Movie-goers love happy endings, right? Well, the North Bend Theatre gave Valley residents their own happy ending earlier this week.
Just four short months after launching a fundraiser designed to upgrade the North Bend Theatre’s old film movie projector to a state-of-the-art, high-tech digital one, owners Cindy and Jim Walker announced the fundraiser a success.
In May, the Walkers decided to try a community fundraiser to help keep the historic theater open. With Hollywood making the move to exclusively release all films in digital form, the iconic theater needed to upgrade its film projector, at a cost of about $100,000, or close its doors.
The community stepped up in a big way – to the tune of $105,000 so far. Earlier this week, on September 10th, a new digital projector, with the most up to date 4K processor, arrived at the North Bend movie house.
In a letter to the community on the theater’s Facebook page, Cindy and Jim Walker reported, “More than 550 amazing families and businesses have donated to our fundraiser! One-third of the money raised has come from contributions of $100 or less, one-third from contributions between $100 and $500 and one-third from $1,000 and $2,500. This has truly been a community-wide project!”
Originally, the Walkers anticipated ordering a less expensive digital projector with a 2K processor and capability to show 3D movies, but in the end went with a faster processor, which will give the new projector a longer technological life. The additional cost of the faster processor means sacrificing 3D movies for awhile, but the Walkers say they will continue to fundraise (for another $30,000) to help add that 3D capability in the near future.
The North Bend Theatre closed up for a couple of days this week and performed an “out with the old and in with the new” with its projectors. The theater re-opened on Thursday evening, debuting the new projector with free movie showings – and a new movie viewing experience for the Snoqualmie Valley.
Congratulation Cindy and Jim – and the North Bend Theatre!
