A hardware problem forced Sidney’s Star Cinema to delay its re-opening, but its owner could not be more thrilled to be open again.
Sandy Nelson said a problem with the projector forced the theatre to move its scheduled opening from Friday, June 18, to Monday, June 21.
“It took a while to get the part ordered and it wasn’t put on the FedEx (plane) until Friday morning,” she said, adding it landed Monday morning.
Staff had discovered the problem Thursday morning while feeding the scheduled movie — A Quiet Place II — into the computer, Nelson said, noting staff had been testing the projector throughout last week.
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Following the arrival of the part from eastern Canada, installation only took an hour. But until then, the show had to wait.
Fortunately, Monday’s re-opening went off without a hitch.
“The turnout was really nice,” Nelson said. “It’s a Monday night and it (A Quiet Place II) is one of those films that is not for everybody. It’s fun, but it is kind of a tense thriller.”
Overall, Nelson said it was a pleasure to welcome people. “There were a couple of people who ordinarily wouldn’t have even watched that film, but they thought ‘what the heck,'” he said. “They were eager, very eager.”
With several fun movies on the horizon, Nelson is confident that they won’t be last.
After leaving its historic, now demolished, location at Third Street and Sidney Avenue and moving to its temporary location on Fifth Street in early 2020, Star Cinema closed during the first COVID-19 wave. They reopened in July but closed again last fall.
“Out of this whole pandemic period, which is 15 or 16 months by now, we have only been open for four months of it. So we are very excited to be open again,” said Lindsey Pomper, general manager, last week.
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