Boxoffice - February 2016

Amherst Cinema Theater 1
Photo by Gabriel Chicoine. Courtesy of Amherst Cinema.
Showmanship
We had a lot of fun recently with the Internet Cat Video Festival
from the Walker Art Center. We promoted this program through
social media, inviting patrons to send us images of their cats, which we
showed onscreen before the program. (Audiences loved that!) We also
partnered with a local animal shelter. Our late-night screening sold out
to the college-age crowd, and our matinee drew families with children.
What’s not to love about a full house of festively costumed cat lovers?
We know that onscreen messaging in the theaters is crucially
important to converting audiences to members and to promoting
the film series and special events unique to our theater. We’re now
creating our own trailers to speak directly with our audiences.
Overall, our priority is curating diverse, top-flight programs.
Once we set the program, then we figure out promotion. We use the
traditional channels for all programming: website, weekly e-newsletter,
social media, media releases, and e-mail. We also target groups
and individuals we believe will be interested in a particular film or
series. Hard copy works for us. Our quarterly newsletter is mailed to
8,000 mailboxes. The newsletter also seems to evaporate out of our
lobby. So do the lobby flyers we create.
We have relationships with other nonprofits and with academic
institutions, and host curated film series with these partners, who
promote the programs among their own constituencies. Examples:
art museums, environmental groups, food banks, language-study
organizations, and women’s studies centers. We also advertise with a
local radio station and provide content for their programs and radio
hosts.
Membership
As with most arts organizations, ticket sales cover only a portion
of our costs, so memberships are critical to our financial stability and
make all our programming possible. Members get reduced admission
to most programs, so there are economic benefits. We believe,
though, that most people become members because they support
what we do. Our members understand that independent cinema
builds a strong and vibrant society and they want us to thrive. We
have 5,000 members who are widely distributed over a 25-mile
radius. We’re so pleased that membership keeps growing at 7 to 10
percent a year.
The Power of Cinema
One of the great joys of our work is bringing rising and established
filmmakers to our theater and connecting them on a deeper
level with our inquisitive and appreciative audiences. We believe
in the transformative power of cinema and the value of seeing the
work with others as a shared experience. The deep conversations that
follow feed our souls. n
FEBRUARY 2016 BoxOffice ® 37