For most of the past 100 years, we have enjoyed the opportunity to view movies at a cinema called The Warwick. The previous iteration was owned and operated by the McNulty family until 1999. Those involved in the new Warwick have included Johnny Ray, Edgar Alleyne and GM Tim Nasson. As recently reported in the Current, the future sustainability of this local gem has been called into serious question.
Allegations of mismanagement, failure to pay vendors and, most troubling, failure to pay employees, some of whom are local teenagers, and failure to honor commitments to a fundraising event have led to finger-pointing among the corporate leaders.
There is no question, it can be a challenge to maintain profitability for small businesses, and The Warwick is no exception. The McNultys were forced to shutter its doors in 1999 when they could no longer compete with the mega cinemas in the area.
The building was then used as a gymnastic center for the YMCA until it was demolished in 2011, only to rise from the ashes in 2013 after the development of the current structure, which houses a number of businesses including The Beacon restaurant and the Warwick Cinema. Now, a little more than 12 years later, we find the theater may again be nearing closure.
Ray has opined that a better path forward to ensure the continuation of a local movie house in Marblehead might be to create a nonprofit organization. In fact, a number of years ago, local citizens explored that very possibility. Might this now be the time to revisit and further investigate the viability of such a business model?
Of course, should The Warwick convert to nonprofit status, it will face new challenges. The initial infusion of donor capital and then the ongoing fundraising efforts can be daunting tasks. Presently, we are dealing with inflation that seems unwilling to abate with soaring gas prices and cost increases for many of our most basic needs and commodities. Affordability is a real concern for most families. It remains to be seen if the community will or can support a nonprofit movie theater. But we at the Current believe it makes sense to try to answer this question.
There are numerous local examples of movie theaters that have successfully found ways to operate under the nonprofit model, including Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Amherst Cinema, West Newton Cinema and Cape Cinema in Dennis, to name a few. In addition, there are regional and small-town success stories such as Images Cinema in Williamstown, the Moviehouse in Millertown, the Crandell Theater in Chatham, the Bantam Cinema near Litchfield and Great Barrington’s Triplex, where the community created a “Save the Triplex” campaign, formed a nonprofit organization and raised enough money to open its doors.
We have been fortunate to have an accessible downtown movie theater for most of our lifetimes. It would be a tremendous loss for the community should The Warwick have to again close its doors. We encourage our local citizens to seek ways to prevent this from happening, provided the theater can be maintained in a fiscally sound manner. Perhaps the nonprofit model can accomplish such a result.
