Ticket Sales Continue to Lag at the Capitol Theatre, Which Loses Tens of Thousands Each Year

The Capitol Theatre in 2024. Since its renovation in 2009, the West Side’s only movie house has been operating at a loss of upwards of tens of thousands of dollars a year. Credit: Mark Oprea

There was no doubt that the restoration of the Capitol Theater was paramount to Gordon Square’s own resurrection in 2009.

Along with the new streetlights and bus stops, a hundred trees and murals, $7 million being spent to bring the West Side’s only movie theater back to life. After all, water damage and lack of air conditioning, along with urban decay, kept the Capitol all but neglected for 24 years.

That changed in October 2009, when Clevelanders flocked to see the Capitol’s restored main theater, its two new screens, its new lobby and concessions stand. A refresh pining to be, a letter posted on its walls predicted, “the center of entertainment and economic rebirth on Cleveland’s West Side.”

Today, although the Capitol and its blade sign continue to show mainstream and indie films, the theater is operating at a loss, several sources confirmed to Scene.

Jeff Barge, a former member of the board of Northwest Neighborhoods, the community development corporation that owns the Capitol and pays an annual fee to Cleveland Cinemas to operate it, said Gordon Square’s theater is at a deficit of tens of thousands of dollars per year.

Moreover, a $1.5 million loan used primarily for that 2009 renovation has not been paid back to City Hall despite City Council restructuring it at least five times since that loan was issued. (A city spokesperson declined to say how much is left to be repaid on the loan.)

Historic theaters in city centers have struggled more than their plusher, suburban counterparts in the years since the pandemic decimated the industry.

It’s why Barge sees the Capitol’s funding woes as mostly outside of its control. Streaming is too accessible. Cinemarks and Silverspots, with their comfy recliners and higher-end concessions, are too competitive. And they have more films.

“I mean, the future is in question,” Barge told Scene. “Even if the money was still there, they would still have that problem.”

In the years following the Capitol’s comeback, a wild gap played out, pitting hopes against the reality of a paltry theater turnout compared to yesteryear. In 2010, 44,000 tickets were sold. That moved up to 52,000 in 2011, then 60,000 in 2012.

In 2016, about a decade after fundraising began, the Capitol cracked 50,000 visitors—half of what developers initially thought the theater could pull off.

“Although that number has increased incrementally over the years, the theater needs to sell at least 75,000 tickets each year to break even,” Jeff Ramsey, a developer who led the renovation project, told the Plain Dealer in 2016, “and repay its debt to the city.”

A spokesperson for Northwest Neighborhoods also declined to say exactly how much of the $1.5 million loan was still owed to City Hall, or how much the Capitol was behind each year, or how many tickets per year it currently sells.

“I can say that we are working with the city to ensure that loan is paid back,” that spokesperson said.

“And I want to reiterate that this is something we are actively working on, finding creative ways to leverage this theater,” they added. “Theaters as a whole have to rethink things for a lot of factors. But the pandemic and streaming services have impacted the world as a whole.”