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“We are totally whole from that. We made up the money that we did lose by not being open in donations, which is totally amazing.”
The Brattle Theatre closed for five days over the holiday weekend due to “a building-wide plumbing emergency,” but with community support, the historic theater didn’t suffer any financial losses.
“We are totally whole from that. We made up the money that we did lose by not being open in donations, which is totally amazing,” said Ned Hinkle, the creative director at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square.
The theater first announced last Thursday that all showings through Monday evening would be canceled for the single-screen cinema, including their annual “Muppet Madness,” a marathon of Muppet movies to celebrate Marathon Monday.
The issue stemmed from a partially collapsed pipe, which closed the Brattle’s restrooms, Hinkle said. (Movie theaters can’t operate without restrooms.)
The work was then scheduled for Monday evening, the soonest on a busy holiday weekend, he said. Hinkle said the building manager is still working on a “longer term fix.”
“It’s not that we were swimming in water or anything like that,” Hinkle said. The Brattle has been teasing their “snazzy new carpet” in the lobby that was put in last week, but that wasn’t affected by the water.
While announcing the last-minute cancellations over the weekend, Brattle asked the community to consider donating to alleviate the “big financial hit.” Hinkle said the theater was anticipating showings of “Donnie Darko,” “Blade Runner 2049,” and “ET” to be very popular, and the weekend earnings could have been up to $20,000.
The theater announced Tuesday evening that it reached its fundraising goal, which Hinkle didn’t specify with a set number. He said it even exceeded the goal “to some degree.”
“We’re just so thankful to everybody for the support, for coming forward and making a donation to us at this time, and it’s amazing when that happens,” Hinkle said. “It’s just such a validating experience to know that everybody’s there ready to help out the Brattle.”
Up next, Brattle will host a Harvard Bookstore talk with feminist philosopher Judith Butler and screenings from the Independent Film Festival Boston starting Thursday.
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