Dream of Owning An Indie Theater?

posted by IndieOwnerWannabe on February 1, 2005 at 5:44 am

I have a strong desire to open an independent movie theater in the suburbs of St. Paul/Minneapolis. Anyone in the area interested, too? I’d love help with the business plan, ideas, etc. I may have financial support, too!

Also, I’ll need to prove I can find the right staff to operate the venue. Perhaps, that’s YOU! Let me know. I just wrapped up a volunteer stint at Sundance and am more determined than ever to make this dream a reality!!!

Comments (5)

EvanC
EvanC on February 1, 2005 at 12:26 pm

My years of owning and operating my own historic theatre were wonderful! To tackle this type of project, you should have the following:

Good amount of ready cash, ability to do most restoration and maintenance work yourself or from friends, an ALL VOLUNTEER STAFF, lots of original ideas to keep people coming through the door, and an expectation that you will be lucky to break even at first—or ever.

I ran my theatre as a labor of love, not expecting to get rich. You can see my former theatre on Cinematreasures here:
/theaters/467/

chconnol
chconnol on February 3, 2005 at 12:24 pm

EvanC: What a cute looking theater! What kind of films did you screen there?

kerrycraigjo
kerrycraigjo on March 24, 2005 at 11:14 am

Hey, my name is Kerry Johnson, I just tried to send you an e-mail, so I appologize if this is number two. Anyway, I’ve been living in L.A. and working in film and tv production for a little over a year and, I’ve been an actor and a movie lover my whole live. I am relocating to the cities soon and am looking for an opportunity to dive into, and would love to meet with you and share some of my many ideas for a theater; something that I’ve thought about quit a bit while working in the industry. Please email me back or call me so that we may get together and share ideas if your still looking for people to get involved.
Thanks for you time, I look forward to hearing from you,
Kerry Johnson

310-430-1163 or 651-437-9751 after 4/10

norskinelson
norskinelson on May 27, 2006 at 5:47 pm

If you desire to move out of the cities and farther to South Dakota, just drop me a line.. Have a line on a historic theatre with all kinds of posibilities…Glenn

thestephen
thestephen on July 1, 2009 at 10:05 pm

I would LOVE to get a little more information on this topic. I live in Oklahoma City and there is a major push for development. There is no market in this area for the theater like the one I’m considering. Please email me back at

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