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Good afternoon, Rachael.
President and owner John Loeks announcing about an hour and a half ago,
what we first told you about last night on air,
and of course online, that Studio 28,
after 43 years, is indeed closing its doors.
An emotional Loeks pointed out today, that
this is the building that is father built,
and while his company is healthy, Studio 28 is not.
Wyoming losing a building, but not jobs at this point.
55 employees work here,
95%, Loeks says,
have been offered jobs with other theatres in his company.
Now Studio 28 opened in 1965.
It became the first 20 screen multiplex in 1988.
and really started a trend across the entire country,
before becoming a victim, really of it's own success.
That regional draw of movie-goers dimished
as other theatres were built around West Michigan.
At it's peak, 1.7 million movie-goers
visited this facility annually, in the 1990's.
That number is now about 75% of that.
I'm no mathmetician, but about 450,000 people now, a big drop.
The building itself, Loeks says, also no longer efficient,
While that, and the 20 acres are for sale,
and he has discussed that with city officials,
He says the bottom line is the building was no longer efficient
enough for this particular business.
It has lots of furnaces, different roofs,
four different projection booths,
you can imagine the labor costs are higher here,
than any other theatre we have,
maintenance costs are higher here than any other theatre we have,
and then we saw the attendance shrink,
by 75% from the peak in the late 1990's.
Well, these are unsustainable factors.
We've got to go on, we've got to say,
"Enough", we want to go out in style.
And as Rachael mentioned, it's obviously a story we've been following for weeks,
many of the tips we received coming from readers online,
at woodtv.com at the "Laff at the Movies" blog,
And the author, Aaron Lafferty joining us now.
Really, it's a lot to decipher, but obviously,
this is an emotional issue for a lot of people who've written to you.
Exactly, we've been pulling this for about three weeks,
some of the tips were a little more exaggerated than others,
we had to track this down, and finally, coming to last night,
when we were finding out that Studio 28 was going to be closing.
It's a sad day. You know this theatre's been around for years.
This is the theatre were it all started,
the first movie was here, the last movie will be here.
We found out some other things.
I'll be putting those on my blog later today.
but the last movie will be Sunday, the 23rd of November.
That's going to be Madagascar 2,
It will be kind of a party atmosphere for them,
so we'll put all that extra info on their for them.
There's also a chance for people to get,
there's going to be an auction, so you can get some memorabilia,
if you're a big Studio 28 fan, there might be some pieces
that you can get through that auction their eventually going to do.
Obviously, we've got two more weeks till then.
And over the next 10 days, you will continually have stuff online
about what's coming up each day for folks?
Exactly, and there's going to be some specials for people who
are used to coming to Studio 28, there's going to be some transition
specials for people to get transitioned into a new theatre.
All right, Aaron Lafferty.
If you haven't seen it, one of the best, by the way,
maintained blogs on the web as well.
"Laff at the Movies".
For now, live in Wyoming, Larry Figurski, 24 Hour News 8. Rachael.
Sure is. Thanks Larry. The Loeks family leading the charge
in changing the way West Michigan watched movies.
Jack Loeks started the MidTown theatre on Pearl Street in 1944.
We dug this video out of our archives.
The Loeks family opened the Beltline Drive-in.
You can see the lot and screen in an aerial view.
Then in 1965 Studio 28 built,
right next door to the drive in, opening one screen
and expanded to six screens in the 70's,
and in the 80's, twelve screens.
In the late 80's, Studio 28 made history with 20 screens
making it not only the biggest theatre in the country,
but also in the world.