Downtown Sackville has suffered plenty of slings and arrows in the past few years. Between fires, structural issues, repeated COVID shutdowns, and an ongoing and painfully slow COVID recovery, the downtown core is radically different today than it was back in 2019. And the slings and arrows are about to strike again.

The 77-year old Vogue Cinema is closed, and owner Jeff Coates says he will not be able to reopen the historic theatre, due to debts that have become too large to handle.

“I’ve been fighting and struggling and clawing to stay above water, to keep the place open and functioning,” Coates told CHMA this week. “I never wanted to lose it, but now we’re there. We’re closed, and the place is for sale.”

Coates is heartbroken, but is trying to be realistic after years of taking on increasing debt to keep the cinema technologically up to date, and the building sound.

That said, he’s also still hopeful that the Vogue might have a future, even if he’s not at the helm.

The Vogue is “more than movie theatre,” says Coates. “It’s a cultural centre where so many other things happen than just Hollywood movies. And I think that’s the direction the theatre needs to go.”

Between the Sackville Film Society, concerts by Sappyfest and other local promoters, and Sackville’s vibrant theatre scene, Coates thinks the Vogue’s future might be as a community-run arts space.

“The potential is here,” says Coates. “But you’ve got to have the people that have the time to be able to organize it and make it happen. And unfortunately, my time has come to an end. I’ve done what I can do… I’ve come to the end of the road unfortunately, and it’s a lot sooner than I ever thought it was gonna be.”

Coates has owned the Vogue since 2006, and started working there 11 years before that, for a total of 28 years with the Bridge Street cinema. Back then, there were “two projectors doing 20 minute changeovers with film the old school way,” says Coates. “We went a long way from that to being fully digital, 3D-capable,with 7.1 Surround Sound. That was a long road, and a huge financial investment, over several steps, over several years.”

Jeff Coates at the Vogue snack counter. Photo: Erica Butler

The switch to digital—something forced by the industry in 2012— is actually the first of three hurdles that contributed to the financial position Coates is in now, with significant debts owed to the Canada Revenue Agency, to the province, and on his original commercial loan.

The hefty $100,000 bill for digital came before Coates was able to make headway on his commercial loan. And then on the heels of that, problems started to show themselves with the Vogue’s roof. A fix was delayed year after year while Coates dealt with existing debts. But then came the pandemic, and while dealing with effective shutdown on the movie industry, Coates realized he had to pay for a new roof, or risk losing the building.

“The roof got so bad, that something had to be done,” says Coates. He paid about $70,000 “out of pocket” to fix the roof. “Instead of paying bills that I owed and losing a building, I saved the building and still have bills to pay,” says Coates.

The community has stepped up to support Coates over the years: A Go Fund Me campaign started in 2016 raised just shy of $15,000 from the community, and Coates is grateful for the support. But the roof repair came during a time when the movie industry in general was still on the ropes, thanks to COVID-19.

Coates says lenders and suppliers did their part to put off payments during the pandemic, but on top of the shock of repeated closures, Coates says there were long term effects on the industry. The new prominence of streaming and the slow return of people to social spaces have made recovery more difficult.

That said, Coates is ending on a high note, with a two week run of the Super Mario Bros Movie bringing in 668 customers to the Vogue in April. Runs like that provide a glimmer of hope for the industry in general, but Coates’ issues with longstanding debts remain insurmountable.

Coates still believes the Vogue has potential. “The numbers are there,” he says. “It’s a viable business, and there’s room to improve. It’s just somebody else needs to come in and put their fresh take on it and fresh energy.”

Coates has made contact with a real estate agent regarding the sale of the building and the business, and has set the price for the building at $299,000, in order to be able to cover his main debts. He also says he’s open to all options, especially those that will see the Vogue continue to be used by the community. “Hopefully, we can find somebody or some way of saving the place, keeping it going, and get it back open as soon as possible,” says Coates.

‘Hopefully we’re going to step up’

Thaddeus Holownia has worked with Coates for decades now as the organizer behind the Sackville Film Society. He agrees there is a need for the Vogue to live on, and hopeful that the Sackville community can make it happen.

“We really don’t have a large performance space for music, for theatre, for book launches, for poetry readings, for movies, for special events,” says Holownia. “That’s excluding, obviously, the university. But the Film Society is in downtown Sackville rather than at the university because we want it to be a community thing.”

Holownia says he feels positive about the amount of potential support in town to reimagine the Vogue. “I just look at the people who stepped up to make sure that the Film Society would continue on through COVID,” says Holownia. “That’s a list of 100 people… If 25 of them are interested in being part of this,” he says, then there’s hope.

Holownia says he knew running the Vogue was a struggle for Coates, especially during the pandemic, but he was surprised to hear about the recent closure. “It’s terrible,” he says. “But you know, it’s an opportunity to make something happen… Hopefully we’re going to step up and figure something out.”