Photos by Shyanne Belzer/MDN The lobby of Oak Park Theater has been renovated since the 2011 flood. The new interior provides a friendly feel that is still familiar. From old posters to familiar photos to a Yoda guarding a variety of unique items tied to the theater, it gives visitors a feel of the past while boasting a new, modern look.

Lower the lights, turn the sound up and let the movie experience take over alongside nostalgia at Oak Park Theater. A small, sub-run theater filled with memories and a long run, it offers a comfortable movie experience at a cheaper price.

The Oak Park Theater in its current remodel has been open for just over two years, ending its complete second year on Feb. 24 of 2019. It has been doing well, according to Allan Schon, who runs the theater.

The building that holds Oak Park Theater was originally built in 1964 as a movie hall. Schon helped run it back then before closing it in 1980. It became a handful of different things during its time on break from movies, including a church and a pool hall.

The building remained as it was though, never too drastically changed for the different purposes that it was bought for. The building was then purchased around 2000 by new owners and was made into a movie theater for the second time.

“The theater had an 11-year run and then the flood hit,” explained Schon.

The building faced a lot of damage alongside the many homes and businesses that surrounded it and the building went up for sale again.

“I thought okay, that might end it,” Schon said. “Somebody’s going to pick up the building and do something with it, knock it down, but sure enough, here we are.”

Schon had planned to retire before he was approached to purchase the building again. He couldn’t say no and started the task of fixing the building up to become the movie theater for a third time in the building’s long history.

“Historically, I suppose, it doesn’t happen often where an old building wasn’t retrofitted into something else,” Schon said.

Typically a movie theater has an estimated 30-year life span before the building is repurposed or torn down. Schon explained that this is due to the ever changing standards of the movie industry as it first grew from small theaters to stadium seating and with many turning to lounge seating.

Schon, who has been in the movie business for 35 to 40 years, has been through all the changes between his time working at a sub-run Colorado theater to working the Oak Park Theater.

After the flood of 2011, Oak Park Theater had to be entirely redone. The water that had filled the walls had done a lot of damage. Schon was a part of the entire makeover.

“All the way from demoing to replacing underwater pipes to full replacement of electrical stuff,” he explained. “The only thing that wasn’t replaced was the outside walls and the front doors.”

Some good came from the remodeling and the reopening of the well known local theater. New seating and new sound damping walls were brought in and made to help make the experience better. The theater was given better heating than it had previously and the theater made the jump to digital.

“We’re able to do a lot more, play a lot more movies, than we did in the past,” Schon said.

The previous system only allowed the theater to have a show only three times a day. Now through digital, Oak Park Theater can play up to six times a day if they want.

The new system also allows for easier handling and has improved the movie playing experience.

Since reopening, Schon says the theater has been doing well. Many people who attend are parents or grandparents bringing families for the cheaper prices and familiarity.

“Many people are nostalgic of the theater, having good memories of the place,” Schon said.

Community support to the theater from day one has been great.

“Overall, it’s been great community support from our “Buy a Seat” Campaign to people renting the place for birthday parties,” Schon explained.

Alongside movies, Oak Park Theater also offers an event venue. From birthday parties to receptions to family reunions wanting to watch a video of photos on a large screen, the theater has gotten a lot of use since its reopening.

He has even had gamers coming to experience playing their games on a larger screen than normal, which has been very popular for birthday parties.

“Basically they bring in their own Xbox, Playstation 4, the Wii, and plug it in at our switch at the stage and it comes through onto the speakers and the projector. You’ve got a large panoramic view with the large screen,” Schon explained.

Oak Park Theater works to offer movies for both families and adults by offering family friendly movies during matinee times and then more PG-13 or higher movies in the evening.

Schon has said they have a goal of eventually adding a second screen so they can offer more movies, explaining that around 700 films are released a year and currently the theater is only able to offer 64 movies in a year.

“Sometimes that doesn’t seem a lot, but that’s at least one a week that’s always changing,” Schon said.

Many movies he wants to show he is unable to currently due to more popular movies taking precedence.

A special he enjoys doing occasionally is running old classics. When the remake of the Michael Myers horror-thriller movie “Halloween” played at Oak Park Theater, Schon had the original run around the same time.

He hopes to do more like this with a plan to possibly have a special summer viewing of Jaws.

A big thing that pulls people into the Oak Park Theater to view movies is the ticket prices. The average price for a movie ticket at many theaters is nearly $10 with some costing more and a few costing less.

At Oak Park Theater, Schon works to offer cheap prices to make a family movie outing easier to experience. Tickets for everyone simply cost $4 with the most expensive concessions item being an extra large popcorn priced at $6.