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OrangeChat
How are we doing? If you have a question, complaint or suggestion about coverage of Orange and Chatham counties in The News & Observer and The Chapel Hill News, post your comments in this blog or e-mail us. Comments here may be reprinted in The News & Observer or Chapel Hill News.
7 steps for saving the Varsity Theatre
I go away on one week's furlough and my gym and the Varsity both close ... I'm trying out Carolina Fitness this week (what do people think of it?), but what am I gonna do about my movie venues?
Bryan Grossman, a former Varsity employee and 2009 UNC poli sci grad wrote to us after our recent coverage of the downtown movie theater. He says he thinks a downtown theater can still work and that owner Bruce Stone could have done more to keep it going.
"I feel as though a lot of the reasons for its financial demise have been overlooked," he writes. "There are some simple reasons why people did not attend movies there more often. I don't think it is really an issue of arthouse vs. non arthouse."
Here are his suggestions for what we now have to hope will be a new owner:
1. Accept credit cards
2. Promote films playing there (if only through fliers around town).
3. Use the space for more events that the business owner could rent out.
4. Better compensate employees (at least get something beyond the measly tip glass) 5. Encourage more friendly service.
6. Truly gauge which movies will work in the area and which will not.
7. Have an open house poster sale and advertise this sale throughout town.
What do you think? In the age of Netflix and buck-a-flick boxes at Harris Teeter, can downtown Chapel Hill support a movie theater? Tell us and if we get enough signed responses we'll print them in a future issue.
Mark Schultz
Mark Schultz is the editor of The Chapel Hill News and The Durham News, and one of the Western Triangle editors for The News & Observer.
Comments
Well Done
Fri, 07/03/2009 - 19:10 — bpguitarheelThese are great suggestions and I think they are all reasons why I didn't go to the Varsity more when I was a student. You never really know what is playing there and I always have to remember to go and get cash. The poster sale does great business every year, so they could have done something with them or around the same time to sell old movie posters.
People constantly complained about parking, but street parking opens up at 6. But what the Varsity could have done was validate parking for moviegoers. That means that people could park in the lot right behind the theater and not have to worry about it.
I hope someone else decides to keep a theater on Franklin. I would hate to see that tradition go away.
$1.50 Theater?
Fri, 07/03/2009 - 13:54 — JakeGoadIn a college town especially, but for everyone in this economy, a cheap night out could be the way to go. When I was in undergrad at State I frequented the Blue Ridge $1.50 theater with great frequency since it was still the movie theater style experience, for much cheaper than seeing a new movie, and still cheaper than renting the movie. I've always thought one of these theaters could do well in Chapel Hill.
You're kidding, right?
Sun, 07/05/2009 - 18:16 — elvisboy77Chapel Hill rents, $1.50 tickets? Maybe in 1960.
Why not do a business plan for your $1.50 theater?
Varsity problems
Fri, 07/03/2009 - 12:11 — conrad101Without close and free parking, as in shopping centers and malls, a downtown movie theater is a difficult proposition.
Add indoor bicycle parking
Fri, 07/03/2009 - 12:06 — AdrianHandsAdd indoor bicycle parking. The Colony has it. If North Raleigh can do it, why not Chapel Hill?
Look at other small independent theaters
Fri, 07/03/2009 - 12:06 — tobrienWe should look to other small, independent movie theaters. What do Boston's Brattle Theater and Coolidge Corner theater do? Chapel Hill and the surrounding communities have a population that could support Varsity Theatre, so what it is not doing?
Thought I used to go to those theater when I lived up north, I have not yet been to the Varsity. Why not? This is the sixty four thousand dollar question (plus inflation). I never know what is showing there unless I walk past, which is not something I do frequently,. The theater's marketing does not raise its profile for me, so I do note remember to check its listing.
So Bryan's suggestions about promoting the theater, both directly and indirectly, would do a lot to fill seats. Renting out the facility not only raises revenue, but raises awareness. The Coolidge Corner theater has Saturday morning classic children's movies, getting youngsters and young families hooked early.
The Varsity cannot compete directly with Netflix or the mega movie houses that have sprouted up at every mall. Small theaters need to offer a different experience, not just different movies. Part of that experience must recapture a bit of the golden era of the velvet curtains and the rest offer a more modern, more fully engaged experience. What would bring patrons early, have them stay late and entice them to return often?
I certainly hope to see the Varsity resurrected soon.