Owning a small town theater used to be just a dream, but The Gentry Cinema in Checotah is now open under new owners, Wally and Linda Wesley, who are excited to bring back the big screen experience that can only be experienced in a theater. Wally has always been a big movie buff who secretly wanted to own his own little theater with all its nostalgia and now that dream has become a reality.
“I don’t know for sure how long, but for decades it’s just kind of been a dream in the back of my mind of owning and running a cinema,” Wally said. “Just getting to hang out, getting to see this movie or that movie was super exciting.
Because when I was a kid, we didn’t get to the movie theater very often, but when we did it was a big deal. It’s a totally different level of immersion and it’s a communal experience with other people.
“I’ll never forget going and watching Jurassic Park, when everybody gasped and jumped when the Raptor jumps at them in the duct. The feeling you get when you get that whole kind of experience with the community. Like the only other thing that touches that is when everybody in church is singing together, or everybody at a football game is cheering on the team. It’s that level of connection with other people, just somehow in the dark, even though you can’t even see them, but you have that connection with everybody else. That’s always been really special to me, and I wanted to be able to give that to other people.
“So during a guy’s weekend with a bunch of my buddies, as we were walking through downtown Durant we walked past their movie theater and I said that I really want to own my own theater. So they were like ‘Yeah that would be cool. Then I said that I would love to have just a small place to be able to show some stuff. And that particular building was the DA’s office and would’ve cost millions of dollars that I didn’t have. But we kept talking about it at dinner and then the next morning, one of the guys sends a group text saying there’s a movie theater for sale in Caddo, like, eight miles up the road, and it’s a tiny little one screen place called the Rex. So we went and checked it out and it’s the most darling, wonderful place you’ve ever been, like, wood panel walls, with people’s names and years on the walls. Just very cool!
“I knew I was in trouble because even when I got home I couldn’t quit thinking about owning my own theater. So I tell Linda that I really would love to own a movie theater someday, and there’s one for sale on Caddo. I had never shared my dream with her so she was like what? But the more we talked the more excited we got and we went and looked at the one in Caddo. That kind of started the reality of the dream even though that one didn’t work out. We made an offer, but we got outbid. However, that was really a blessing in disguise because we weren’t ready to run a movie theater at that point. But it got me researching and learning about how to run my own theater so when the opportunity came we were ready.
“Then one of my friends found this place and I came down to meet the realtor, along with the previous owners, Nathan and Cindy, who I got to pick their brain for two hours about the business and they were extremely helpful. That’s something that we really love – the camaraderie people have down here is unbelievable.
“So I went home and told Linda all about Checotah and we closed on the sale November 19, 2024, making my dream become a reality. Even though getting the theater up and running after three years of being closed was a huge challenge with inspections, working on upgrades and figuring how to get current movies. We did it!”
At Christmas time the Gentry had a soft opening with hot cocoa and gospel singing to bless the space. As word of the theater reopening spread through town, people started stopping by and asking questions.
“People would stop us, like on the sidewalk, and tell us, ‘I saw my first movie here when I was in kindergarten,’ and they were just so excited to see the place open again,” Linda said. “There is so much charm here and joy that this theater brought to locals who grew up here. We’ve just heard so many stories of people’s first movies and their kids experiencing movies at the theater for the first time. There’s just something about being around the people that you’ve grown up with and having all these memories tied to these places.
“We love that we can have regulars that we know what candy they want and we tell them if you have a favorite candy, let us know. We want people to come to the theater, grab their popcorn and candy, and enjoy the experience of a small-town theater.
“Our goal is to be open a couple of weekends a month, and then hopefully more toward the summer, to do like three weekends. Then we’ve got a couple of people who can handle some like daytime stuff so if we get school groups they can be rewarded with movie passes for like book reading. Kids can also have birthday parties here and enjoy the big screen on their big day.”
“We plan to show movies Friday, Saturday, and possibly a Sunday matinee. School groups might be Thursday or Friday afternoons.
“We’re doing our best to keep people updated on Facebook-The Gentry Cinema and in the newspaper. We also now have Instagram. Plus we’ve got our website, so there are several places to check us out.
“Eventually we hope to hire someone local if everything works out well. We just want to bring people back to the big screen experience and what better place than your local smalltown theater!” During Spring Break, the Gentry will be showing two kid’s classic: Shrek and The Land Before Time. Peoples National Bank is sponsoring free screenings of Shrek, which has show times on Thursday, March 20 at 6 p.m. and Friday, March 21 at 12 p.m. Plus Slice of Country is sponsoring the first 30 small popcorns for the free screening of Shrek on Thursday at 6 p.m. Then The Land Before Time will have free screenings sponsored by The Gentry Cinema with show times on Thursday, March 20 at 3:30 p.m. and Friday, March 21 at 3:30 p.m.
“We hope everyone has a safe Spring Break and that the community comes out to support their local cinema and Wally’s dream.”
