Challenging Times for a Screen Gem
Editorial
While extolling the benefits of Amherst Cinema in this issue’s lead feature story, Executive Director Yasmin Chin Eisenhauer didn’t mince words when it came to the challenges faced by the facility and other independent, nonprofit moviehouses like it.
One is the fact that ticket sales have never totally recovered from the COVID years. That’s true across the industry, but in the case of Amherst Cinema, while the 84,260 tickets sold in 2024 represented the continuation of a strong recovery from 21,150 in 2020, it was still only about 80% of the 108,000 sold in the average pre-pandemic year.
At least the facility survived; many theaters did not. The National Cinema Foundation reported that there were more than 39,000 movie screens in the U.S. in 2022, down from 41,000 in 2019, and more screens have been lost since then.
The main problem may be that more content is available to stream at home. The Atlantic reported last month that the average adult sees three films at the movie theater per year but consumes nearly 19 hours of television — the rough equivalent of eight movies — on a weekly basis.
“Combined with significant industry disruption and rising costs, the cinema has experienced three years of financial losses,” Eisenhauer told BusinessWest. “This is an unsustainable trend.”
Which is why Amherst Cinema is implementing measures to reduce costs as part of a broader, organization-wide sustainability plan, directing resources where they can have the greatest impact and safeguarding the nonprofit’s ability to deliver on its mission. (These decisions were finalized in the days following our interview with Eisenhauer, and related to us just before we went to press with this issue.)
Specifically, the facility has discontinued some of its least-attended showtimes (Sundays at 9 p.m. and Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.). In mid-May, it will permanently shutter its Studio Theater, a space it leases rather than owns; after significant cost-benefit analysis, Eisenhauer said, reducing operations from four to three screens is the most sustainable path forward. Unfortunately, these measures will also necessitate a reduction in staff.
“That said, two things can be true at once,” she told BusinessWest. “While we’re experiencing the impacts of a disrupted film exhibition landscape, our commitment to advancing film arts and culture has never been stronger. We will continue to program critically acclaimed films and artfully created and educational film experiences. As we like to say, there is something for everyone at Amherst Cinema.”
As the article on page 4 makes clear, this is very true. From classic kids’ films to Friday-night cult films; from indie films difficult to find on other big screens to movies paired with lectures by filmmakers and topical experts, Amherst Cinema has certainly created and deepened a niche over the past two decades of, as Eisenhauer put it, catalyzing community. And, as we would put it, being an essential part of this region’s cultural landscape.
Which is why we encourage everyone to check out a movie — or many — there, and to consider becoming a member. Not every region has a resource like this one, offering an experience you just can’t find on a living-room couch: real community connection. It’s an institution worth supporting.
