Carolyn Fath Ashby
Market Square Theatre on the west side is known for its budget prices and great popcorn. It will be back, owners say.
It will be a while before Market Square Theatre reopens after closing at the start of the pandemic. The chain that owns the budget theater, known for its affordable movie tickets and delicious popcorn, expects to return the cinema to normal operations, but has no defined timeline.
Landmark Theatres and Silver Cinemas is in the process of slowly reopening its theaters, but is dependent on audiences that have not fully returned, says Margot Gerber, vice president of marketing and publicity for the chain. (Silver Cinemas operates Market Square; Landmark owns Silver Cinemas.)
“Until business rises significantly it's hard for us to keep opening theaters,” Gerber says.
The theater chain owns mainly art house theaters, but also second-run theaters like Market Square. As the company reopens more locations, theaters like Market Square — charging just $3.50 for a ticket — and other budget theaters are last on the list, Gerber says.
“I'm hearing from ownership that we can't rush into opening theaters, so we haven't really been talking too much yet about Madison,” Gerber says.
Gerber says the Delta variant of COVID-19 might make people more reluctant to head back to theaters, so reopening will be “a lot of waiting and seeing what’s happening in the world at large."
“Consumers have to feel comfortable coming back to the movies, and not everybody does, so we're still missing part of our audience of people that used to frequent the theaters.”
Landmark Theatres and Silver Cinemas is focused on the economic success of the entire chain; more than half of its locations have yet to re-open.
Moreover, the second-run film market saw a shift during the pandemic. Most films are now released on streaming platforms and in theaters on the same day, Gerber says. “That model of taking a film that had been out for a few weeks and putting it into a second-run theater doesn't really work right now,” Gerber says.
The company hopes to reopen all locations by the end of the year. There are no plans for closing the Madison location permanently or changing it from a budget theater, Gerber says.
