Sisters Movie House to reopen after long year

Following a COVID-19-compelled closure of over 400 days, Sisters Movie House is finally reopening for business. The theater on the FivePine campus at the east end of Sisters will once again welcome back patrons on Friday, May 21.

“It’s been an extremely long haul. I believe we are one of the last businesses in Sisters to reopen and probably the last movie theater in Central Oregon,” said Drew Kaza, co-owner of Sisters Movie House. “With the recent zigs and zags of Deschutes County virus numbers, and the changes in risk levels, we wanted to wait until a date when we were able to say that we will stay open again for good. May 21 is that long-awaited date.”

The cinema and café will be adhering to pandemic guidelines, Kaza reported. That includes masking for admittance and when watching the movies, with the only exceptions made for eating and drinking. Sisters Movie House will also be adhering to six-foot distancing guidelines and limiting capacity in accordance with the county risk levels.

“At this point, we don’t know what those will be for the weeks in question, and we will probably be adjusting as we go along,” said Kaza. “But we will only put on sale 25 percent or 50 percent of our total seat capacity, or up to 50 admissions per auditorium – whatever the level dictates for that particular week.”

Sisters Movie House is also sticking strictly by the industry-wide protocols adopted by the National Association of Theatre Owners (“NATO”), also known as “CinemaSafe.” For more information about those standards, readers can refer to www.cinemasafe.org.

As with a number of businesses that have re-opened in 2021 following a long closure, Sisters Movie House is also in the midst of hiring.

“It’s probably the biggest challenge we’re facing right now,” said Kaza, “so if there are any self-motivated movie fans out there who would be interested to join the team, we’d love to hear from them. E-mail us, call and leave a message or just drop a resumé by the theater.”

Throughout the long saga, the undying support of cinema regulars, along with the regular town folk of Sisters, were the beacons of hope for the entire Movie House crew, according to Kaza.

“We just cannot begin to describe it adequately,” he said, “but the amount of encouragement, from kind words to financial contributions, has simply been overwhelming. Sisters really loves its Movie House.”

For further updates and latest showtimes, moviegoers are urged to check the website at www.sistersmoviehouse.com and/or sign up for the Sisters Movie House e-newsletter or follow them on Twitter @sisters_MH or on Facebook @Sistersmoviehouse.