think we've been fortunate. We played "Spiderman," "Shrek II," and "The Incredibles." It's a deliberate strategy," Doyle asserted. "Are they my favorite films? No. I'd rather be playing Sideways. One thing about opening a movie theater is that it's not like opening a restaurant or a retail store. You've got a product that people immediately want."
While filling the seats with blockbusters is an important step in the theater's success, it is only part of Doyle's long-term business vision for the place. According to Doyle, most people don't realize that when he shows a movie he's obligated by his contract with the studios to show the film for a set amount of time while also kicking back a high percentage of their box office gross.
"For a first run, blockbuster movie they take 70 percent of your gross the first week, 60 the second, and 50 the third," stated Doyle. "By the time you might actually make some money, no one's coming."
With construction debt hanging over his head and an upcoming remodel to make the theater's back entrance handicap accessible, Doyle has actively sought out other revenue generating techniques. His most obvious cash cow sits behind the concession stand. Good popcorn, candy, and soda sales represent a high profit-margin niche for Doyle.
Another fund generator sits on the building's first floor. Since last September Doyle has collected rent from Tedros Melengi, who is in the process of remodeling the space, including two bathrooms shared by the theater, for his Mediterranean/North African restaurant. According to Doyle, Melengi has not yet set a date to open up shop.
While popcorn sales and rent collection are crucial revenue streams, Doyle feels his cinema will achieve solid financial success only after he opens up one to two more screens in the neighborhood within a block or two of his current operation.
"It needs to be the Majestic Bay," asserted Doyle in a reference to the beloved, three-screen theater in the heart of downtown Ballard. "A three- screen operation works very well. We could have the three best films in town. If you give people a choice, they'll come here all the time."[[In-content Ad]]
