How one historic single screen theater in MN keeps chugging along

posted by CSWalczak on April 18, 2011 at 11:00 am

JACKSON, MN – Dating back to the 1920’s, the Historic State Theatre is truly a beloved local institution. But as with all classic single screen operations that survive in the megaplex era, the theater’s owners, Nikki and Mike Schwartz have to pay careful attention to many operational details. While building maintenance is a challenge, even more so of late is the conversion to digital projection which they are accomplishing through fund raising. To remain profitable, they have to select the movies they screen with great care, as some films typically do not do well in Jackson.

“The towns that have single screen theaters — and there are some that do rather well — it’s because their community really values the fact that they do have that as an option for their children,” Nikki said. “You hear people talk about how there’s nothing to do for their kids, so it would be really sad to lose something that they do have for their kids.”

There is more in the Beaumont Enterprise.

Theaters in this post

• Historic State Theatre