Independent Movie Houses Take Nonprofit Route

Boutique cinemas in San Francisco are turning to nonprofit status or support to raise revenue, reflecting an industry trend, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The city’s Roxie Theater became a nonprofit in 2008 and has been able to raise its operating budget by supplementing ticket sales with grants, benefit events, and a membership drive. Two other local cinemas, the Vogue and the Balboa, rely on the nonprofit San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation for renovations and other major expenses.

Russ Collins, chairman of the Art House Convergence Film Theaters Conference, said the San Francisco cinemas’ moves reflect a national trend. Attendance at the conference, an annual gathering of independent and nonprofit movie houses, has grown from 25 to nearly 300 in five years.

Going nonprofit “is becoming the new way to stay open because it’s hard to convince the public to buy tickets to art documentaries,” said Rachel Hart, administrative director at the Roxie.