In one scenario, West Newton Cinema, a beloved family-run theater, becomes a nonprofit, renovating its facilities to house a cultural center that offers everything from talks with filmmakers to movie parties for kids.
In another scenario, the neighborhood cinema closes for good and the building is demolished, one more theater pummeled by COVID-19.
That is the stark choice now faced by the six-screen neighborhood cinema, an independent stalwart treasured for its mix of foreign films, independent features, and children’s movies.
Ticket sales, which plummeted during the pandemic, have been slow to recover. So when Mark Development made an offer on the property last year, longtime owners David and James Bramante decided to sell, on one condition — that interested parties would have two years to form a nonprofit and raise funds to buy back the building and operate the cinema. (Existing nonprofits are also eligible.)
Otherwise, the building would be razed and the property incorporated into a future development.
“I was all for trying to create a way to keep the theater,” said David Bramante, who still works the front of the house, though he now pays rent on the property. Turning the theater into a nonprofit, he said, “is the pathway.”
Now, the newly formed West Newton Cinema Foundation has launched an ambitious fund-raising initiative, calling on community members to help preserve the cinema before the deadline elapses in August 2024, after which the cinema will be slated for demolition.
“If we don’t come together to save this, it’s not going to be there,” said Bridget Bali, a foundation steering committee member who is also David Bramante’s daughter. “Now’s the time for everybody to really band together and get behind it and save it.”
Still, the newly minted nonprofit has some daunting fund-raising goals to meet: It hopes to raise $9.9 million over the next 17 months, a figure that includes $5.6 million to purchase the property, and another $4 million to renovate the building.
It’s a tall order for any organization, let alone a fledgling foundation that lacks an established donor base — the lifeblood of any nonprofit.
“We’re building our donor base at the same time as everything else,” said Bali, who added they’ve enlisted a consulting firm to help with the campaign. “It’s a real grassroots strategy. It’s going to have to be a combination of the community coming together, and then we are going to need some major financial donors to step forward — you know, big, small, and in between.”
West Newton Cinema is the latest in a long line of independent theaters across the country that have either shuttered or become nonprofits in recent decades, said Katherine Tallman, executive director and chief executive of the foundation that runs the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline.
Tallman, whose own theater transitioned to a nonprofit more than 30 years ago, added that distributors take between 50 and 63 percent of the ticket price for first-run features. And while cinemas often look to concessions as a profit center, a smaller theater’s revenue is inherently limited by fixed seating and screen constraints, even as costs continue to rise.
“At some point, those curves are going to cross,” said Tallman. “It’s a tough, tough business.”
Nonprofit status, on the other hand, offers a number of advantages to a struggling theater — steady donor support and tax-exempt status among them.
Ivy Moylan, who along with Ned Hinkle operates The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge through the nonprofit Brattle Film Foundation, said she believed their storied one-screen arthouse “would be offices” if a nonprofit hadn’t stepped forward to operate the cinema.
“The previous owners just weren’t finding anybody to take over,” said Moylan, citing the theater’s limited revenue potential and steep rents of Harvard Square. “It’s not easy to be a nonprofit, but it’s the way to ensure your legacy is protected.”
Even so, a $10 million capital campaign is ambitious for any small or mid-size organization, particularly under such a tight deadline. For instance, the Coolidge, a well-established organization with deep donor rolls and an operating budget around $4 million, quietly raised money before publicly announcing a $12.5 million capital campaign to expand the Art Deco theater.
Tallman said the Coolidge had early discussions about helping West Newton go nonprofit, but the timing wasn’t right.
“We’re still in the throes of fund-raising ourselves,” she said, adding they’ve now raised about $13 million, with plans to open the expanded facilities this summer. “If it was 2019, we would have had a much different conversation.”
Moylan said West Newton has not contacted the Brattle, adding she supported the effort to take the cinema nonprofit.
“The community in West Newton cares about that cinema a lot,” she said. “It will benefit the community, and I think it’ll benefit the future of the cinema.”
Indeed, when the Bramante brothers bought the cinema as a second-run house in 1978, they quickly realized they would have to change the theater’s programming to thrive. The formula they hit on: They’d show independent and foreign films for culture-craving suburban parents, while also playing animated films for their kids.
“We have families all around us,” said Bramante, who employs eight part-time staffers. “That was the market.”
Documentary filmmaker Lisa Gossels, who’s frequented the theater since childhood, recalled seeing films there over the holidays.
“It was like a mini reunion at the arthouse in West Newton, because you saw so many people you knew,” said Gossels, who also serves as artistic director of Boston Jewish Film. “You just feel the sense of history and love and warmth.”
Bali, who recalled selling Girl Scout cookies in the lobby, said the foundation would seek to retain the theater’s community feel, operating as a cinema that offers expanded programming, including performing arts, small musical performances, speakers, series, and classes. She added the reimagined cinema would still cater to children, describing how area families would throng West Newton Cinema to see children’s classics such as “The Lion King” or “The Little Mermaid.”
“You cannot replace that energy,” she said. “You can’t do it at home.”
Mark Development principal Robert Korff, whose firm is planning to build a 50-unit residential structure next door to the cinema, said the company “fully supports” the fund-raising effort.
“A vibrant cinema that is a destination for residents and visitors alike has long-been an anchor in this neighborhood,” he said in a statement that noted the two-year timeline. “Should the Foundation not be able to repurchase the property at that time, we do expect that the property will ultimately be included in future development plans.”
Bramante said they structured the deal so the community would have time to respond to the news. He added that he’s seen too many stories over the years of cinema owners closing a beloved theater before the community knew what was happening.
In those cases, people say, “Well, gee, if you’d let us know we would have stepped up, brought resources to the theater, and saved it,” said Bramante. “We’re giving the community a chance to save their theater. So at this point it’s not up to me. It’s not up to Mark Development. It’s up to the community.”
Malcolm Gay can be reached at malcolm.gay@globe.com.