The unique ways Portland movie theaters have survived the pandemic

By George Pritchard ’23

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, movie theaters around Portland have created new ways to stay in business. 

Many industries have been hit because of COVID-19, including the movie industry. Box office sales plummeted, and many theaters, including global chain Cineworld, which owns Regal Cinemas, were forced to shut their doors in the United States and United Kingdom due to the lack of films being produced and restrictions of people in theaters. 

Independent theaters were hit just as hard, including here in Portland. In order to stay afloat, these theaters needed to create a new source of revenue.

One example is the historic Hollywood Theater in Northeast Portland. They implemented multiple different programs, including drive-in movies where attendees could watch from their cars, renting out the theater for private showings, “Hollywood at Home,” which is a partnership between the theater and filmmakers to showcase streaming films on the theater’s website, and “Movie Madness University,” an online film education class. 

Joe Bolenbaugh, the marketing manager at Hollywood Theater, helped come up with these ideas on short notice.

“As you can imagine, we had to make some pretty big pivots in our work, both at Hollywood and Movie Madness,” said Bolenbaugh. “Our leadership team has pursued several different ways to keep our audiences engaged, and to try and provide as many of the same services as before.”

Another theater that has had to find unique ways to stay in business is the Bagdad Theater in Southeast Portland. The theater doubles as a McMenamins Restaurant, which, according to property manager Rebecca Boyle, has been their saving grace. 

“For us, we have been fortunate enough to have a pub/restaurant to generate continuous revenue and keep the building from sitting idle,” said Boyle.

A third theater in Portland trying to stay on its feet is CineMagic, also in Southeast Portland. They created the “Questionable Movie Bundle,” which includes beer, popcorn and “something that technically qualifies as a film.” The bundle is available for pickup on Friday and Saturday nights at the theater. 

Despite the creative sources of revenue, these theaters are very eager to return to normalcy. 

“I can only speculate right now, but I would say we are going to have a lot of people coming back [to the Hollywood Theater] right away, the minute that it's safe to open our doors,” said Bolenbaugh. “Our goal right now is to be ready for our audiences to return no matter when they're ready to come back.”

Boyle agreed. “We are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to host a bustling theater in the near future,” she said. “As soon as we can have limited seating in [Bagdad Theater], we will be back up and running.”

Want to learn more? Check out this NPR interview or this CNN article on how the movie theater industry is trying to survive the pandemic.