Central Cinema COVID Catch-up
Donation protected
Hey Knoxville!
We're coming up on our 2 year anniversary in August and we badly wish that we could spend that with you guys watching movies at our theater, but right now it's hard to say if we will be open again then or not. We’ll be reopening as soon as we feel safe, but in the meantime we are available for private rentals, so if you're really itching to get back to the movies and have family or friends that would be interested, please reach out to us, as we are offering some big discounts on rentals right now. Just look at these beautiful new seats we just installed in June, they are in desperate need of butts to sit in them! While we hope this will help us keep paying the bills while we're shut down, we've also got a fun perk available here to offer in return for your help with a post-COVID jumpstart.
If you’ve been to Central Cinema you hopefully noticed the customized armrests that graced our old seats; these were made available in our initial GoFundMe for donors to “adopt” an armrest with their name and a movie of their choice. Naturally, there were only a set number of these available — there wasn’t even room in the theater for the ones we made for ourselves — and since the moment they sold out we’ve gotten requests to continue with something similar.
That time has finally come! For every $30 contribution, we’ll be producing a custom 4”graphic tile and adding it to Central Cinema’s decor.
As seen in these prototypes, each tile will feature a hand-picked film still or promo image, along with its contributor’s name. (Tiles can also be credited to a couple/family, or memorialize a departed film fan.) Just include your film selection as a comment when you donate, along with the desired name if it differs from your GFM display name... we'll reach out if we need any more info.
There won’t be a hard limit on how many of these tiles are available, and you’re welcome to sponsor as many as you like. But please note we’ll only be doing a single tile for any given movie, so if your pick is a potentially popular one be sure to reserve it ASAP!
An important note about those old seats, by the way: if you’re one of our original Adopt-An-Arm donors, we’d love to replace your armrest with one of these tiles free of charge. (You're welcome to keep your original movie or change it.) But if you’d prefer instead to have your armrest as a keepsake —or even take home a full seat or two in exchange for an additional donation of your choice — please email us if we haven’t already reached out to you. (Full seats are limited, FYI, since each single seat requires two armrests… we also recommend you be sure you’ve got a place to bolt it into a floor/platform/etc.)
We appreciate your consideration and support, and look forward to seeing you at the movies whenever you feel comfortable coming back to see us! Stay safe, Knoxville.
PS: We want to directly acknowledge this is a weird moment to be launching a crowdfunding campaign for causes outside the realm of social justice. If your budget for community support finds you choosing between us and something more righteous, we hope you’ll circle back to this campaign another time, or just come see some movies when we reopen. (Local orgs that deserve your support include Community Defense of East Tennessee and Black Mamas Bailout Action.)
We're coming up on our 2 year anniversary in August and we badly wish that we could spend that with you guys watching movies at our theater, but right now it's hard to say if we will be open again then or not. We’ll be reopening as soon as we feel safe, but in the meantime we are available for private rentals, so if you're really itching to get back to the movies and have family or friends that would be interested, please reach out to us, as we are offering some big discounts on rentals right now. Just look at these beautiful new seats we just installed in June, they are in desperate need of butts to sit in them! While we hope this will help us keep paying the bills while we're shut down, we've also got a fun perk available here to offer in return for your help with a post-COVID jumpstart.
If you’ve been to Central Cinema you hopefully noticed the customized armrests that graced our old seats; these were made available in our initial GoFundMe for donors to “adopt” an armrest with their name and a movie of their choice. Naturally, there were only a set number of these available — there wasn’t even room in the theater for the ones we made for ourselves — and since the moment they sold out we’ve gotten requests to continue with something similar.
That time has finally come! For every $30 contribution, we’ll be producing a custom 4”graphic tile and adding it to Central Cinema’s decor.
As seen in these prototypes, each tile will feature a hand-picked film still or promo image, along with its contributor’s name. (Tiles can also be credited to a couple/family, or memorialize a departed film fan.) Just include your film selection as a comment when you donate, along with the desired name if it differs from your GFM display name... we'll reach out if we need any more info.
There won’t be a hard limit on how many of these tiles are available, and you’re welcome to sponsor as many as you like. But please note we’ll only be doing a single tile for any given movie, so if your pick is a potentially popular one be sure to reserve it ASAP!
An important note about those old seats, by the way: if you’re one of our original Adopt-An-Arm donors, we’d love to replace your armrest with one of these tiles free of charge. (You're welcome to keep your original movie or change it.) But if you’d prefer instead to have your armrest as a keepsake —or even take home a full seat or two in exchange for an additional donation of your choice — please email us if we haven’t already reached out to you. (Full seats are limited, FYI, since each single seat requires two armrests… we also recommend you be sure you’ve got a place to bolt it into a floor/platform/etc.)
We appreciate your consideration and support, and look forward to seeing you at the movies whenever you feel comfortable coming back to see us! Stay safe, Knoxville.
PS: We want to directly acknowledge this is a weird moment to be launching a crowdfunding campaign for causes outside the realm of social justice. If your budget for community support finds you choosing between us and something more righteous, we hope you’ll circle back to this campaign another time, or just come see some movies when we reopen. (Local orgs that deserve your support include Community Defense of East Tennessee and Black Mamas Bailout Action.)
Organizer
William Mahaffey
Organizer
Knoxville, TN
