New owners for Coast Cinemas sought
For nearly fifty years, Coast Cinemas has operated under the ownership of the Lazzarini family. Tom and Maxine were the on-site owners until they retired and turned the business over to their daughter, Laurie Moore. Now, Laurie is ready to retire, and the family business is for sale.
In a post on the Coast Cinemas Facebook page, the family stated that they cannot guarantee that the business will sell to someone who will maintain it as a movie theater. The building could be converted to other uses.
This decision was not an easy one for the family. Coast Cinemas has been the center of their lives since Tom Lazzarini chanced upon the movie theater during a visit to Fort Bragg in the 1970s.
Lazzarini's connection to the movie theater business has deep roots dating back to the theater in Santa Rosa, which his grandfather owned during the days of the first “talkies.” Since then, succeeding generations of Lazzarinis have owned a collection or “circuit” of theaters in the Bay Area and beyond.
Interested in a circuit theater in Fort Bragg that might be sold out of his circuit company, Lazzarini took a drive north with the corporate owner in his boss's Cadillac. He recalled, “I was looking at the trees and the ocean, and I thought, “My God, it's beautiful!' I fell in love with the area and made a deal.”
With the help of a company real estate partner, Lazzarini brokered a deal to buy the circuit theaters in Willits, Crescent City, and Fort Bragg. He sold two theaters, kept Coast Cinemas as his own, and settled in Fort Bragg with the family.
Built in 1964, the Coast Cinemas was a one-screen theater with 700 seats when it was sold to Tom Lazzarini. It houses four screens today and has very comfortable seating for 530 people, with the latest stereo sound and digital film technology.
In the 1980s, the Lazzarinis split the large theater in half to accommodate two screens, and in 1995, they added a screen room behind the box office counter. Tom said, “Titanic built that one.”
The newest upstairs screening room, added in 2000, has an intimate feel with forty seats with extra legroom. Lazzarini described how they raised the roof to convert a small storage area to theater space.
The Lazzarinis are not unique in the circuit business of movie theaters. Various families across the state own and operate smaller movie theaters outside the big chain venues in city malls and downtown plazas—many of Lazzarini's relatives and some of Maxine's as well own theaters.
For the Lazzarinis, the business has been about family, friends, and community. Laurie, who came up in 1981 to take over the business, had grown up selling tickets and refreshments in their L.A. theaters. Maxine Lazzarini recalled the many staff celebrations held over the years in the cinema for employee birthdays, baptisms, and holidays.
She described all the years she, Tom, and Laurie spent Thanksgiving and Christmas Day together in the booth. Those holidays have traditionally been big attendance days at the movies. In Fort Bragg, local adults came to work there, and their teenagers followed suit, some staying on past marriage and family.
Maxine also recalled years of ticket sales to movie-going couples out on dates, individuals coming to see a particular movie every day, and groups of schoolchildren coming in with their teachers. It was a time-demanding business, but the family has no regrets. “It's a community gathering,” she said.
The Lazzarinis see Coast Cinemas as a way to make a living and to give entertainment to a community that has consistently supported them with its patronage. Beyond the complexities of city life elsewhere, a small coastal town could enjoy mainstream, classic, and art house films.
In 2010, the Lazzarinis teamed up with the Mendocino Film Festival as an additional attraction. Tom recalled, “I used to look at the Mendocino Film Festival as competition, so I ignored them.”
He continued, “When Laurie stepped in and took over the operation, she got involved with them. It's been an amazing partnership.”
Laurie explained that on behalf of the Mendo Film Festival, “we do two showings a month, one classic and one independent, along with the Festival films.”
Tom said, “It always amazed me in this town. You could play a Disney on one screen and an art film on the other screen, and both would do business.” He added, “I was just so entranced by this operation that I had to have it. I contracted for a lot of small theaters, and most of them only wanted cowboy movies.”
The family then reminisced about the “blockbuster” films that packed the Coast Cinemas. They premiered Overboard in 1986. Tom said, “Everybody who came was in the movie.” They also listed Titanic, Batman, Barbie, and Dune. Titanic played for 17 weeks.
Tom recalled the chaos of Batman's opening day. He said, “Kids were screaming. Some couldn't find seats. Then the lights went down, and there was dead silence. BOOM! The movie started. I won't forget that!”
The pandemic years were bad ones for Fort Bragg's businesses, and Tom noted that low attendance lingered on for the past two years. Only recently has business been picking up post-COVID-19. Laurie commented, “Barbie just blew us away.” Tom added, “People were coming, and we were jammed. It just shows that people will come if you have the right product. If they want to see it, they're going to come.”
Since the news about the sale of the theaters became public, Tom said that “people in town are aghast and are asking what are they going to do.” But Maxine believes “anyone who comes in here can make it.”
They sincerely hope it will sell as a movie theater business. Maxine Lazzarini said, “A family with a couple of kids could do this if they care about it.”
The current manager, A. Janousek, began working at Coast Cinemas as a teenager twenty-seven years ago. Laurie said Janousek is “very important to us, a big reason why the business runs so smoothly.”
Laurie added, “We're sure ready to go. We're turnkey. The staff is great. Anyone taking over is going to have an easy time.” All of the family stressed their “wonderful” experiences, and Tom confirmed, “No regrets whatsoever. Come to the movies!”