It’s the most wonderful time of the year for holiday movie enthusiasts in Crossville.
The Palace Theatre kicks off its Halloween movie schedule in September, with two months filled with thrillers, horror and a scary good time.
That will be followed by a schedule chocked full of Christmas and seasonal favorites, said Ethan Medley, Crossville Leisure Services director, during his report last week at the City Council retreat.
“We’re trying to fill that gap as best we can, even though we’re not a first-run movie theater,” he said. “She’s got a movie package deal over there — $10 for movie, popcorn and a drink. That’s an absolute deal. So if you need something to do, go do that.”
The gap Medley referred to is the closure of Crossville’s movie theater. Since it shuttered and sold the building to an area church, Palace Manager Malena Fisher has maintained a busy schedule of classic films, cult classics and favorite flicks so moviegoers can continue to enjoy the experience.
“It’s hard to get the first-runs just because the licenses cost so much,” Medley said. “And we’ve found some random moritoriums on certain titles.”
For example, Fisher released a Christmas list last year and had to immediately rescind it because some of the movie studios decided to put moritoriums on some of the ones she had chosen.
“Hopefully, that doesn’t happen this year,” Medley said.
The first movie on the Halloween schedule is 1986’s “Little Shop of Horrors” at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6. That’s followed by a 2 p.m. matinee Tuesday, Sept. 10, featuring “Frankenstein” from 1931.
“They’re doing great over there,” Medley said of the historic downtown movie theater that’s been converted into an entertainment showcase.
“Numbers continue to be strong among all their show types, whether that’s movies, rentals, shows, all that.”
Particularly successful has been something Medley called a “ticket split,” an agreement between the Palace and acts that appear there. Both the artist’s promoter and the Palace market the event and share in ticket sale proceeds.
“We’ve also found that if you want to make money, do a tribute band,” he said, citing Analog and Noise Pollution as being two of the Palace’s most successful. “It’s completely offset those movies that we have done that have not done that great. Those ticket splits have really picked up the slack there.”
Plans are to move the box office to the main auditorium area for efficiency, a sound upgrade that’s simplified the audio process and produced a cleaner sound while opening up seats, bringing the seating capacity back to 300.
Ethan Hadley, Crossville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, said state grants may be available to assist with future upgrades.