By Lucy Renaud and Kingsten Zenick
Editor’s Note: This story is via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Montpelier Bridge.
Five years of survival through a global pandemic, historic flooding and a withering moviegoing crowd, and the Savoy Theater is still standing.
The two-screen theater in downtown Montpelier remains a hangout for people who want to share their love of cinema, a role its owners are dedicated to keeping up.
“Reality is, if you don’t see a movie in the theaters, you can watch it later and watch it at home. So we have to make the experience unique; it has to be special to make you come out and watch the movie here,” said owner James O’Hanlon.
“Part of that is just what we are showing: films that leave people completely moved and almost as if their lives have been changed — that’s what we are here for.”
The rise of streaming services as people’s preferred movie-viewing mechanism has forced theaters across the country to close their doors. Vermont hasn’t escaped those headwinds: Merrill’s Roxy Cinema in Burlington shuttered this past fall, ending a 43-year run in the state’s biggest city.
But with post-flood renovations completed in the basement and upgrades to the theater’s upstairs pending, O’Hanlon and crew are hitting back against the streaming surge.
The plan? Focusing on a curated selection of arthouse and indie flicks, promoting local filmmakers and offering wine and beer alongside the usual popcorn and candy.
The Savoy first opened under Rick Winston in 1981. Alongside the folks at Capitol Theater, a more traditional theater that had operated for decades around the corner, Winston helped foster a local following of film lovers in the city before selling to Terry Youk in 2009.
Youk recruited several local carpenters and volunteers to help with major renovations on the building, including the transformation of what was originally a basement video store into a second theater room.
Among those who volunteered a day to help with renovations was O’Hanlon, who eventually bought the place from Youk in 2016. He recalls instantly falling in love with the Savoy. The theater is one of the few spots for arthouse films in the state.
To O’Hanlon, it felt like home.
“I look at my role as sort of the steward or curator of facilitating what it’s gonna take to keep this place going,” he said. “And I love movies too. That’s why I believe in it and keep it alive.”
He understands streaming at home is typically the more affordable and easier option these days. And generational divides in moviegoing habits have been tricky to navigate: “The older crowd is the loyal base,” he said. Younger people — less so.
But he feels a theater can offer something you just can’t get from your laptop or living room.
“Certain films are cinematic,” he said, invoking that elusive sense of spectacle, grandness. “And you’re gonna lose something if you don’t watch it on a real screen like that.”
And there’s something special, he said, about the collective buzz of a theater audience all tuned in to the same experience.
Closing shop in 2020 because of Covid — and again for almost nine weeks after the 2023 floods — only reinforced the idea of getting people to come out and be together.
The Savoy goes beyond screenings to host panel talks, rom-com-themed craft nights, cinema club meetings, and showings of staff favorites. The latter, a series called “Movies We Love,” focuses on older films.
“That will draw in a new audience who hasn’t seen them before, as well as people who have seen them before but love to come and see the films again,” O’Hanlon said.
The theater also looks to bolster the local film community by getting involved with the annual Green Mountain Film Festival.
The multi-day event, held in Montpelier, features screenings in both the city’s theaters and has been running for more than two decades. Last year, it returned from a four-year, pandemic-driven break.
In the end, the Savoy’s persistence only exists because of people who care. O’Hanlon is quick to credit local support for the theater’s staying in business.
“This place only exists because of the community here,” he said.
“Not because of me. It’s here because the people in this community love it,” O’Hanlon said.
