When entrepreneur Greg Godbout purchased the Arlington Cinema ‘N’ Drafthouse about two years ago, he and his business partners began transforming the 1930s Art Deco single-screen theater into a home for live entertainment as well, attracting family-friendly acts, comedians and musicians.
What was the most popular film at the Drafthouse this year?
“Borat.” We’ve had a number of sold-out events where we’d had to turn people away, but this one performed consistently.
What movie are you most looking forward to bringing here?
“Knocked Up.” We did the advanced screening here. It’s one of those movies where weeks later, people were still talking about it. Also, “Waitress.” The more independent, alternative films do well here.
Is D.C. a movie town?
I think D.C. is a highly educated movie town. Not in the sense people have high degrees, but they know movies; typically, the run-of-the-mill, Hollywood cookie-cutter movie doesn’t do well in this area.
What’s the biggest challenge of running an independent film house?
We can’t run first-run films because the studios won’t release it to us. But then our difficulty becomes our strength – we can now focus on providing high-quality local entertainment, or a variety of second-run films.
In an age of Netflix, will movie theaters become obsolete?
People like to think change is the death of something, when really all an industry is doing is changing. … Theaters are going to start to realize they’ve got to be more and more dynamic in their entertainment offerings.
What’s the special event you’ve held at the Drafthouse that you’re most proud of?
We’ll do movie festivals where we’ll show a filmlike “The Big Lebowski” or “Office Space,” and host bands playing music from the film. Those are the most fun because everyone there has seen the movie; it’s die-hard fans.
