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Movie Mill

Supporting local: Movie Mill shows successful reopening

Jun 30, 2021 | 3:30 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Movie Mill in Lethbridge is famous for its popcorn, but what people don’t tell you is how resilient they have been throughout the pandemic.

Now, moviegoers are able to head back into theatres for the first time in several months.

Being a local business in Lethbridge and locally-owned, the Movie Mill has had to adapt alongside COVID and starting putting on drive-in shows.

Movie Mill Owner Leonard Binning says it feels like starting over again.

“If you would’ve told me we would’ve been closed for six months solid, I would’ve told you you were nuts, but here we are six months, basically, after December 12th, and we finally get the opportunity to finally share the summer with everybody.”

Binning says they have been a massive success with all but one completely selling out.

“It’s been extremely successful and we’ve been very happy – a lot of sellouts, a lot of excited people, a lot of equivalent of standing ovations with people honking their horns at the end of the event.”

Now that in-person movie showings are allowed again, Binning hopes the public is as eager to go to a movie as he is to show it.

He plans to continue running a couple of drive-in shows each week while still having in-theatre shows.

On a humble note, Binning says if it wasn’t for the community and the public buying popcorn from the Movie Mill, they were probably going to close down for good.

“We were pretty convinced that we were going to have to close our doors forever after 27 years.”

Binning says he can’t thank the public enough for “keeping them alive” and shows how resilient he and the Movie Mill are as a business.

More information on The Movie Mill, including showtimes, can be found here.