Screen Scrutiny

NORTHAMPTON - Two years after the nonprofit Amherst Cinema took over management of the Pleasant Street Theater, its leaders question whether the Northampton movie house is financially sustainable.

The Pleasant Street Theater does not face imminent closure, as it did two years ago. But members of the board that supervises both theater sites have started looking around for a possible Northampton location for a theater complex that's as modern as the Amherst Cinema.

"The Pleasant Street is too small to be adequate for the long term," said Lucy Wilson Benson of Amherst, chairwoman of the board of directors. "We hope to be able to find a solution to the problem."

The Pleasant Street Theater has 120 seats for one screen and 40 for another. The Amherst Cinema has one theater with 186 seats and two with 46 seats each.

Rita Bleiman, of Northampton, a member of the board of directors, said she knows Northampton residents who wait until a movie moves from the Pleasant Street to the Amherst Cinema because they prefer seeing it there.

"I like the bohemian nature of the current Pleasant Street Theater, but a lot of people don't," she said.

Carol Johnson, executive director of both theaters, said that the Amherst Cinema is getting an increasing number of visitors from Northampton. She outlined some of the possible reasons.

While the Amherst Cinema has Dolby sound and stadium seating, the Pleasant Street has acoustics and sight-line problems; the Amherst Cinema was built for watching movies, while the Pleasant Street is a converted retail space; the Amherst Cinema has better parking and wheelchair access; and it has new equipment, while the Pleasant Street's is old, costs more to run and is subject to breakdowns.

Another factor on the balance sheet is that the nonprofit organization owns the Amherst Cinema building but has to pay rent for the Pleasant Street space.

Two years ago, the new owners spent money improving the Pleasant Street's sound, screens, lobby, restrooms and online ticket purchasing. But a full modernization is impractical, because the building is rented, and it would require expensive compliance with federal rules on handicapped accessibility, said board member Meg Gage of Amherst.

Amenities key

The amenities of a movie theater have become more important in the past two years, as options for watching films have expanded, Johnson said. DVDs are available rapidly after a film opens, Netflix makes them cheap and easy to rent and large-screen TVs mimic the moviegoing experience in one's own living room.

"Audiences more and more are looking for first-class presentation," said board member David Mazor of Amherst, who used to work in film distribution in California. "The mom-and-pop neighborhood theater has died out."

The consolidation of the two theaters was a good move for both, said Johnson. There is clearly a demand in the Northampton area for high-quality movies, and the Pleasant Street is "a beloved and legendary destination," she said.

"If we had a facility like (the Amherst Cinema) on the west side of the river, there would be no question of long-term success," she said.

Because of the way the regional lines of film distribution are drawn, the Pleasant Street is able to show films that are also at Cinemark in Hadley, such as the current "Up in the Air" and "Invictus," while the Amherst Cinema can't, Gage said.

"There is no chance that this exploration is about not doing movies in Northampton," she said. "Northampton is more important to our business than we realized when we first joined forces."

Enormous potential

Since Northampton is bigger than Amherst and is more of an arts destination, the potential for a more modern theater complex there is "enormous," she said.

Bleiman said it would be ideal for a new Northampton movie complex to be within walking distance of Smith College, though other locations might have better parking.

"We should keep our eyes and ears open about what might be available," said Bleiman, a former city councilor.

The cost of building the Amherst Cinema, which opened in 2006, was about $3 million. Any new site in Northampton would require "fundraising and community-building," Johnson said.

The long-term prospects of the Pleasant Street came up when there was fundraising two years ago to keep it open, said Silas Kopf, one of the organizers. "But we could save the theater for a fraction of what it would cost to go totally modern," he said.

He said he wants to know if the Pleasant Street's lack of amenities "is such a deterrent to people going there that it makes the economics unviable." Many people have "an emotional attachment to the place," he said.

But Kopf said he "trusts the stewardship" of Johnson and the board of directors.

"The bottom line is: Are we going to have an art theater on this side of the river?" he said. "If their plans accommodate that, I'm delighted. If they can find a new venue that is more modern in seating and sound, that would be great."