COVID-19 took a toll on the in-person movie industry, as small and large theater companies grasped for survival.
The owner of Showplace Cinemas, however, is bullish on the future. He's investing millions of dollars to improve Showplace properties across the Tri-State.
Those planned projects include new bowling, laser tag, arcade and food service facilities at Showplace East, on Morgan Avenue in Evansville. When finished, it will resemble the family entertainment center complex at Showplace Newburgh.
Other items on Mick Stieler’s agenda include a refreshed lobby and concession operation at Showplace North, on Third Avenue in Evansville, as well as paint and structural upgrades at multiple theaters.
“Our theaters need some work,” Stieler said recently at his Showplace North office. “It’s been 20 years since some of them have been painted. Some parking lots were in disrepair. This lobby was in terrible shape. The health department told me I needed a new concession stand. I agreed, but I didn’t have the money.”
Showplace Henderson, which opened in 2010 and according to Stieler "has done very well," will get fresh paint and likely an arcade.
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Showplace Princeton is receiving new carpeting, while the company’s Harrisburg, Illinois, property is due for a new roof.
By itself, the Showplace East addition will likely cost at least $7 million. That’s what the family entertainment center in Newburgh cost, and Stieler said Showplace East receives four times as many guests as the Newburgh theater.
The addition of other activities at the theater gives guests more to do when visiting, and while expensive, Stieler said, they tend to pay for themselves over time.
He said he’s not making the investments idly. After losing more than $5 billion in 2020, the movie industry believes it is healing from COVID. Stieler cited his own company as proof.
Showplace properties will finish October with about 80% as many visitors as they had October 2019. Stieler expects November and December will be even stronger.
Theaters nationally are reaping the benefits of films like "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," which has made more than $400 million. Stieler said "Halloween Kills" was filling his theaters immediately after it opened; it's brought in more than $90 million so far.
Streaming is here to stay, but Stieler said theater releases still bring plenty of juice.
He listens to guidance from the National Association of Theater Owners, which points out that, after months of stalled movie production due to COVID, a glut of product is on the way in the next couple years.
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“They deal directly with the film companies,” Stieler said of NATO. “We talk about stuff like this. We ask them those questions. But there’s too much out there, and film companies are realizing they need to keep theaters going."
The growth of streaming was accelerated by COVID, and conflicts erupted between movie producers and theater companies.
Universal Pictures and theater giant AMC Entertainment, which runs the movie facility on Evansville's West Side, reached an agreement that would allow 17 days of theater exclusivity before streaming, a far shorter window than the traditional 90 days.
At the same time, the Oscars are now allowing movies first released online to be eligible for the awards. Before, they had to be released in theaters first to qualify.
The combination of COVID and technology changed the world in a hurry, but many believe streaming and traditional movie theaters can coexist into the future.
"At one time, there was a thinking that TV was going to kill cinema. This stuff is not new. It's all cycle," famed director Spike Lee told ABC News in July.
Local residents said they are eager to return to theaters, provided that a newly released film appeals to them.
"I would go see a movie if there was something worth seeing," said Jenny Green of Evansville. "I had half-day Fridays this summer and really wanted to go by myself, but there was nothing I wanted to pay money to see. Mostly I just waited until it came out on a streaming service."
"I’m back at the theater," said movie buff Kendall Paul of Evansville. "I don’t want them to go anywhere."
Stieler readily admits that his business was teetering at the height of COVID. The Shuttered Venues Operators Grant program, through the U.S. Small Business Administration, kept Showplace Cinemas and many other theaters afloat.
According to data on the grant website, Showplace Cinemas received $1,630,100.
"If I didn’t get that, I’d be closed up," Stieler said. "… I was lucky that the banks worked with me. Some theaters went into bankruptcy. But I got it, so I’m moving on and looking to the future.”
After the COVID shutdown in spring 2020, Showplace East reopened in September 2020, and all other Showplace locations reopened in May 2021. Business growth since then has been slow but steady, Stieler said.
AMC also suffered financially during the pandemic, but that company, too, is gradually coming back to health.
Stieler said his expansion plan is based on a relatively simple precept: “If there’s a good movie, people are going to get out and see it.” He and other venue operators also are banking on the pandemic continuing to loosen its grip.
It's been a stressful era for the motion picture industry, Stieler said, and theaters felt the fallout. “I think I’ve aged 50 years in the last two.”