Professor & Film Studies Program Director Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece spoke to Spectrum News 1 about the recent closure of the Landmark Downer Theatre. Built in 1915, the Downer was the oldest operating theater in Milwaukee.
“We see small theaters can’t rely on so many extraneous elements of support from the populous such as concessions, larger screens, larger seats that bigger theaters in the suburbs and part of bigger chains have access to those things, they have additional capital,” Szczepaniak-Gillece said.
She found optimism for the future of small theaters in their ability to respond to local interests and screen alternative or older films.
“That is a trend that I think can be really beneficial to a smaller local theater because you can take the pulse of what the local community is invested in and not just show ‘Oppenheimer’ or ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ but also show whatever the local population is really invested in.”