How can your venue exhibit a viable noncommercial film arts program?

The past decade has witnessed the acquisition, restoration and retrofitting of many publicity owned historic opera and movie palaces dating from the turn of the 19th century.

A key challenge for Executive Directors and their nonprofit Boards is to implement a program that keeps the venue open to the public on multiple nights with the right mix of events that maximize fundraising opportunities -- and create an open cultural space for diverse populations to feel welcomed.

The answer is familiar to those in the for-profit world of film exhibition: spread the fixed costs of programming, box office and administration over more than one cinema. Why not apply the same approach to the nonprofit art cinema world so that more films could be seen by more people, in more places.

In 2007, we tested a prototype at the Academy of Music in Northampton, MA, an opera house that had been struggling with their own film exhibition program. The venue had a single screen and faced distributors who wanted more screens and longer runs. But the Academy wanted to make more room for community-based performing arts.

Here’s how we helped the Academy of Music.

Every week we programmed a current release of a critically acclaimed, an award winning title seen at the world’s foremost film festivals: Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, and Berlin. These special films were rarely seen outside large urban centers. We worked directly with their distributors, and in some cases, the filmmaker, in the same way that a programmer does at Film Festivals.

Programming the films was just the beginning.

We developed an arms length administrative and box office package called Main Street Motion Media Box Office®. The Academy of Music simply had to open their doors. We hired and paid our program coordinator, projectionist, booker (as necessary), managed all prints and shipping, submitted all Box Office reports to distributors, set up Credit Card systems, marketed an electronic multiple-purchase Movie Pass program, provided e-commerce on our website, developed templates for all film programs, advertising and PR, posters and banners.

How did the Academy of Music benefit? We provided a guarantee against box office, regardless of admissions. And the Academy and their community, were able to celebrate a dynamic, mixed program of live events, film and performing arts.