Poor ticket sales close base theater

  • Published
  • By Lois Walsh
  • 96th ABW Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The Eglin Theater will close on March 24 because it has been operating in the red the last two years. 

According to Myra Moore, AAFES General Manager of the Eglin/Hurlburt Exchange, AAFES has had to take a hard look at whether or not to continue operating any facility that is operating at a loss. That placed the Eglin Theater at the top of the list here. 

Ticket sales for the past four months revealed the average movie attendance for Friday and Saturday nights consists of 73 customers. The bottom line is that the theater is closing because ticket sales continued on a downward slide. 

"A review of the FY 2006 operating results for the Eglin Theater revealed this it has operated at a loss for the past two years," Ms. Moore said. "FY 05 reflects as a negative 5 percent bottom line operating results and FY 06 reflects a negative 8 percent bottom line operating results." 

From October through December 2006, AAFES movies showings at the Eglin Theater cost AAFES a loss of more than $5,000. Those figures are a repeat of the operating results for FY 2005. 

"Those negative operating results have a direct negative impact on AAFES' morale, recreation and welfare contributions to the base," Ms. Moore said. "Those attendance numbers do not reflect the need for AAFES to continue movie showings," Ms. Moore said. "It's just not cost effective to continue showing movies at the Eglin Theater. "

Last year AAFES returned more than $579,000 to MWR programs in the Eglin community. Overall, AAFES has given more than 2.4 billion to MWR programs in the last 10 years.