Only In Theaters: Inside the Laemmle Family’s Battle to Keep Beloved Local Theater Chain Alive

Laemmle Theaters has been in business for 84 years, but it hasn’t always been a smooth ride for the family-run Los Angeles movie theater chain.

A new documentary that premiered on Saturday at the Santa Barbara Film Festival called Only in Theaters takes a look inside the beloved chain known for championing independent cinema — and the Laemmle family, who have been pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into making sure it has stayed in business all these years.

Until 2020, Laemmle Theaters had stayed open through everything. No war or economic crisis had ever kept them from showing movies before — not even the invention of television. But COVID-19 changed all that, forcing the chain to close its doors for over a year. They finally reopened in April 2021.

“It’s been around for a long time. And this is, from what I understand, arguably the most tumultuous 24 month period of their entire time being around,” Only In Theaters director Raphael Sbarge told MovieMaker.

Also Read: FRESH Director Mimi Cave Dishes on Cannibalism Theme and What That Meat Was Really Made Of

But Sbarge began making the first-ever documentary about the Laemmle family business before all of that happened.

“I didn’t want it to be a pandemic movie,” he said. “It’s really a story about a family and their determined journey to continue doing what they love, which is to really give us movies.”

“The idea that a family would have a personal mission of wanting to support artists, in a world which is so corporate and so big fish eating smaller fish, so impersonal — there was something really remarkable and unique [about that],” Sbarge added. “Kind of like a lighthouse all the way at the edge of the water and shining out, in a way. That in itself was really what really captured me and really touched my heart. How do you tell that story? And seeing how Greg and then the family and then the business really sort of navigated these past couple of years was an opportunity to talk about the larger things at stake. What do we have, and what do we lose if they’re gone, and what does that mean? What are the implications of that potential loss?”

As for how Laemmle Theaters is doing today, Greg Laemmle, president of the theater chain, says it’s no cakewalk — but they’re making it through.

“Well, in the spirit of honesty, it’s been rough,” said Laemmle. “Business is not yet back to where we need it to be to operate profitably. But fortunately, we finally were able to get some assistance through the shuttered venue operator grant program, which has been a lifeline for us and I think for many small movie theater operators across the country, and we are hopeful that by the time you know that grant program runs out at the end of June, that things will be back.”

He also said he’s glad he didn’t sell the chain when he had the chance in 2019, even though the following year was the toughest in the local theater chain’s history. And he hopes that when the time comes, he’ll be able to show Only In Theaters at Laemmle Theaters.

“At the end of the day, the things that we don’t support disappear, or they change in some way, but they become less a real part of our lives,” Laemmle said. “I don’t want movie-going to be something that’s like going to a museum. I really want people to appreciate how just what a great opportunity it is.”

Only In Theaters premiered Saturday at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. 

Main Image: Greg Laemmle in Only In Theaters