Base Theater

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Ellsworth AFB, S.D. --  The Commander's Action Line is a forum for the Ellsworth community to make suggestions or voice concerns about Ellsworth directly to Col. Mark Weatherington, 28th Bomb Wing commander. 

QUESTION 

I am very saddened to know that the base theater will no longer show movies. As a retiree and a consumer of this service, I am writing to find out what can be done to reinstate this service? My son-in-law is Active Duty at Ellsworth and is currently deployed. I feel that it is a mistake to take this away, especially when so many of your troops are deployed. They will be surprised upon return that this service is discontinued. When we provide our daughter and granddaughter relief so they can spend some time together, the base theater is the best and most economical way to have family time, and they use this service every weekend when a PG-13 or G movie is shown. This does not just affect retirees who live on a fixed income, but our deployed troops families and the single airmen. When I go to the movies, there is always at least 20 people, of which 1/2 are single airmen.

Please reconsider this decision and fight to have this returned.

Col. Mark Weatherington
Col. Mark
Weatherington		   RESPONSE

First, this was not a base decision--AAFES made a business decision to discontinue Theater service at all but 4 locations in the U.S.

Second, several factors drove this decision, most notably changes in the motion picture industry. The industry will transition from 35MM film, which our theater is equipped to show, to digital projection in 2013. After the conversion, current movies will no longer be available in the 35mm format.

The cost to upgrade our theater is $120K--which neither the base nor AAFES can afford, especially given the operating loss the theater sustains. We experienced very low attendance, even with first run movies, which was already insufficient to offset the costs of distributing movies and paying personnel to run the theater.

In response to community concerns, we are exploring more effective partnerships with the community and on base alternatives.

UPDATE: Here is the latest Facebook post from Colonel Mark Weatherington, 28th Bomb Wing Commander, on movie theater ticket pricing in Rapid City:

Great news for the movie buffs in the crowd--FSS worked with CARMIKE cinemas to arrange for a military discount at the theater in Rapid City...$2.50 discount from the ticketed price when you show your ID! That's a great partnership with our neighbors!