The Dalles' Columbia Cinema closed Jan. 26

The seats just aren’t filling up like they used to.

“The end of last year and the beginning of this year, the attendance just dropped so bad,” he said. “The studios just aren’t putting out movies that appeal to people.”

He said, “I really miss the days when we were busy because my favorite part of working at a movie theater has been greeting people as they leave and seeing that they had a good time.”

One movie, the Flinstones, in 1994, particularly sticks out for that thrill of seeing the happiness on theater-goers faces as they left. “The adults were so happy that they shared that with their kids,” he said.

His own taste in movies doesn’t always follow the popular trends. A few times, he’s aired more eclectic movies that he liked, to limited success. Finally, a staffer told him, “Haven’t you figured out we don’t do well with the movies you like?”

Studios are also simply making fewer movies now. Pre-pandemic, studios produced about 120 movies a year, he said, and now it is about 90 a year.

People used to go to the movies 5.2 times a year nationwide, now it’s around 2.5 or 2.6 times a year.

He sold the property in November to a buyer he did not want to disclose. He sold them the theater and the bare lot next to it, which is a total of four acres.

He believes it is unlikely the theater will reopen. He and the new owner had shown it to a few people but didn’t get any interest.

He’s sold theaters himself that have gone on to become a Goodwill store or, here in The Dalles, a rental center. Often, former theaters become churches, he said.

Humphrey first got into the theater business in The Dalles when he bought the former Cascade Cinema, in Cascade Square, on Nov. 9, 1992. He kept that open until 2006.

He also owned a theater in Pendleton, but sold it and it became an Ace Hardware. He still owns a theater in Hermiston. As for the status of the Hermiston theater, he said time will tell. “If business doesn’t pick up we might have to make a hard decision in 2027.” He said that theater did real well for the last 8 weeks of 2024.

He lives in The Dalles currently, but will probably move to Hermiston full-time, he said. He expects he will retire in two years.

Humphrey has always had a love of watching movies in the theater. “For me, it’s always been being in a room full of strangers I don’t know and hearing people enjoy the same things I’m enjoying, when they laugh at the same things I’m laughing at.”

Or when there’s a surprise, the whole theater gasps. “The other thing I’ve noticed, in the pandemic, I’d watch a movie at home and I’d find myself distracted by devices. The focus is the movie when you’re in a movie theater.”

Humphrey recalled the 3D movie craze. He spent $170,000 on the equipment for six screens, and the very first showing of the very first 3D movie, he heard from some customers that they didn’t like 3D and would not be watching it.

“It was the biggest mistake I ever made,” he said. For him, it hurt his eyes, and it was also “a distraction that takes you out of the story.”

He made other much bigger investments, including spending $1 million in 2011 to switch to digital format at the three theater locations he operated.

In fact, the theater was for sale back then too, because he didn’t want to go into debt for the digital changeover, but he ended up taking the plunge.

“Nobody was interested then because this small a town doesn’t attract anybody unless they’re going to live here and work it,” he said.

He put the theater back up for sale about a year ago.