Kellogg theater closing July 1

KELLOGG - The Rena Theater will dazzle Silver Valley residents with Hollywood stars and engaging plots for one last time Thursday, July 1 before the Kellogg icon closes its doors.

Deep rooted within Kellogg and Silver Valley culture since the 1930s, the Rena Theater was sold to neighboring Dave Smith Motors.

"We're not proud of the fact that we sold this theater, by any means," said Gary Dupuis, general manager of Polson Theatres, Inc. "It was a decision and we just had to make it."

According to Dupuis, no single reason pushed Polson Theatres, Inc. to sell the theater. The solution to many of the problems the theater had developed unfortunately required money.

"If we don't have a steady, in-the-black income it's very difficult to come up with reasoning to put additional dollars on something that we can only hope to turn a profit on," Dupuis said.

Plans had been in the works to not only make improvements to the aging building, but also to make the expensive leap toward digital conversion in the future.

"We've been thinking about what we can do with it for the last year," Dupuis said.

Polson Theatres, Inc., a family owned business, owns 11 other theaters. They run theaters operating within Montana towns more isolated than Kellogg, but Dupuis said those are able to stand, for the most part, on their own.

With the Rena Theater, Dupuis said it was tough for the theater to stand on its own and that they reached a point where they realized it was time to find a way to move on. They originally approached Dave Smith Motors to sell the theater last September, but no deal was made.

"We know it's an unfortunate situation, closing a movie theater in a community," Dupuis said. "We're not in the practice of closing theaters, we do what we can to keep them open."

Representatives from Dave Smith Motors were unable to be reached for comment.