Midway Cinema Reopens, Showing Summer Blockbuster Classics

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For the first time since March, Midway Cinema in Chehalis is open and showing movies — only it’s not all new releases like normally, but older classics.

The cinema, part of Coming Attractions’ 16-theater circuit on the west coast, is the only show in the area — literally. Regal Cinemas and AMC Theaters, neither of which have locations in Lewis County, aren’t reopening until the end of the month. So even if a Lewis County resident wanted to watch a movie in Olympia or Longview, they would have to wait until then. Regal isn’t opening its U.S. theaters until July 31 and AMC is slated for a July 30 reopening.

That leaves Midway Cinema as the only option for locals. The theater closed March 15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down all non-essential businesses in the state. It briefly reopened in June to do curbside concession sales but not movie showings. Only a handful of people showed up each day and it wasn’t financially feasible, so the idea was scrapped. 

Then Lewis County moved into phase three of the state’s four phase ‘Safe Start’ plan and the cinema officially reopened over Fourth of July Weekend, starting on July 3.

It wasn’t a firework explosion of customers. Seventy-seven people showed up to watch 20 showings that first day. The numbers dropped the following day on the Fourth of July, as expected with a national holiday, Midway Cinema general manager Eric Bengstom said.

“I think the weather was really good and we had a lot of people who decided to do family and outdoor stuff,” Bengston said.

It had 50 more customers on July 5, bringing the total number of customers that weekend to what Bengston called a slow Friday night during typical times.

“Business isn’t fantastic,” said Bengston, who has been the general manager for nearly three years.

It’s a downturn not entirely due to people not attending movies due to safety concerns from COVID-19, Bengston said, a lot of it has to do with the current showings. As of Monday, movies listed for this upcoming weekend included:

• “Back to the Future”

• “World War Z”

• “Arrival”

• “Star Trek”

• “Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan”

• “Jurassic Park”

• “The Outpost”

• “Trolls: World Tour”

The only new release out of those is “The Outpost,” with the other being former summer blockbusters that were popular viewings at the respective times of their releases. Midway Cinema is having to show those old movies because of the lack of new releases scheduled for this time, due to COVID-19 delays. New, upcoming movies have pushed back their release dates in hopes that more states and counties will soon open up their theaters for customers.



“That will change near the end of the month,” Bengston said. “We’re going to start to see some new releases, but until then we’re going to run these older classics.”

The classics do have a nostalgia factor to them. Some customers are coming back to see older movies that they watched in the theater as children, while other cinephiles are getting the opportunity to experience the big-screen appeal of classics they missed out on because they were too young.

“They’ve never seen “Jurassic Park” on the big screen, so they’re coming in for that,” Bengston said. “It’s one of those things where a lot of people are taking advantage of that.”

One local film aficionado who does movie reviews on YouTube spent the past couple weekends watching two movies a day because he had never seen a lot of these films on the big screen, Bengston said.

The cinema is currently operating on weekends only: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. It is planning to move to seven-day-a-week showings on July 31, which coincides with a few newer releases slated to drop. That includes “Unhinged” with Russell Crowe. Two weeks later Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated film “Tenant” releases after being delayed three weeks. After that, there is about one big summer movie a week scheduled until September.

Safety-wise at Midway, the guidelines for theaters in Washington state are kind of a gray area, Bengston said. Currently it is limited to 50 percent capacity, but there is no requirement to cordon off seats and force spacing of customers. It hasn’t been a big problem, so far, Bengston said, as a 300-seat auditorium is not even coming close to reaching 150 people as of now.

Masks are required in the building, per Gov. Jay Inslee’s statewide mandate. But, just like a restaurant, many patrons are coming in and buying food and drinks. So the cinema is requiring masks in the lobby, hallways and restrooms, but not once the person reaches their seat.

“If you get to the auditorium and you’ve got your popcorn and drink, you can take off your mask and enjoy your movie,” Bengston said.

The cinema is voluntarily taking contact information from its movie-goers in the event someone who contracted COVID-19 had watched a movie there.

Midway is also ramping up its cleaning efforts compared to its normal cleaning regimen, such as wiping down the counters and every touched surface more often. Also, the current eight movie showings is down from a regular schedule, a decision made to allow custodians more time to clean each theater between showings and spray it down with disinfectant for 10 minutes.

“That’s where we’ve gone and I think that’s where most of the industry has gone,” Bengston said. “It’s going to be kind of a wait-and-see situation; if people are comfortable enough to come back in when we start to have the bigger, newer movies.” 

Midway is also running a guest appreciation ticket price. Normal ticket prices are in the $8-9 range, but the cinema is currently showing all movies at $5 a ticket, flat rate. Not only can locals see classic movies, but they can see them at a classic ticket price. It’s normally a deal reserved for $5 Tuesdays. Normal ticket pricing will likely resume after July 31 once the summer blockbusters arrive.

More information on Midway Cinema

General Manager: Eric Bengston

Location: 181 NE. Hampe Way, Chehalis

Phone: 360-740-9600

Hours: 2 p.m. to 5:50 p.m., Friday; 1:10 p.m. to 5:50 p.m., Saturday; 1 p.m. to 5:50 p.m., Sunday

Website: www.catheatres.com

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Reporter Eric Trent can be reached at etrent@chronline.com. Visit chronline.com/business for more coverage of local businesses.