ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Those looking for blockbuster entertainment this summer should look no further than the local movie theater.

Mitchell Theaters owner Brian Mitchell said this summer is coming off of a good fall and winter.

“The first quarter of 2026 was up more than 30 percent from the first quarter of 2025, which we were pleased to see. There was a much better selection of movies for the moviegoing public, and that’s what we needed, a steady stream of good movies,” Mitchell said. “The holiday season ended up being really good for us, we had movies like ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ and ‘Wicked: For Good’ and ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,’ among many others, and we were glad to see that success too. Then, starting with this first quarter, we had ‘I Can Only Imagine 2,’ ‘Hoppers,’ ‘Project Hail Mary,’ and ‘The Super Mario Galaxy.’ We had some really strong movies the first quarter of 2026, so everybody's very, very pleased with that.”

And that momentum has so far continued, Mitchell said.

“This quarter has started off strong with ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2,’ and and then last weekend saw the release of ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu,’ which is the first Star Wars movie in seven or eight years, and it’s been very strong for us,” Mitchell said. “And then when you look at the summer, as far as family movies, you've got ‘Toy Story 5’ coming up, the next ‘Minions’ movie, and the ‘Moana’ live-action remake, so this summer has a very strong lineup for family movies. Steven Spielberg's got ‘Disclosure Day’ coming out, and then there’s going to be ‘Supergirl.’ Probably the two biggest movies of the summer are going to be ‘The Odyssey,’ a big Christopher Nolan movie, and then ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ and we expect both of those alone will be absolute gangbusters. There are a lot of big movies packed into the summer too, so we're looking for a busy summer, that’s for sure.”

Mitchell said he is excited about the variety of genres that will be showcased throughout the season.

“Like I always say, it's great to have a wide variety of genres represented, and that's definitely what's happening this summer,” Mitchell said. “There are good family comedies, there are some good dramas, and there are some other solid action movies like ‘Masters of Universe’ and ‘The Death of Robin Hood.’ There will also be ‘Jackass 5’ and ‘Scary Movie 6,’ so we've also got some movies with absolutely no political correctness whatsoever. A neat development that’s been going on in the movie business recently is how these social media companies and the online buzz they create has really helped with word of mouth, so it's like almost another studio’s coming in to help, so it keeps things interesting. I think definitely we're strong so far – compared to 2025, we're much higher than before, and I think this summer is going to carry through.”

And it is not this summer that should see a lot of success, Mitchell said.

“If you go on and start looking at even in the next next set of holidays, you’ve got ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ and ‘Dune 3’ coming out against each other, so that should be really interesting,” Mitchell said. “We've gotten through the strike pipeline, the COVID pipeline, and everything is finally starting to look like we're getting a good supply of movies. What's been interesting to see is Amazon stepping up and putting out more movies, and recently, Universal announced their theatrical release window was shortening and they were going to release them on video on demand – well, now they have decided that to keep it in theaters longer there, and they have increased their window, and so it's gone from 17 days to 30, and then next year it will be 45. They realize there's too much of a revenue revenue stream the movies lose without that theatrical window, so that's been working in our favor too.”

With so many options to choose from, Mitchell said he hopes many people will make their way to the movies this summer.

“We've kept our ticket prices the same since we bought the theatre in 2009, and we're working to keep those prices, along with the prices of our concessions, affordable for everyone so they keep coming in,” Mitchell said. “There's stress in the world right now, and movies are a good way to help alleviate that because what's a better afternoon or evening out than with a movie and friends/family. There's some magic in being able to come into the movie theatre for a couple hours and escaping from the real world and relaxing. We look forward to seeing everybody. We appreciate everyone’s support, especially through the start of this year. It's been very good, and we're very excited, and look forward to seeing everybody this summer too. I also want to thank our staff for being so amazing and working so hard to take care of our patrons. Mitchell Theaters is with Fandago in regards to people being able to purchase tickets online, and we're really excited about that. If you've got a free afternoon or evening this season and you're looking for something to do, come out and see a movie!”