MARIEMONT, Ohio — Movie magic could soon be returning to the historic Mariemont Theatre, Cindependent announced on Wednesday.
The nonprofit said it is less than $100,000 away from acquiring all the funds it needs to reopen the theater, which has been closed since February, when a WCPO crew spotted workers carrying popcorn makers, projectors and movie posters to a nearby moving truck.
Mariemont Mayor Bill Brown told us the owner of the building evicted the theater's previous owner, Theatre Management Corporation, at the end of January and gave them until the start of March to leave. Cindependent announced at the end of January that it planned to take over operations of the theater.
The 88-year-old theater has sat empty, its marquee bare, since Theatre Management Corporation packed up everything and left. Allyson West, founder of Cindependent, told WCPO that when her team got the keys to the building, they found rows of empty floor space where theater chairs once sat. The original marquee letters were also found in a box tucked away in the theater.
Since then, Cindependent has been working to get the funding to replace everything that was removed from the building.
"Everything that we need to play movies in the Mariemont Theatre was taken out of the theater," Allyson West, Cindependent founder, told us in April.
But now, Cindependent says it's close to having everything it needs to fire those theater screens back up again.
"We have crossed the threshold into our campaign being 90.2% of the way funded, which means that if we can close this campaign out in July, we'll be able to bring staff and bring people back on site to start reopening the theater in August," West told us Wednesday.
She said Cindependent is also making some upgrades with the purchases to re-furnish the theater; new screens and new speakers are being installed, which West said are upgrades from the audio and visual systems that were previously in place.
"There are five new projectors, meaning that the visuals you see will be crisper," West said.
Cindependent's goal for reopening the theater was around $1 million. To date, they've successfully acquired $902,000 toward that goal.
The nonprofit said to help secure the rest of the funds, they're offering a commemorative t-shirt for anyone who donates — both now, and for anyone who already donated along the way. The t-shirts will read "I saved movie magic at the Mariemont Theatre," Cindependent said.
Anyone who would like to donate to Cindependent's effort to reopen the Mariemont Theatre can do so online.
