Minnesota mom and pop movie theater chain focuses on personal touch

When Bob Moore offered to turn a former craft store in the Riverwalk Centre mall in downtown East Grand Forks, MN, into a first-run movie theater, city leaders were hopeful, but didn’t know exactly what to expect.

The River Cinema 12 movie theater has been a rousing success, driving more foot traffic downtown and helping lead to the opening of an Italian restaurant in the enclosed mall. In September, the 12-screen movie theater welcomed its 700,000th customer in less than two years of operation. The theater has averaged about 1,400 customers a day this year — roughly double its owners’ conservative attendance estimates before it opened.

“The theater has been a big surprise,” says East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss. “It brings people from all over the region.”

The movie theater has been so successful that owner Bob Moore plans to add an additional three to four screens within the mall and says he might eventually turn the entire mall into one giant theater after he purchases the mall from the city in the future.

“The theater is one of the better uses of that facility,” says Jim Richter, executive director of the East Grand Forks Economic Development and Housing Authority, which owns the mall. “These guys had a good background in theaters and entertainment. They did it right. It’s been a draw and it’s helped bring more focus to our redeveloped downtown.”

The East Grand Forks movie theater is the most recent addition to the family-run Moore Family Theatres chain that also includes one-screen theaters in Fosston, MN, Blackduck, MN, and the two-screen Grand Theatre in Crookston, MN. Unlike most chains, the theaters are run like a collection of mom-and-pop businesses with the family seemingly more concerned with providing an affordable, enjoyable night at the movies and continuously reinvesting profits than pocketing a hefty profit.

REINVESTING PROFITS

The family spent more than $2 million converting a former Ben Franklin Crafts store in the East Grand Forks mall into a movie theater and has sunk thousands into major renovations at the chain’s other theaters.

“You’ve got to keep reinvesting and putting it back in,” Moore says. “Customers deserve that. We just take a living and put the rest back into the business. That’s what we’ve always done. That’s what separates us.”

Stadium seating was added to the Grand Theatre in downtown Crookston that Moore refers to as “the money pit.” The former opera house’s balcony was also removed, the lobby was reconfigured to add a concession stand and insulation was added to the century-old building.

“It was crazy,” says Moore’s son, Brian, the manager of the Grand Theatre. “We put a ton of work into it. We spent five weeks just removing the balcony. It’s a whole new theater. It has new seats, stadium seating, everything. But it still has that old-time feeling. It’s very unique. The ceilings are 30-feet high. There is horsehair plaster everywhere.”

But care was taken in the renovation of the Grand Theatre and other theatres retain the history of the buildings. The renovation of the circa 1949 Fosston theater, which was overhauled from top to bottom before reopening in 2001, preserved unique Disney paintings on the walls of the theater while soundproofing the room. The Crookston theater, which the family claims is the nation’s oldest continuously operating movie theater, was kept open during renovations to keep its streak alive.

“It’s fun to try to preserve history,” Bob Moore says. “You feel like you’re part of the community. That’s where we differ from the big boxes that make them all the same and are just boxes showing movies.”

The opening of the River Cinema 12 in East Grand Forks with cheaper admission prices and added amenities two years ago led the Carmike Cinemas national chain to match River Cinema’s ticket prices at its two Grand Forks theaters. Carmike’s Columbia 4 theater in Grand Forks switched from a first-run to a dollar theater format after River Cinema 12 entered the market, before the Columbia 4 was eventually forced out of business.

The Moore Family Theatres are the opposite of corporate. Family members and employees personally greet customers. The theaters are cleaned after every movie, the bathrooms kept tidy. Ticket prices are affordable, ranging from $3.50 to $4.50 for matinees and from $4.50 to $6.50 for evening shows. Instead of buying tickets before entering the theater, patrons purchase movie tickets at the counter at the same time they buy popcorn and can get free refills at a separate soda dispenser instead of having to wait in line again in the middle of a movie.

“We’re personal,” Bob Moore says. “We treat you like you’re in our home. People don’t like lines. We do everything we can to get you in and get you seated. We try to go beyond what everyone else does. We care. That’s where I think we’re different.”

Wood paneling adorns the lobbies of the East Grand Forks, Fosston and Blackduck theaters. Inside comfortable reclining seats, stadium seating and digital sound and pictures greets customers.

Moore says he is looking into adding more features to the East Grand Forks location to make customers feel like they are part of the movie. The possible new features could include changes in temperature, adding artificial scents and shaking seats that correspond with parts of the movie as well as specialty speakers that would give the illusion of an airplane flying overhead or footsteps behind them, for example. “It would be so real it would almost make you want to look up or look behind you,” Moore says.

“We’re never going to be done putting new stuff in,” he says. “There’s constantly new technology coming out. I love new stuff.”

FAMILY AFFAIR

Moore, 60, and his wife, Jan, who co-own the business, were living in Blackduck when they decided to buy and revive the town’s movie theater in 1981. “I’d like to say there was a lot of thought behind it,” Moore says with a laugh. “But we just drove by and saw the for sale sign in the window. I called the owner and thought it sounded like a fun thing to do.”

Moore used his construction background to gut the building, renovate the theater and build a restaurant right in front of the theater that served home-cooked pizza.

“We’ve been running it ever since,” Moore says. “If you can make a little one-screen, first-run theater work seven days a week in a 560-population town, you can make it work anywhere.”

Moore says for the theater’s first 15 or 20 years in business it charged between $1 and $1.50 for tickets. The focus on personal attention combined with the relaxed atmosphere of a northwoods cabin and affordable prices did what many told Moore couldn’t be done – lure moviegoers to tiny Blackduck from more populous areas.

“It became very popular,” Moore says. “My thought was even if it was in a small town people from Bemidji would drive north. Everyone goes to Bemidji for everything. If you make it a value, families would drive north to see us. It worked very well.”

The family repeated the process by buying and rehabbing theaters in Fosston, Crookston and East Grand Forks, smaller cities between Grand Forks, Thief River Falls, MN, and Bemidji, MN.

The couple’s children all grew up working in the family’s theater and other assorted businesses.

“We had a lot of businesses growing up,” Brian Moore says. “We had two restaurants, a video store, a couple bars. My dad was always into buying stuff, fixing it, making a business work. The theater is where we all started.”

After the children grew up they moved into higher positions within the chain. Sons Brian and Kevin manage the Crookston and Fosston theaters, respectively. Daughter Penny Stai manages the East Grand Forks theater and daughter Robin Mistic manages the original Blackduck theater. Two of Moore’s high school-aged grandchildren also help out at the Blackduck theater.

Bob and Jan Moore have begun handing over more and more control of the day-to-day operations of their theaters and have started to travel more, of course taking in a movie while on vacation, both for the enjoyment and to see what others in the field are doing.

“We all enjoy what we do,” Moore says. “It’s in our blood. I’m handing over more and more control. But I’ll probably be involved until the day I die.”