Theater Chief Looks To All Tastes

By LANE FILLER [email protected]
Wednesday, September 01, 2004 Page: 1A

WILKES-BARRE – Wayne Anderson is ready to operate a big movie theater
downtown, but said Monday it will offer a little something unexpected.

Small movies.
For years, independent and art films have played once at the Kirby Center,
been offered up at the Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock, or bypassed the area
altogether.

The Gateway in Edwardsville and Cinemark at Montage offer mostly big-budget
films guaranteed to draw huge crowds.

But Anderson said one of the beauties of a downtown movie theater –
particularly in a city like Wilkes-Barre – is the proximity of college
students and urban professionals, and he hopes to offer them something a bit
different.

“We’ll sit down with the film clubs from Wilkes and King’s and the
professors, and talk about doing different stuff,” Anderson said. “With 14
screens, we have the opportunity to bring in films that might not make us a
fortune, but that will attract new people to the theater, different people.”

Anderson said that from Thanksgiving through Christmas and Memorial Day
through Labor Day, the focus would be on big releases.

“That’s when we have to make our money, those times of year. But the rest
of the year, we can bring in different stuff, whether it be a small arty film
or a weekend-long John Wayne retrospective or whatever appeals to folks.”