Concession Sales Helping North Pointe During Pandemic
April 23, 2020 at 12:06 a.m.
Concession Sales Helping North Pointe During Pandemic
By Amanda [email protected]
Nicholas Joyner, part of the family-owned North Pointe Cinemas, 1060 Mariners Drive, Warsaw, said his family has owned the nine-screen theater for decades.
“This has never happened before,” Joyner said of closing the theater.
The theater shut its doors in March when Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered all non-essential businesses to close and gatherings of more than 50 people were prohibited.
For North Pointe, which has been making no money since closing a month ago and has a roughly $10,000 NIPSCO bill due every month, it’s taken a big hit.
“We work with the major Hollywood studios, and we have a booking agent that we work with, and we have contracts with each studio depending on the movie and the length of time we’re gonna be playing it,” Joyner said of how they get flicks.
The family is looking forward to being able to open again, perhaps in June, Joyner said, but for now, selling their concessions is helping pay those light and water bills.
Last Saturday, the theater offered customers to drive through their parking lot and purchase tubs of popcorn for $5. They sold 800 tubs.
“The sales were great, we were just blown away by the response,” Joyner said.
They’re planning on doing it again from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday and are adding cotton candy for $5 and nachos for $3.
This idea to sell their concessions came from Joyner’s sister, Cindy Joyner.
“She was inspired by activity on Facebook and people requesting that we might do this or that they wanted our popcorn,” Nicholas Joyner said. He said the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce’s Facebook group “To Go Kosciusko” has been great.
“Kudos to the Chamber for putting that together,” Joyner said. “I’m really impressed. They deserve a high-five from everybody really, but it’s been very helpful for us to have access to the specific community.”
Joyner said depending on how the COVID-19 health emergency moves forward, the family is still hoping to be able to put on their free family film festival.
“We’ve provided the free family film festival in Warsaw for over 20 years,” Joyner said. “It’s free and in the morning and it’s a free movie and people come out, lots of institutions like the schools and Cardinal Services.”
He also said that they’ve heard from the Hollywood studios that they may unlock some of their vaults, allowing North Pointe to play classic movies as well.
“And then starting in July, Warner Brothers is opening Christopher Nolan’s film ‘Tenant,’ which is supposed to be great, so that’s gonna be one of the first films that opens, and then also Walt Disney’s ‘Mulan,’ and Disney also said they were going to release two movies a month starting in July and by the end of the year they’re gonna do two movies a month, so the whole industry should be rolling at some point in July,” Joyner said.
“We love Warsaw, and we feel humbled and very supported by the community. We feel like we’ve invested a lot in this community and supported different causes and it feels great,” he said. “I kind of feel like Sally Field when she won her second Oscar. You like me, you like me, you really like me. We feel like that. It just feels so good to feel the love from the community, and we hope to spread it ourselves when we open.”
Nicholas Joyner, part of the family-owned North Pointe Cinemas, 1060 Mariners Drive, Warsaw, said his family has owned the nine-screen theater for decades.
“This has never happened before,” Joyner said of closing the theater.
The theater shut its doors in March when Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered all non-essential businesses to close and gatherings of more than 50 people were prohibited.
For North Pointe, which has been making no money since closing a month ago and has a roughly $10,000 NIPSCO bill due every month, it’s taken a big hit.
“We work with the major Hollywood studios, and we have a booking agent that we work with, and we have contracts with each studio depending on the movie and the length of time we’re gonna be playing it,” Joyner said of how they get flicks.
The family is looking forward to being able to open again, perhaps in June, Joyner said, but for now, selling their concessions is helping pay those light and water bills.
Last Saturday, the theater offered customers to drive through their parking lot and purchase tubs of popcorn for $5. They sold 800 tubs.
“The sales were great, we were just blown away by the response,” Joyner said.
They’re planning on doing it again from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday and are adding cotton candy for $5 and nachos for $3.
This idea to sell their concessions came from Joyner’s sister, Cindy Joyner.
“She was inspired by activity on Facebook and people requesting that we might do this or that they wanted our popcorn,” Nicholas Joyner said. He said the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce’s Facebook group “To Go Kosciusko” has been great.
“Kudos to the Chamber for putting that together,” Joyner said. “I’m really impressed. They deserve a high-five from everybody really, but it’s been very helpful for us to have access to the specific community.”
Joyner said depending on how the COVID-19 health emergency moves forward, the family is still hoping to be able to put on their free family film festival.
“We’ve provided the free family film festival in Warsaw for over 20 years,” Joyner said. “It’s free and in the morning and it’s a free movie and people come out, lots of institutions like the schools and Cardinal Services.”
He also said that they’ve heard from the Hollywood studios that they may unlock some of their vaults, allowing North Pointe to play classic movies as well.
“And then starting in July, Warner Brothers is opening Christopher Nolan’s film ‘Tenant,’ which is supposed to be great, so that’s gonna be one of the first films that opens, and then also Walt Disney’s ‘Mulan,’ and Disney also said they were going to release two movies a month starting in July and by the end of the year they’re gonna do two movies a month, so the whole industry should be rolling at some point in July,” Joyner said.
“We love Warsaw, and we feel humbled and very supported by the community. We feel like we’ve invested a lot in this community and supported different causes and it feels great,” he said. “I kind of feel like Sally Field when she won her second Oscar. You like me, you like me, you really like me. We feel like that. It just feels so good to feel the love from the community, and we hope to spread it ourselves when we open.”
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