Opening near for new Valley theater

WASILLA — Considering his movie theater is opening in a week, it’s no wonder John Schweiger is a busy, busy man.

Thursday, as he spoke about the upcoming grand opening — Friday, April 22, if you haven’t heard — he stopped mid-sentence numerous times to solve little problems and take care of some details.

“Where are the signs? Are there two Dumpsters out back or just one? Will someone please throw away that garbage?”

Schweiger is Chairman and CEO of Oregon’s Coming Attractions Theaters. Since ground broke on the multiplex next to Walmart he’s been splitting his time between Wasilla and Ashland, Ore.

“We had hoped to be open sooner,” he said of the Friday opening. But there’s not much he can do about that now. “Everybody did the best they could.”

Despite the teams of workers around him and the steady noise, Schweiger said the work remaining is minor stuff — covering up nicks in the paintjob and cleaning up construction dust.

“It’s what we call finish work,” he said. “You get one chance at a first-time impression so we’re just trying to make the building look good.”

They’re also doing things like putting away incoming inventory and hooking up equipment at the snack bar and bistro.

Wandering around the building, it’s obvious Coming Attractions is about to provide Valley residents with something they previously could only get in Anchorage. The theater has stadium seating and enough screens to show all the blockbusters Anchorage shows.

“When gas is at $10 a gallon you’re going to save a lot of money,” he said.

He was partially joking, but said he wouldn’t be surprised if gas prices climbed that high.

Asked what he was most proud of in the whole theater-building process, Schweiger instead said what he was most grateful for. In two words — Northrim Bank.

“We had a common-sense bank that believed in our company, believed in the project and believed in the people of Alaska and financed us when no other banks were doing anything,” he said.

In the current economy, he said, it’s exceedingly difficult to find a bank willing to finance a project like this. It’s not happening anywhere else, Schweiger said.

Asked if there’s anything keeping him up at night, he said there isn’t really. The work left to do is challenging — for example, 50 new employees have to be trained — but totally doable.

But Schweiger does worry about the industry as a whole. This year’s first quarter, he said, wasn’t nearly as good as last year’s. He sees blockbusters on the horizon and thinks May will turn it around.

“Our Achilles’ heel is that we’re in the movie theater business and we rely on Hollywood to give us great entertainment,” Schweiger said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.