Pullman Village Centre Cinemas will permanently close its doors on Thursday, Sept. 5.
The closure is a result of increased property and admissions taxes in Pullman, as well as the increase in Washington state minimum wage, according to the theater’s website and Facebook page. The combination of taxation and wage increase has “made it challenging for the Pullman Theatre to keep running.”
“I heard that the theater was closing through other people, and when I heard the news, my first thought was, oh, something must be going on financially there,” said DTC major Evan Maggit, who frequents the Pullman theater.
The Village Centre Cinemas movie theater is located off Bishop Blvd. and has been open to the public for 21 years.
Movies will continue to be shown through Sept. 5, with the theater’s final movie showing, a showing of The Crow, beginning at 9:55 p.m., according to the theater’s website.
“Last year and the year before I was going to the movie theaters quite a bit whenever there was a new movie coming out. It didn’t matter what genre it was, I just wanted to try all movies just because I love to support the movie theater,” Maggit said.
Employees were informed of the theater’s closure the same day the public announcement went out, about three weeks prior to the closure date, according to Josh Porter, Pullman Village Centre Cinemas Assistant Manager.
The Pullman theater’s staff, who were unceremoniously let go, were encouraged to apply to the Lewiston or Moscow locations, though they were not directly provided with other employment.
“The theatre has been there for me for a really long time, and I feel like I am the man I am today because of my experiences,” Porter said. “Hearing we are closing was pretty devastating.”
The theater closure in Pullman will not affect the Village Centre Cinemas locations in Moscow and Lewiston, according to the theater’s website.
Additionally, the theatre’s Moscow location has updated its theater with new seating and is open to serve both the Moscow and Pullman communities, according to the theater’s website.
“This kind of business has thousands of jobs in just one movie, so even if it’s bad or good, I never want to disrespect that… I always support the movie theater by seeing it [movies] on the big screen,” Maggit said. “But yeah, I definitely went there frequently.”
Ray Batina • Sep 4, 2024 at 2:32 pm
I dont think taxes etc had anything to do with the decision to shut the theater down. Ticket sales nationwide have been falling since the early 2000s, plummeted during the pandemic, and only partly came back. People are not going to as many movies as ten years ago. We have been going to the VCC pullman since they opened and saw a number of movies where the seats were sold out, LOR3, Master and Commander, and more recently, Oppenheimer. It was a lot of fun to be in a crowded theater and see everyone respond at the same time to something funny or scary on the screen. You really can’t get that no mater how many people are watching a movie at home. We will miss that. But sold out shows are very rare now. More typical is the showtime where there are only a couple of fans watching the movie. People have found a better alternative for them, streaming.
Nunya Tiburton • Aug 31, 2024 at 12:51 pm
Why are we continuing to propagate the fallacy that they’re closing because they can’t afford to operate in Pullman? No, Washington movie theaters throughout the state are managing to stay in business. This is a cash grab. Obviously wages have gone up in Washington, and that’s a good thing. People deserve to make a livable wage. The higher taxes go to services that are important, such as Apple Care, which ensures that nobody in the state goes without health insurance. What’s really going on is that the theater expects us to go spend out Washington dollars in Idaho so they can make more money, at the expense of the employees they’re dumping, and the social obligations that go alone with running a business in a particular state. In other words, this is nothing more than corporate greed.
So it looks like now I have to go to Spokane if I want to see a movie in the theater.
Mike Jones • Sep 3, 2024 at 8:01 am
You should go ask the manager or employees why they are closing. When I talked to the people there they said Pullman taxes the entire ticket price. The issue is here is the studio gets 70% of the proceeds and the theater get 30%. So if Pullman only taxed the 30% of the funds that actually stay in Pullman they would be able to in business. Not sure how other towns/cities do it.
Ray Batina • Sep 4, 2024 at 12:38 pm
I doubt whether taxes etc had much to do with this decision. Tickets sales peaked a number of years ago, plummeted during the pandemic and have come back but not nearly to where they were before. We have been going to the VCC Pullman since they opened and there were a number of shows sold out. It was really fun seeing something funny or scary happen where the entire audience would respond at the same time. I will miss that. Sadly, people are seeking alternatives and streaming is their choice.