W hen was the last time you left your home to watch a movie in a theater? If the recent uptick in blockbuster films and the flashy technological upgrades are any indication, your visit to a local theater was fairly recent. The trade organization Cinema United (formerly the National Association of Theatre Owners, or NATO) says that about 76% of Americans ages 12 to 74—or approximately 200 million people—went to a movie theater at least once in 2024. “Ours is truly a Main Street industry with movie theaters anchoring communities of all sizes across this great nation,” says Cinema United president and CEO Michael O’Leary. “Nowhere is this sense of community more evident than in venues run by local enterprising entrepreneurs who bring their artistry, vision and passion for movies, good food, wine and camaraderie to their cinemas each day.” One of those enterprising entrepreneurs
The Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol is among the North Bay’s locally owned movie theaters.
the pandemic, in 2023 we then had the one-two punch of the actors and writers strikes. There were valid and necessary reasons for them to go on strike, but movie production shut down again.” Yet the last couple of years for Boyd’s company have been encouraging. “Our admissions revenue, just one of our income sources, was up over 20% in 2024. While we sold less than a million dollars in tickets in 2023, we crossed the million- dollar threshold in 2024. Everything in this business is driven by ticket sales, but we also hope customers buy concessions. And there are some harsh realities of the theater concession business. With chick flicks you sell more wine, with action movies you sell more beer, and with documentaries you sell less of everything.” Rialto’s
is Ky Boyd, director of Rialto Cinemas, which operates theaters in Sebastopol, Berkeley and El Cerrito. Together, Rialto accounts for 14 “screens” in the Bay Area. “I do this out of a lot of passion and love and dedication to the art of cinema,” he says. “I’m certainly not getting rich. So we have to be somewhat religious about our message: If you value theaters and what we do, you need to come out to the movies. The sad thing is, we’ve lost more than 30 screens in Sonoma County since the pandemic.” [In March, Summerfield Cinemas in Santa Rosa became the latest closure casualty.] Nationwide, the total number of screens in operation has decreased to just under 40,000 since 2019, with about 3,000 going dark permanently. After the ravages to the industry from the COVID-19 lockdowns and the subsequent boom in streaming services, it’s taken a toll. “You can buy a really big television and a kick-ass sound system,” says Boyd, “but you can’t replicate in the home environment the experience of sharing a movie with others in a darkened room. It can be emotional, and it’s kind of magical. In a communal setting, comedies are funnier, horror films are scarier and dramas are just better.” Filling seats The push for people to return to theaters seems to be working. Boyd says attendance in 2024 at his theaters was up 17% over 2023, and so far in 2025 attendance is up 16.6% over the same time last year. “Attendance is the driver,” he says. “It’s all about getting people through the front doors. When we reopened in 2021 after the pandemic, it was bleak, and 2022 was also bleak. After movie production was suspended worldwide during
revenue stream is dependent on the mix of movies it shows, and it has a new product every week on Fridays. “We don’t make the movies, so we are dependent on the distributors, big and small, to give us a diverse selection. What we’ve found is that your most likely future ticket buyer is a person already sitting
Ky Boyd, director of Rialto Cinemas.
32 NorthBaybiz
April 2025
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