Let me start with some background information. When I was in tenth grade I got my first job working part time at a small, locally owned, second run movie theatre. My boss was a man whom I’ve known for most of my life as he is a close family friend. In fact, both my sisters and my younger brother have held jobs at this very theatre at some point in their lives. Needless to say, it is a very special place to me personally, and to my community as it has been open since the late 70’s. Now fast forward to 2014.
Think of the last time you went to the movies. Chances are it was a rather expensive outing, especially if you brought a family along. At University Mall Theatres though, tickets come as cheap as 2 bucks on Tuesdays and 4 dollars the rest of the week. Sure we don’t get the newest movies until about a month and a half after release, but it’s a third of the price you would regularly pay. Now because it is so insanely cheap, we obviously don’t make a ton of money. On top of this, because film is quickly becoming obsolete, we had to take out a 20 year loan to buy new digital projectors last winter. On top of all this, we have a rather unique problem.
The chairs currently sitting in each of our 3 theatres are falling apart. This isn’t a huge surprise though since, again because of financials, we bought them used from an old theatre that had to close. They are currently in their 35th year of use and likely won’t make it through many more. One unfortunate seat has had a box covering it ever since the back fell off some months ago. Currently, we just can’t afford to replace them on our own, and the bank won’t loan out any more money after we were given such an enormous amount less than a year ago. I was surprised when my boss came to me and asked how familiar I was with a thing called Kickstarter.
I only knew of it in the context of video games; that it helped fund a number of indie game projects through contributions from hundreds/thousands of generous donors. After returning from a theatre owner’s convention early in the summer, my boss had the idea to launch a Kickstarter to raise money for new chairs. Apparently it is becoming quite popular among theatre owners who need to raise the money necessary to upgrade to digital projectors. From this, the “Save our Butts” campaign was born.
It launched at the beginning of August and has just over 48 hours remaining. We needed to raise over 100,000 dollars to buy enough brand new seats to fill 3 theatres. By some miracle we hit that goal about a week ago and have continued going strong the past few days as the event winds down. It’s been an amazing thing to be a part of and see my community rally in support of a small, family owned business. The generosity of complete strangers has totally blown me away; someone from Australia even donated knowing they will likely never get to try the new seats. At one point, Dave Bautista, who many now know as Drax the Destroyer, shared the link on his Facebook page. Apparently he used to live in the area and has friends who are regulars to the theatre.
I know this blog was only very loosely tied to gaming, but it has just been such an incredible experience that I wanted to share it. The comments people have left telling their stories of times at the theatre have been genuinely heart-warming and I’m beyond appreciative of all everyone who has donated has done. Our owner, my boss and close friend has been off the walls excited for the past few days ever since reaching our goal and that has been nearly as rewarding to see as getting to sit in the new seats will be come the new year. He has been the proud owner for 23 years, and with the new seats coming in, couple with our new projectors, he is beyond ecstatic looking forward to the next quarter century.