KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Summer is the season of blockbusters, and with movie theaters bracing for an attendance surge, and that includes the soon-to-be reopened Main Street cinema, now owned by B&B Theatres.
"This is one of many locations that we're adding to the B&B family over the next couple of months, and pretty rapidly growing," said B&B Theatres executive vice president Bobbie Bagby Ford.
The Liberty-based company is targeting a late August, early September date to reopen the historic venue.
"All of these seats will be gone and we'll be installing our signature luxury heated recliners with trays. It'll be a much more upscale experience as you enter the auditoriums here," Bagby Ford said.
It is welcome news for local moviegoers and former employees of the downtown location.
"I started in 2015, just as a projectionist and then I got promoted up to head projectionist about three years later, I got furloughed in March last year," Megan Ross said.
"It’s been a devastatingly, gut-wrenchingly difficult year," Bagby Ford said.
The signs of a rebound are industry-wide.
Leawood-based AMC Theaters is now operating 99% of its domestic locations, and on Main Street, B&B’s work is underway.
"We've had all of our architects and everybody in to figure out how to move forward and we've got blueprints and we're ready to dig in, that construction will all start in the next 30 days," Bagby Ford said.
It’s a slow, but steady comeback.
Megan Ross works in a different job sector now, but she’s eager to return to a theater’s communal atmosphere.
"I think people will like going to the movies, the best thing about working there was the people, I have a lot of long time friends I met there now, and just because they worked there or were regular customers," she said.
Even with a rise in streaming and new releases going to those platforms, both Bagby Ford and Ross said there’s no replacement for a movie theater.
"People have been gathering since caveman times to listen to stories together," Bagby Ford said. "There is truly the magic of the movies that happens on the big screen."
"You're just surrounded by the entire thing and immersed in it. And I think people will need that," Ross said.
B&B Theatres told 41 Action News they anticipate about 75 employees working at the Main Street location, and they’re ramping up hiring across the company.
They plan to have new releases and classic screenings at the six auditoriums downtown.
