Silver Bell Corp., of Spokane, will close its Twenty-Four Frames Cinema in Cheney next month, says Laura Boenheim-Ulyatt, the companys president of operations.


Despite replacing all of the theaters projection equipment, installing new carpets, and doing other renovations over the last few years, Twenty-Four Frames couldnt attract enough customers, she says. The theater, at 421 Second, lost money every month during the four years it was in business, she says.


The town really hasnt supported us, Boenheim-Ulyatt says. Weve improved a lot since weve been here. Its been frustrating.


The operation lost between $80,000 and $200,000 a year, she says.


Six part-time positions, plus Boenheim-Ulyatts full-time position, will be eliminated with the closure.


Twenty-Four Frames has two screens and is the only movie theater in Cheney, which has a population of 8,800. In addition, about 8,900 students attend Eastern Washington University in Cheney, but the bulk of Twenty-Four Frames customers were adolescents and families with young children, Boenheim-Ulyatt says. The theater mostly showed PG- and PG-13-rated shows, she says. Cheneys college students usually make the 16-mile drive to Spokane for entertainment, Boenheim-Ulyatt says.


Stephanie Ennis, director of student activities at EWU, says students prefer to watch movies where they also can dine.


There are places to go out to dinner in Cheney, but only about five, she says. They go to dinner at the places college students are addicted to, like Red Robin.


Silver Bell plans to sell the 3,500-square-foot theater, Boenheim-Ulyatt says. The building, which was erected in 1910, previously housed a Savage House Family Pizza Parlor.


Ennis says the buildings age hurt the theaters chances to become popular among the college crowd.


At first, they could see duct tape holding the screen in place. They fixed all that in time, but maybe they opened too soon.