Coming Attractions, which has operated the Minor Theater in Arcata since 2005, will shut the historic theater down Feb. 5.
Josh Neff, who took ownership of the Minor Theater building and adjacent storefronts last year, says he plans to re-open the movie theater, but expects renovations to take at least a month. The theater celebrated its 100th anniversary at the end of 2014 and holds the niche historical significance of being the oldest “multi-reel feature film theater in the United States.”
Neff says no one anticipated that the Minor would close so quickly — Coming Attraction’s lease on the building runs until April, and he had been negotiating with the company to stay open long enough to host the Humboldt State University student-run film festival that month.
Negotiations with the company, Neff says, were becoming more “sterile and corporate” up until the last time he spoke with representatives. Then, he says, he got an email this week saying Coming Attractions was sending a crew to dismantle the Minor’s seats and equipment, which the company owns. Coming Attractions CEO John Schweiger did not return a call seeking comment.
Neff calls it a blessing in disguise — this way, he says, the theater will be back up and running for the film festival, which he expects to be the theater’s soft opening.
Meanwhile, he said, the Minor will be closed to customers for some time, and he’s offered to hire the Minor’s employees to help during the change in management.
The Journal will report more on Neff’s plans in the future.
This article appears in Get Out of Jail For a Fee.
Kind of stoked that this theater will be managed closer to home. Didn’t like the selection of movies that were offered compared to what was offered in Mckinleyville and Eureka. Hopefully Neff will expand the possible movie options and make the theater a bit more kid friendly as well.
CA owns the seats? That seems weird. I have never liked CA and hope this is the first step toward them being gone entirely from the area. Hopefully the Minor can go back to the days of showing a variety of older/cult etc films for a more reasonable price rather than the new releases that no one wants to see in an old theatre anyway. Remember the days of the $0.99 films there that changed every couple days – I realize that price is no longer realistic but I loved the ever changing selection of older movies.
I agree with the above comments. I think the community heartily wants to see the theater survive – how about letting people pitch in? Like pay for a new seat and get your name on it? Clean up crew? Good riddance to C.A. I don’t like having to pay top dollar for a movie AND watch commercials.
I am looking forward to positive changes. Like the Living Room Theatre in Portland (by The Ace Hotel and Powell Bookstore). This is a great cinema! Food, Indie and foreign films and arm chairs! Sometimes showing eight films at a time from all over the world! Let Arcata be progressive. We are a hip, college town! Let our theater reflect it! I love films!!! We don’t need C.A. We could have an adjacent restaurant, finally! Bring food into the theatre and have chairs where you can put your feet up. They’ve done it in Berkeley on Shattuck too. Why not Arcata?
I will support you Josh. Let’s make it happen!
Coming Attractions is the “McDonalds” of movie theatres. They suck! Their “pledge” to their customers is an un-funny joke aimed at and written by MORONS, and is a complete fallacy.
I had friends who were projectionists, and we would rent a warehouse or store and build platforms to place couches, loungers, lazy boys and rocking chairs for mothers with nursing infants and children’s chairs and have whole families of hippies watch old movies from the Thirties and Forties they owned that we were copying to preserve them, using old carbon-arc projectors that they owned. I made popcorn with real butter and it was great.
It probably is not the sort of thing that would work commercially but years ago we did a lot of Underground things that just would not be done these days anymore.
What about a Kickstarter for the Minor if needed? Excited to see how the Minor will develop and change – I love pointing out to visitors that it’s the oldest continuously running theater in the US!
Been sitting in the balcony and more recently the smaller theaters for over 50 years. UNDERSTAND INCREASED TICKET PRICES BUT small POPCORN FOR $6.75? No.