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.”