My Biz: Mount Vernon theater stays family friendly

The Bijou, a one-screen, independently owned movie house in Mount Vernon, generally plays movies three to four weeks after they open nationwide. On occasion it shows movies on their official opening weekend.

Midnight Friday will be one of those occasions, when the theater Jerry and Cheryl Sheehy bought in 2002, will along with other venues nationwide, screen the much-anticipated “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.”

The Sheehys decided to buy the theater after determining that “we just needed to increase the market awareness and maybe change the types of movies that were shown,” Jerry said. “If we were going to do this we were going to do it with family-friendly movies.”

The Sheehys have shown only G, PG and PG-13 rated movies that have a family appeal.

“It has been a good strategy for us to make parents feel comfortable dropping their kids off for a movie,” he said.

Cheryl, a Kennedy High School paraeducator by day, books the movies, while Jerry, a Rockwell Collins senior marketing manager, talks with vendors and negotiates pricing. Their biggest business hurdle is working with the various movie studios, he said.

“It is most challenging to get the movies we want when we want them. The studios play a game of checkers,” he said.

“We contact each individually and negotiate for show dates and terms. We usually have to forward a cash advance before they ship the movie to us.”

While the holiday can be a busy time of year for new movie releases, Sheehy said that his small-town theater is a seasonal business.

“For us, the slowest time is September and October because of high school football. We know if it's a home game or an away game,” he said.

“A movie theater is one piece of living in Mount Vernon, and we recognize our part in the community.”

One innovation offered at the theater is a half-price refill at the concession stand to patrons who bring their own containers.

“I don't know what it is,” Sheehy said, “but people spill less popcorn if they bring their own containers.”

Name: Jerry Sheehy

Title: General manager

Company: Bijou Movie Theater

Address: 123 Second St. SW, Mount Vernon

Phone: (319) 895-6165

Website: http://www.bijouonline.com/index.html

Know a manager or company in business for at least a year that should be considered for “My Biz”? Contact business editor Michael Chevy Castranova at michael.castranova@sourcemedia.net.