Oh The Shark Bites With Its Teeth, Dear

By Jocelyn Geboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 26, 2006 6:41PM

A movie on Saturday night ... that's a pretty common activity. There should be no real complication in that. However, heading off to see Art School Confidential at the Three Penny, we were shocked to see the box office closed, bright orange stickers on the doors from the City of Chicago, and the marquee bidding us a kind but sad adieu.
We were stunned. So much so that it took us a moment just to take it all in and grouse a little with the other people standing outside of the theater. And then of course, we took a picture. Really though, it is disheartening to think of another independent business close, and does anyone really know why?

Their website says that they are "temporarily closed," but the message on the sign doesn't sound so temporary. Snooping reveals it might have something to do with the city amusement tax. According to a discussion we found at this site, the owner may have revealed that he was having a hard time paying the amusement tax.**

More snooping reveals that the amusement tax forced the Biograph out of business as well as the majority of the Meridian Entertainment's theaters. However, there is both a city and a Cook County tax, and it seems that the Allstate Arena (formerly Rosemont Horizon, located in Cook County), has never paid the tax because Rosemont passed an ordinance saying they weren't going to pay it.

This article talks about how amusement taxes work and claims that "For now, the amusement tax in Chicago provides a strong source of funding that has been used to support the arts enabling residents and tourists to enjoy the city's many cultural offerings. " Interesting. We're not sure how closing theaters helps residents and tourists to enjoy the city more."

We did end up going to see Wordplay, which was fantastic, and the director (who is from Chicago) was there to do a Q&A after the film. But we'd rather have had the Three Penny open.

**Update: While we were waiting for our calls and emails to be returned, it seems that the Sun-Times and Crains' both heard the same story. Burrows estimates in those stories that he owes approximately $100,000 to the city, an amount which the city is unwilling to negotiate with him.

A theater employee from another company "who has worked at all of the major chains" that we *did* talk to today (who preferred to remain anonmyous), confirmed what the Crains' article states -- that just because the amusement tax is included in the price of the ticket does NOT mean that is all the rest of the ticket is profit. She explained how the theater owners must pay the studios to even have the film, and with movies going straight to DVD, theaters often have less time to recoup their money. She also explained how if people don't come in the first two to three weeks of a movie's opening, that the theater risks losing money by holding the film for a longer run. What makes matters even more complicated is that as Burrows explains in the Crains' article, distribution rights often mean they can't get the hot ticket films they would like to have.