Campus Center Cinema (Wells Hall) provides students low-cost movies

by Lauren Talley

Wells Hall even offers popcorn at the ticket counter -- for free

Campus Center Cinemas has been providing movies on campus since the early 1960's, long before its current name.

“There used to be six different organizations that showed a different variety of movies,” said Residence Hall Association (RHA) historian Val Erwin, “There was a classic film group, a foreign film group, an adult film group and others.”

The Campus Center Cinemas was not always student-run. Between 1992 and 1998, MSU alumnus Tom Leach worked as a paid employee for the University Activities Board (UAB) to run the Campus Center Cinemas. Leach began running the films when he was a MSU student in the 1960s and although it has since become a student position, Leach still works to order films and train projectionists for the program.

UAB joined with the RHA and Campus Center Cinemas because of the 1999 riots after the MSU basketball team’s loss to Duke University in the NCAA Final Four. MSU wanted to provide consistent weekend entertainment for students as a way to improve student life on campus by offering safe alternatives.

 “The school wanted to provide alternative things for students to do instead of roaming the streets of East Lansing,” said UAB films director Matt Mergener.

Mergener runs a volunteer student film committee that works to plan the movies that will be shown. This year the committee has between 13 to 20 members who meet every week to plan the upcoming movies. Since the committee is open to all students, the film choices vary each year.

“This committee is more mainstream. Last year it was art-house films,” said Mergener. “We try to pick movies that will appeal to a wide audience.”

While the film committee suggests movies, Mergener and Channing Landreth, Director of Campus Center Cinemas, ultimately choose what will be shown. “In the end, I have the final vote because RHA pays a bigger percentage [for the films],” said Landreth.

RHA and UAB work together to fund Campus Center Cinemas. RHA pays for 75 percent and UAB covers the remaining 25 percent that is used to pay for the cost of movies, advertisements and employees.

Campus Center Cinemas works with major studio companies such as Universal Studios as well as smaller companies such as Amp Studios to provide sneak previews of movies before they are publicly released.

“We’ve done [the sneak previews] for so long that studio companies send us contracts for new movies,” said Mergener. “As soon as we get the contract we send it back right away so that we can be the first university to get [the movie].”

The high student population at MSU, in part, makes it possible for Campus Center Cinemas to show sneak previews because the studio companies can be sure that many people will come. Last week’s sneak preview, “Stranger Than Fiction,” brought more than 600 students to Wells Hall for the showing. Upcoming sneak previews include “Alpha Dog” on Nov. 22 and “We Are Marshall” on Nov. 30.

Campus Center Cinemas runs regular showings each week. On Thursday, there is only one showing of the most popular film. On Friday through Sunday, the program features two show times of each of the four movies.

Most films are shown in Wells Hall, but each week at least one is shown in Conrad Auditorium. Occasionally films are shown in Wilson Hall.