“Star Wars” under the stars; “Before Sunset” after sunset; “The Dark Knight” on a dark night; “Forrest Gump” from the comfort of a park bench; “The Warriors” on Tucson turf.
In the most recent phase of a multi-million-dollar construction project, The Loft Cinema unveiled its open-air cinema, a state-of-the-art outdoor theater.
“It’s like the idea of the old-school drive-ins,” said Jeff Yanc, program director at The Loft. “It’s kind of that vibe, but it’s a sit-in, we call it, not a drive-in.”
The open-air cinema area seats 72, and is furnished with aquamarine Adirondack chairs, pink patio tables and chairs, benches and “very soft” astroturf that moviegoers can sit on comfortably. According to Yanc, the aesthetics of the area match those of Wes Anderson films — a “not unintentional” design choice.
“I kind of like the visual vibe of it,” Yanc said. “It looks very cool.”
Upon arriving for a screening, visitors are handed headphones and digital receivers that are tuned to an FM radio station: A tact borrowed from classic drive-in theaters. The purpose of the individual audio, which the user can adjust to their liking, is to block out street noise from Speedway Boulevard and ensure that sound does not bleed into the surrounding neighborhood.
The idea, Yanc said, was the “only good thing that came out of the pandemic.” Unable to screen movies during COVID lockdowns, The Loft transformed its back parking lot into an outdoor theater.
“It was actually wildly successful. People seemed very excited about it because they were eager to come back to theaters. And then we started getting the idea that people really just liked it in general.”
The original open air cinema ran until restrictions loosened about a year and a half later, at which time the nonprofit converted the space back to its parking lot. Since then, many supporters have called on the theater to revive the experience. This year, while already under construction, The Loft opted to deliver on that request.
The open-air cinema is part of the arthouse theater’s fundraised endeavor to expand and update the 1967 building, which faced a plethora of issues, including “prehistoric” plumbing. Among growing crowds of visitors post-COVID, the theater was becoming unsustainable.
“At a certain point,” the program director said, “the building just wouldn’t work anymore.”
“There was a bigger burden on the structure itself, just based on the sheer number of people in the theater. So, the idea was we needed more space.”
To accommodate more visitors, The Loft added a spacious lobby, new restrooms and an updated concessions area. Adjacent to the outdoor screen sits another brand-new screening room, stylized after the red room from David Lynch’s beloved series “Twin Peaks.” With the two additions, The Loft now boasts five screens (though Yanc considers the open-air cinema a “half screen,” as it will only be used at night). Because of the added theater space, The Loft will be able to hold onto new movies longer and offer more repertory classics programming and events.
“The first phase of it has been open for a couple of months now, and it’s been pretty exciting,” Yanc said. “People seem really interested in it and happy with it, and really kind of loving the new space.”
During the next phase, The Loft will transform its old lobby into a lounge area and renovate its upstairs theater. Though the original plan was to convert the theater into offices, the program director was adamant about saving the space.
“I couldn’t handle that emotionally,” Yanc said. “The upstairs space has been there for decades, and it’s so unique to have an upstairs theater, because theaters just don’t do that anymore.”
“We’re going to be making it more comfortable, with better seats and sight lines and sound, and all of that.”
The expansion project is coming at a time when American movie theaters are largely struggling. Box office failures — owing to streaming popularity, increased ticket prices and fatigue with the quality of studio films — have hurt theater attendance across the country. Controversially, Netflix recently announced a plan to acquire Warner Bros., and Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated that theatrical runs are “out of step with the consumer experience of loving a movie.”
But The Loft has continued to flourish. Yanc explains that the Loft does not depend financially on tentpole movies and franchises, which is the business model of traditional theaters: relying on the studios to provide smash hit films to get them through the year. Patrons of The Loft are not visiting the nonprofit arthouse theater to see “Wicked 2” or “Zootopia 2,” and though The Loft sometimes shows big movies to boost the bottom line, it has the freedom to screen older movies, foreign films and documentaries that might not show at other theaters.
“That’s our bread and butter,” Yanc said. “We just have more flexibility because we’re an independent, and we only answer to ourselves.”
Another factor to The Loft’s success is Tucson’s culture of championing the arts.
I think Tucson is just maybe more supportive of its arts communities than some other cities are,” Yanc said. “Particularly larger cities where I think the art community kind of gets lost in the sprawl sometimes.”
“But Tucson’s always been a very art-centric town.”
In general, the program director has confidence in the future of theatrical exhibition and finds that comments like Sarandos’ fail to connect to the “actual, real experience” of the movie theater. It’s for a reason that The Loft regularly draws crowds of 200 visitors for its Mondo Monday series, to watch “quote-unquote bad” movies that viewers have never seen and have often never heard of.
To me, that’s the greatest representation of how it works when it’s working well,” Yanc said. “People just want to be there.”
“Clearly, the value is in the experiential aspect of moviegoing. And, you know, we harp on that all the time because that’s kind of where we’re at now culturally: You can stay home and watch most movies. But there’s a real value to going out and meeting other people and being around people who love movies and watching movies together and having that kind of group experience. and I think that will never go away.”