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The Marquee

What’s happening at The Picture House

The Making of a Movie-Lover

by Clayton Bushong

On Thursday, we opened Black Widow on the big screen in the Main Hall to our largest audience since reopening in March. Marvel’s much buzzed-about blockbuster, with an all-star cast including Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz, David Harbour, and others, was undoubtedly the main attraction, but seeing so many more faces in our theater is what stole the show for us.  After such a prolonged closure, there was something truly special about seeing the theater brimming with excitement. Some moviegoers were back in a theater for the first time in over a year — and the whole experience reminded us of the unique thrill of coming together to lose ourselves to our imaginations for a few hours — as we only can at the theater.

An increase in confidence for people returning to The Picture House follows a national upward trend. According to the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), 77% of moviegoers are “very or somewhat comfortable going to the movies.” That’s good news for film-lovers and the industry alike and will hopefully continue to steadily rise in the coming months — as studios begin to release more and more films.

Big, action-packed productions like Black Widow are the types of films we typically program in the summer. The laid-back days and homework-free nights of the season give families a reprise from school year busy-ness and a chance to relax and reconnect. We like to think that movie-lovers are made in summer.

Whether it’s a parent taking a child to their very first movie in a theater (as we heard during our run of Peter Rabbit 2), or a longtime Picture House patron sharing with us how he’ll never forget the summer Jaws terrified him on our big screen — summer movie memories stand out.

So, the neon is on, the popcorn is popping, and summer movies are rolling – what memories will you be making?

As always, we want to hear from you. What’s your favorite summer movie memory? Email us at info@thepicturehouse.org and we’ll share on Facebook and Instagram.