Gary Pollard’s Empire Theatre is like the movie industry itself.
Every once in a while, someone will bemoan the death of the movies, saying people have moved on to livestreaming or video games. But then a blockbuster comes along, and the obituaries are delayed.
Pollard had thought, earlier in the summer, that the long history of the Empire as a movie theater were over, not only due to the lockdown but also the fact that no one was seemingly going to the movies any more.
Along comes “Tenet,” the latest mindbender from English director Christopher Nolan, known for the Batman Dark Knight series, as well as effects-laden films such as “Inception.”
Pollard has booked the film for the month of September, and he’ll see how it goes.
This is a long way from 1993, when he showed his first film, the Tina Turner biopic, “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” In the 27 years since, Pollard estimates he’s shown about a thousand films.
The last sellout performance was more than a decade ago. A midnight showing of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” sold out in 2009, as did a few subsequent showings, but the 320-seat
