08/16/2025
Please support Eagle 6 theatre.
We’re about to find out if social media is a spectator sport… or if it can hit you in the gut and get you moving.
Picture this: George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life, Fred Rogers from A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and Scott Lang from Ant-Man. That’s my dream casting for the movie version of my life right now — one part small-town optimist, one part kind neighbor, one part wisecracking underdog who refuses to quit.
I don’t want you to just read this. I want you to feel it.
Me and my staff need you to do ONE thing this weekend:
See a movie.
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On August 8, I bared my soul about our financial recovery and how a $150,000 cash injection got postponed.
That’s my fantasy version of me: community-minded, empathetic, the underdog who wins you over to three simple truths:
1. We can save these theaters.
2. Our towns deserve theaters.
3. This is your conscious choice to make.
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Reality check: there are some who don’t believe in the underdog story or that we have an angel investor in the wings — someone who, through no fault of his own, is standing at the one-yard line of a deal that could change his life and give rural theaters a new survival model.
And I’ll admit — I have enough hubris to feel misunderstood. I’m not some slickster selling snake oil. I’m the third generation of four who’s put over 100 years into making small towns better. And in one shining moment of my life, I helped raise $4 million to build a high school. So yeah, being misunderstood hurts.
Do I believe in the investor?
Absolutely. Back in late May, we took one of our theaters into Chapter 11 to slow the clock until his project closed. We thought August 1. Now, we’re still waiting. Not because it’s fake. Not because he’s failed. But because it’s that complicated.
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But let’s circle back to the one thing that matters right now: you seeing a movie this weekend.
I know long posts are out of social media fashion. Roll your eyes if you want, “too long, didn’t read” folks. You’re right in the broad sense… but dead wrong here.
Sometimes you’ve got to open a vein and bleed on the page, because there’s a rhythm and a story that three sentences can’t hold.
Earlier this week, 113,000 people read my last post — sixty times our usual reach. That tells me I either made a connection… or wrote a train-wreck story and you were slowing down to see the carnage.
Let’s write a better one. One where three small-town movie theaters don’t sink under the waves because streaming stole too many hearts, or Hollywood “got too woke,” or popcorn “costs too much,” or because “there are no good movies anymore.”
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As George Bailey might say: ““Just a minute—just a minute. Now, hold on…” Fred Rogers might say: “That’s not the kindest way of looking at it.”
As Scott Lang might say: “Wow. That’s… one way of looking at it.”
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Here’s my deep-in-the-bones, no-BS take:
We’ll do our part. But this is your inning. You’re coming to bat.
One thousand extra tickets per location this weekend = $45,000 in cash. That buys our investor time to settle with his backers and maybe sacrifice a small, unsympathetic mammal — like a weasel or a vole.
Since the pandemic, sellouts have been rare. We can keep body and soul together with an average of 20 people per show. But this weekend? Imagine almost every showing with 60 or more of your friends and neighbors sitting next to you. That’s what changes the story.
If less than 3 in every 100 people who saw our last post turn out, Robinson, Clinton, and Streator will make national news as communities that refused to buckle.
This alone won’t save us. But it buys time — and time is oxygen. The rest will come from popcorn buckets, timely donations, and SOAR subscriptions.
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But right now:
“Heavens to Betsy, folks…” (George Bailey)
“Dear neighbors, please…” (Fred Rogers)
“C’mon, people…” (Scott Lang)
It’s time to feel. Then act.
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So here’s what you do:
1. Pick a movie — Men in Black or Top Gun: Maverick are on deck.
2. Show up. Bring someone. Make it an event.
3. Post about it. Let people know you care.
We need the cash, yes — but we also need proof that you give a damn. That we’re not selling buggy whips in a Formula 1 world.
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This week, Zuckerberg’s minions decided I’m a “rising digital creator.” Great. But I’m not here to make Facebook sticky. I’m here to keep our theaters alive.
Our teams are working to give you something worth fighting for. I’m working to make sure my grandfather and father — both small-town businessmen — could look down and see we finished what we started.
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What say you?
Are you in this weekend? And beyond?
