How many art-house theaters does one town need? A city’s “real” cultural vibrancy can often be measured by the size of its network of art-house cinemas. While the Twin Cities scene is hardly New York, we’re well ahead of cities of comparable size. Fifteen years ago, the Uptown and University Film Society were about the only choices you had if you wanted to see a foreign or independent film. 1995 brought both the Lagoon and Bob Cowgill’s repertory Oak Street Cinema, which scored big bringing old Bogart movies to new audiences. More recently, the once-rundown Heights, beautifully and painstakingly restored, is performing the minor miracle of making the northern suburbs a hip destination.
The last year brought even bigger changes, the most shocking being the long-delayed merger of U Film and Oak Street. But the really exciting story is that the art film has found inroads into suburban multiplexes like the new MegaStar in Southdale and the venerable Apache in Columbia Heights, taken over in May by Heights owners Tom Letness and Dave Holmgren. Filmgoers who want more than just the blockbusters have more options now than ever. “It’s the rival of anyplace,” says Cowgill.
Of course, there’s a difference between a wealth of choices and oversaturation. For the nonprofits, there’s a finite amount of available funding, and opinion is divided as to whether the Twin Cities area is large enough to support all these theaters indefinitely. Just look at U Film, which took a big hit when the Lagoon opened and siphoned away the occasional long-running hits it relied on. “One should not be misled into thinking that because there are all these screens doing this, that that means it’s easy,” says Cowgill. “The competition is good for the filmgoer and on the whole for the town, but it sometimes makes our hearts palpitate.”
Others are convinced that, over the long term, more new art houses will nurture a larger audience, which will in turn sustain the older theaters too. “I think the success of Oak Street, of the Heights, helps us,” says Hugh Wronski, manager of the Uptown/Lagoon. “If there’s a good movie, regardless of venue, people will go see it.” For Wronski, the real competition isn’t other theaters, it’s the whole range of entertainment options—things like sunny days and pennant-chasing pro baseball teams.
The metro-area population has risen dramatically over the decades, and more art-house theaters may be a happy, natural consequence. U Film’s Al Milgrom concedes that nationally “the demographics seem to be increasing,” but doesn’t see it happening here, actually. “The audiences that I recall at the Bell Auditorium from the 60s to the 80s doesn’t exist anymore.” The U Film-led Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival has grown steadily every year and now spans more than 120 films over six theaters, making it one of the biggest local events of any kind, but “after film festival time, it’s a tough go,” Milgrom says. He seems to be speaking from bitter experience: After years of on-again, off-again negotiations, the fiercely independent Milgrom consented to a merger with Oak Street. The new organization, Minnesota Film Arts, was formally signed into reality October 16. It was a tough decision for Milgrom, who’s famous for his all-consuming, cantankerous devotion to the society he created 40 years ago. But from a financial standpoint, it just makes sense. It helps that the theaters are philosophically compatible, says Milgrom. The positive effects will largely be behind-the-scenes—greater efficiency in staffing and more streamlined communication with distributors and media.
Up in Columbia Heights, the story isn’t consolidation but growth. The Heights is a remarkable success story. Since Letness and Holmgren bought it in 1998, the innovative programming and the atmospheric auditorium have brought new life to the theater and the entire neighborhood. It’s done especially well with crossover hits like The Straight Story and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, drawing audiences from all over town.
With a newly installed Wurlitzer pipe organ as the final touch in the Heights’ restoration, the owners will now concentrate on sprucing up the Apache, a charmingly kitschy 1968-vintage cinema. Mainstream stuff like Spider-Man and Star Wars will still be the main focus, but art films will get at least one screen, which has taken pressure off the Heights. European import Mostly Martha is currently the Apache’s biggest matinee draw.
As the population in the suburbs has exploded, so has the number of multiplex screens—40 added over the last couple of years in Oakdale alone. Not surprisingly, the offerings have been dominated by major-studio Hollywood hits. But smaller movies have gained a surprising foothold. Places like the Edina 4 and Excelsior Dock have been screening the occasional indie hit for years, but the MegaStar Southdale, which opened a year ago, has made it part of its everyday fare, hitting big with Amelie and In the Bedroom and nabbing a local exclusive for Iris. These are high-profile movies, to be sure—you’re not going to see one of Al Milgrom’s obscure Swedish dramas here. But in its way, it’s revolutionary to have such a heavy focus on smaller, non-Hollywood films at a corporate-chain theater situated in one of our more blue-eyed suburbs.
In the end, the audience is the deciding factor in long-term survival, but it can’t hurt that the general feeling between the various rival operators is collegiality, not enmity. The struggle for market share is inevitable, but even the for-profit theaters go out of their way to help fellow art houses, recognizing that they’re all motivated by a common love of cinema. Change and competition, says Cowgill, “just becomes a new fact of life. Hopefully we can all find a way to survive.”
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