Pictured left - As of Dec. 7 the family-run Marysville Cinemas closed its doors after 10 years of financial struggles.
––––
Cinema owner disappointed that he had to close the doors
As an unknown author once famously said, “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.”
For more than 120 years community leaders, elected officials, residents and business owners have voiced their pride over the fact that Marysville had a historic art deco movie theater in the Uptown at 121 S. Main St.
But after 10 years owners of the family-run theater quietly closed their doors for good on Dec. 7.
It took a week for most people to notice. In many ways, the story of the theater is the story of the entire Uptown District: businesses struggling to remind a local population that downtown commerce even exists.
“I think we ran in the red just about every month this year. The difference this time around is that we cut it off. We cut it off for the first time in 10 years. We are not giving it any more of our money. We don’t have any more money to give it,” Marysville Cinema owner Chris Weikle said.
With no formal training, Weikle, along with his wife and two children, ventured into the theater business.
For all intents and purpose, he said, he was successful. For 10 years the family molded the theater into something they could be proud of.
“The movie business was a passion, and I probably stayed in too long. We’ve thrown everything that we’ve had into it,” he said. “The retirement is gone, the second mortgage, lines of credit – everything is gone. We are literally starting at zero. And it’s like 10 years of our life (gone).”
Weikle said he does not want to come across as disgruntled, but he is disappointed.
“I don’t understand how a community of 20,000 people can’t support three screens. I don’t get that,” he said, then added, “People just aren’t spending money. We don’t spend money, so it’s kind of hard for me to expect them to spend money.”
Weikle’s hope was to someday renovate the historic theater into its former glory days of the 1930s and 1940s – back when people dressed up to see a movie. He hoped to restore the interior to a 500 to 700 seat hall, which could serve as a convention hall for the community.