PIKESVILLE, Md. — Back in December, the theater formally known as Next Act Cinema's in Pikesville announced it was closing its doors for good.
Wednesday, under new ownership, those same doors are opened once again, but this time the focus is not just on new movies.
"So, our approach was totally different. Yeah, we're gonna offer up new films, when we select it, but we're also gonna do independent and classic films. You never run out of classic films and even though people can suggest that, well, you know, I could see this on my TV or whatever, they weren't made for TV, they were made for the big screen and to bring that romance back of theater going again is where we felt that this theater needed to remain open," said Michael Eugene Johnson, the new owner.
Hear how the new owner of Pike's Studio Cinema plans to keep the theater alive
Johnson now owns Pike's Studio Cinema and decided to kick the grand opening off with a Sidney Poitier marathon of movies.
He says it's important for smaller cinemas to have diversity and offer other things to stand out from other theaters.
"We are competing with a lot of things. We're competing with streaming, we're competing with the big theaters with the 21 screens and the 35 screens," says Johnson.
So, in addition to movies, the space can also be reserved for special events.
"We're also doing a lot of special events. I mean, we're going to be doing a speaker series and we're gonna be doing music nights and we're also gonna be doing gaming nights," he said.
But even with all the changes, Johnson says it's going to be hard to keep the space open without the support from the community.
"We have no illusions, we know it's very, very tough. This is a very expensive project. We are making our struggle known to people only because I don't want, if I do have to leave, if I'm not able to do it, it won't be because we didn't try," says Johnson.
But, he says the theater has too many ties to the community to just go to waste.
So, Johnson says it would be great to have people volunteer at the cinema, rent the space out for birthdays and other events, or simply donate to ensure the doors don't have to close again anytime soon.
