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Chillicothe, Ill. —
Chillicothe Optimist Club members keep enticing the public to watch a movie on the big screen, and it does not get any better than free.
Area businesses are teaming up with Town Theatre to offer a free, Friday night movie every week in 2012. Merchants sponsoring the night are not only from Chillicothe, but also surrounding areas such as Lacon and Henry.
With about 60 merchants so far committed to paying $50 per month for 12 months, they are paying for the seats each Friday night. About 15 businesses will sponsor the movie each Friday night at 7 p.m. in Theater A, which has 150 seats.
The first movie shown on Friday was “The Adventures of Tintin” to 105 residents.
The club recently celebrated two years of owning the two-auditorium theater.
The idea came from a casual conversation between Optimist Mike Mahoney and Tim Placher.
“We were doing some free movie nights on a sporadic basis,” said Mahoney.
After a packed house sponsored by Lacon merchants last spring, Mahoney and Placher discussed the venture as more of a regular occurrence, such as once a month.
That idea blossomed into the free movie every week, with area businesses supporting the venture.
The movie gives families and residents “good, old fashioned time out,” said Mahoney.
“We’re offering the best movie for that week on break night,” he added.
Not only do residents get a free movie, if they can find a seat, they also keep their ticket stub.
“We decided to let the people choose who they want to give their tickets stubs to,” said Mahoney.
Keeping kids as the focus of the club’s efforts, the profits from Town Theatre return to youth organizations. An organization representative fills out an application, and once approved, they can receive residents’ ticket stubs.
The ticket stubs are what dictates how much money each organization receives.
Once the club announces how much money they will give away, the groups gather up their ticket stubs for Kids Count Night. However many are turned in determines how much each ticket stub is worth.
Last year, 3,581 tickets were returned, divided by a $10,000 profit, making each ticket stub worth $2.79. Each year the ticket stubs can be worth a different amount of money depending on the profit amount and how many ticket stubs are returned. Twenty-nine groups are signed up to receive their part in the proceeds.
“This is going to be huge for the community,” said Optimist and Town Theatre Treasurer Irvin Latta. “Even at our prices, some people might be priced out.”
Chillicothe Optimist Club members keep enticing the public to watch a movie on the big screen, and it does not get any better than free.
Area businesses are teaming up with Town Theatre to offer a free, Friday night movie every week in 2012. Merchants sponsoring the night are not only from Chillicothe, but also surrounding areas such as Lacon and Henry.
With about 60 merchants so far committed to paying $50 per month for 12 months, they are paying for the seats each Friday night. About 15 businesses will sponsor the movie each Friday night at 7 p.m. in Theater A, which has 150 seats.
The first movie shown on Friday was “The Adventures of Tintin” to 105 residents.
The club recently celebrated two years of owning the two-auditorium theater.
The idea came from a casual conversation between Optimist Mike Mahoney and Tim Placher.
“We were doing some free movie nights on a sporadic basis,” said Mahoney.
After a packed house sponsored by Lacon merchants last spring, Mahoney and Placher discussed the venture as more of a regular occurrence, such as once a month.
That idea blossomed into the free movie every week, with area businesses supporting the venture.
The movie gives families and residents “good, old fashioned time out,” said Mahoney.
“We’re offering the best movie for that week on break night,” he added.
Not only do residents get a free movie, if they can find a seat, they also keep their ticket stub.
“We decided to let the people choose who they want to give their tickets stubs to,” said Mahoney.
Keeping kids as the focus of the club’s efforts, the profits from Town Theatre return to youth organizations. An organization representative fills out an application, and once approved, they can receive residents’ ticket stubs.
The ticket stubs are what dictates how much money each organization receives.
Once the club announces how much money they will give away, the groups gather up their ticket stubs for Kids Count Night. However many are turned in determines how much each ticket stub is worth.
Last year, 3,581 tickets were returned, divided by a $10,000 profit, making each ticket stub worth $2.79. Each year the ticket stubs can be worth a different amount of money depending on the profit amount and how many ticket stubs are returned. Twenty-nine groups are signed up to receive their part in the proceeds.
“This is going to be huge for the community,” said Optimist and Town Theatre Treasurer Irvin Latta. “Even at our prices, some people might be priced out.”
He points to the businesses supporting the venture and said he salutes them.
“They are bombarded with requests all the time. This was a huge request and they came through,” said Latta.
Friday is traditionally the theater’s “worst” day of the weekend for ticket sales, Latta said as to what Optimists have noticed.
By making the free movie on Friday night, Latta said the move will help the theater qualify for more big movies on the national release dates.
During peak movie seasons, such as the summer and holidays, lots of copies of the films are made. On the non-peak times, theaters compete against each other for the limited copies of a film. Those who pack the theater get the movies, Latta said.
Getting a movie on its release date is also a double-edged sword: the theater must then keep it for three weeks.
“That’s the movie business,” said Latta.
For the future, the club is looking to fundraise for digital projectors for 2013 at a cost of $65,000 per screen, Latta said.
Both Mahoney and Latta said they are not aware of any theater offering the deal Town Theatre is.
“When we started with Town Theatre it was a unique concept and this takes it a step further,” said Mahoney.
