Movie theaters are trying everything to bring audiences back — from pickleball to cocktail bars

nypost.com:

raucous sing-alongs. “We need to find a way to get people back into the habit of going to theaters,” John Fithian, co-founder of consulting firm The Fithian Group, told Variety. “You can’t stay stuck in a 100-year-old way of doing business — that’s not going to work anymore.”Since COVID, Eric Handler of Roth Capital Partners told the trade tab, theaters are seeing smaller crowds — and weaker box office returns.“The recovery has been much slower than people hoped,” he said.One owner of a smaller Midwest chain isn’t waiting around for the crowds to magically reappear.“The pandemic made us realize that we need to diversify,” says Bob Bagby, CEO of family-owned B&B Theaters. “We can’t just depend on studios to provide us with what we need to drive our business.”That means pickleball games and cocktails in the lobby, even bowling — all designed to get people to see the theaters as more than just a place to screen the latest flicks.Fathom Entertainment, an event company backed by major chains like AMC and Regal, has found ways to turn slow nights into major happenings — screening everything from opera to boxing to classics like ‘The Chosen’.Their biggest hit last year?

A ‘Coraline’ re-release.Fathom CEO Ray Nutt told the outlet it’s all about the communal experience — because sometimes, watching at home just doesn’t cut it.As Nutt noted, “Coming out of the pandemic, everybody wanted to gather communally somewhere, and they wanted to be shoulder to shoulder.”With that said, industry experts like Nutt hope that more live events will lure back lapsed moviegoers and rekindle the magic of the multiplex.