The Catlow Theater is hosting a special matinée showing of the 1978 movie classic GREASE starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta from 11 am to 1 pm this Saturday, October 12th. Tickets can be purchased at the door and cost $5. The showing is sponsored by the Illinois Womens Soccer League and it’s just the first in a series of special matinée movie showings to come at The Catlow.
Catlow owner, Tim O’Connor says they’re in a position to host special matinée showings now that the theater is fully equipped for digital movie playing after the Kickstarter crowdsource funding campaign that raised $175,000 for theater improvements last fall.
“What we’d like to do is have one or two monthly matinées. One on Saturday and maybe one on a weekday for moms, seniors and other people with time for a movie at that hour.
And we’ve decided to show matinées for a number of reasons. The first is that so many people have asked us to do so over the years and we really wanted to, but the costs were high and the film prints were in terrible condition. But, now that there are so many classic titles available in digital format, it makes it easier to book them and their quality has vastly improved. Of course they are still expensive to run.”
So Tim says they decided that they can cover those costs by lining up sponsorships for the matinées.
“Our sponsors will get a lot of exposure for their participation. We send out press releases and event notices letting everyone know who our sponsor is. We also post the info on our website, our Facebook page and to our 5,000 plus member email list. Sponsors have the option of running a one minute ad onscreen before the feature starts and they also have an opportunity to distribute materials for their organization, product or whatever else in our lobby after the feature.”
And Tim says the most important reason they’re running the new matinée series is to keep the Catlow going.
“Our digital equipment will probably be outdated in five to ten years. It won’t have the same longevity factor that our film equipment had. Realizing this, we aim to build up our business to keep our digital gear up to date without the need to crowdfund for our next upgrade. We were very fortunate this time around, but we would rather be in a position to cover the next upgrades by ourselves. That was the whole point of Kickstarter after all.”
The Illinois Womens’ Soccer League and sponsor of Saturday’s showing of GREASE at the Catlow is an amateur women’s soccer league featuring teams from Illinois. You can learn more about the organization on their website at iwsl.com.
The Catlow Theater is located at 116 W. Main Street and their phone number is 847-381-2547. CLICK HERE to follow the theater on Facebook or find their website at TheCatlow.com.
