It's not surprising to see folks who want to be in the restaraunt business move into a failed restaraunt and try to make a go at it. It's equally not surprising to see one more failure. It might be the location, the pricing, the costs--any number of factors but for sure, those that have tried have failed.
Down in the Philie area there's a movie theater that has been purchased and made a nonprofit after a "string of private owners" failed to succeed. The theater's business model: attract audience through "classy" (my term) movies, some old, some new and have memberships and donations, and, I presume, fees make the place sustainable.
I assume that one element that the theater has going for it is that it is not paying taxes: property or state/federal income. I'm guessing that the location, once good when it began, may be ok but...times have changed and the mega-theaters do draw audience. I would have guessed from its nonprofit status that it was only screening oldies or the like but this next couple of months it will also be playing what is in the mainstream theaters: Julia Roberts’ film “Eat, Pray, Love” will play throughout August and into September.
I have a bunch of questions: What exactly justifies this theater being nonprofit? Is it really filling a void in which the for-profit sector has no incentive and the public sector has no demand (for public dollars to be used)? And with all the competitors -- the big cinemas as well as cable -- is there really an audience noting that the previous owners would say the answer is "no". And what exactly is the incentive for memberships or donations?
Unfortunately, the answers I would hypothesize don't leave me to think this is a viable idea. I'd love to check back in a year to hear the progress but like the effort to make for-profit news media nonprofits, I'm just not understanding the viability of these conversions.
To learn more about this theater, check the story at the Philadelphia Inquirer.