“A beautiful, star-shaped chandelier was once suspended from its ceiling. A pot-bellied stove heated the theater…”

— description of the early Coliseum Theater in the City of Haines Survey of Historic Sructures, 1979.

It’s vacant now, but the historic Coliseum Theater building on Main Street may be a picture show once again.

Resident Krishna Smith is researching that prospect as he puts together a business plan for a second-run theater in the 92-year-old building that most recently served as a video rental store.

“It started because there is really nothing to do here in the winter,” said the 37-year-old computer programmer who moved to Haines last winter. “I thought it would be cool to have a theater here. And I thought, it can’t be that hard to open a theater.”

After learning of the building’s history, he contacted its Juneau-based owners and began compiling a business plan.

The Coliseum closed in the early 1980s, then was revived a few years later as a video rental outlet. DVDs and the arrival of by-mail video rentals shrunk profits, and the second video store at the site closed in October 2009.

Smith said he’s still compiling rent and utilities costs, but would like to start by showing one film, Thursday through Saturday, two times per evening, and possibly one or two shows on Sunday.

“At first, it would most likely be the same movie for all shows. Eventually, I want to show different films at different times.”

He said he thinks he could make it work selling 25 tickets per week at $6. He said he wants to sell popcorn, hot dogs, candy and soda, but doesn’t plan on taking advantage of the kitchen in the building, in the first year anyway.

“It remains to be seen if it could survive a winter,” he said.

The theatre would show “second-run” movies, two to four weeks after they open in big cities. Film companies often take all the profits from the first several weeks of blockbuster films. He said he needs at least 70 percent of revenue from ticket sales.

In addition to blockbuster films, he said he’d like to show art films, alternative films and use the theater as a venue for local viewings “like an alternative, smaller Chilkat Center.”

He describes himself as a movie buff “kind of. I’m better at films than music. I know more about movies.”

Smith arrived in Haines in late December, following three months of traveling across Canada from Labrador to Yellowknife. He had been living in Atlanta, prior to the trip, and planned on moving to Portland, Ore. But the northern climes called.

“The drive convinced me I wanted to move to the North.” He said he was attracted to the scenery, the cold and the social nature of small towns.

Smith grew up in Atlanta and attended college in Buffalo, N.Y. “I don’t really like the heat.”

He switched majors from aerospace engineering to computer science. He works remotely, writing applications for a California-based tech company, the same job he held in Georgia before striking off on his road trip. “I hadn’t planned on coming to Alaska at all.”

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