Owning an independent movie theater

ISHPEMING– Earlier this week, we reported that one local movie theater is not closing their doors.

They say this is one of the busiest times of years for them. Another thing you may not have known about Country Village Cinema V in Ishpeming is that they are an independently owned theater.

Because of this, they do not buy the movies they screen; instead they go through a broker. One co–owner says this does restrict how long they can show movies and what size screen they can show them on. However the cinema also says there are plenty of benefits to being independent.

Co-Owner of Country Village Cinema Michelle Lamere said, “The good thing about being an independent is you can kind of run things the way you want. You don’t necessarily have to show movies, like if I decided the movies aren’t working for me I’m going to show Monday Night Football or I’m going to have one day of the week were I can just have kids come in and play video games. You can kind of run the show yourself.”

They are open tonight and Lamere says they have a few new holiday movies to show. They are also open Christmas eve for the first two matinees.