When Pilot Butte 6 rolls its final credits Monday, local fans of the theater will have to find a new way to sate their thirst for independent film.

For more than a decade, film buffs could count on the east Bend theater, which opened in 1994, to offer thoughtful, less commercial film fare on at least a few of its screens.

“This strategy was based on the fact that the older six-screen facility needed to experiment to grow an audience, but unfortunately those audiences were too small to sustain business,” said Russ Nunley, a spokesman for theater owner Regal Cinemas.

One consistent member of those small audiences has been Ida Alul, a Bend ophthalmologist who takes in one or two films a month at the theater. Memorable, award-winning movies she recalls having seen at Pilot Butte 6 include “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Descendants,” “The King’s Speech” and “The Kids are All Right,” to name but a few.

“I have seen so many great, thought-provoking movies there,” said Alul, who for several years has been a sponsor of BendFilm, an annual indie film festival in Bend, through her eye-care practice. Although the types of films she wants to see wind up on Netflix or Apple TV, Alul added, “you miss the communal experience of sharing a film and the opportunity to see it soon after its release.”

Orit Schwartz, executive director of BendFilm, is another fan who’d prefer the theater not close.

“It’s very sad. It’s a loss for our community,” she said. “Indie or not, just having six additional screens of film is always awesome, especially because we’re not in a large town where we have many cinemas to choose from. But I can also understand Regal’s choice, because that location is not well attended.”

Now, Schwartz and others are wondering where they’ll be able to see indie movies in Bend. The Bulletin contacted several theaters to learn how the closure might affect what’s showing on area screens.

Old Mill 16

“I loved the movies that were there, but I did talk to Regal … and they’re thinking they’re going to hopefully put more screens for more independent film,” Schwartz added.

Nunley confirmed that Regal Cinemas, which also owns Old Mill 16 in Bend, will devote more of the multiplex’s screens to indie movies, such as the currently screening “Blue Jasmine,” by Woody Allen.

Nunley also emphasized that independent films have already shown there on occasion, citing Old Mill 16’s longtime involvement in the BendFilm festival; the theater shows some festival films each fall. (This year’s festival takes place Oct. 10-13.)

He also said that as the end of the year approaches, moviegoers can expect Oscar contenders to screen at the Old Mill. “In the past, we should have programmed some of those films at Pilot Butte since they may appeal to an art-film audience,” he said.

Nunley notes that the movie theater business is very much about business.

“We do not dedicate a certain number of screens to any particular niche or taste. Instead we constantly evaluate and evolve to provide the movies we believe the largest number of people want to see,” he said. “That’s how every business operates … (try) to predict consumer demand and match it with their supply of products. It’s just magnified in our industry since moviegoer interests change so frequently.”

Tower Theatre

“What I love about Bend is that you can get to a movie theater pretty easily, park pretty quickly and generally there are seats. Even at the Old Mill,” said Ray Solley, executive director of the Tower Theatre Foundation.

Solley applauded the fact that Old Mill 16 will pick up more independent films, and believes showing blockbusters and smaller films in one building is a smart move.

“I’m not one to go see a movie on opening weekend, but I honestly think it’s an interesting and smart business and creative move to put the … less seen independent films — what we would call lower marquee-value films — in the same complex as the first-run mega-hits from the big studios.”

Solley, who earlier in his career produced Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s show “Sneak Previews” in the 1970s and ’80s, added, “I think when you segregate out certain types of films, you are actually creating a bit of a ghetto mentality: ‘Well, I go here to see the movies that not many people see, and I go over here to see all the ones people are talking about.’ And I think for the movie industry as a whole, that may not be the best way to use their real estate.”

The closure of Pilot Butte 6 does not mean the Tower will jump to begin screening more first-run films, he said. Movie distributors want theaters to show their films for at least five days, if not 10-14, Solley said. Given the many groups and promoters who rent the Tower for their events and productions, it’s difficult to block out several nights in a row for a solitary film.

However, last year, the theater screened Mike Birbiglia’s personal tale “Sleepwalk with Me” for a five-night run. “We did that because, No. 1, it’s a great movie and we wanted to show it here in Bend. No. 2, we wanted to see if we could take a first-run specialty film, sort of a comedy-documentary that had national buzz about it already, and see if we could create a programming stand with that,” Solley said. The Tower can more readily accommodate a two- or three-night run.

Solley notes that the Tower began its life in 1940 as a movie theater, and was renovated in 2004 to be a space for live productions that could still function as a movie theater.

However, advances in home screening technology and the advent of Netflix and other web-based services began to “undercut a lot of the classic and specialty films the Tower was showing shortly after the renovation,” he said, and the theater pulled back from showing movies.

Since Solley came aboard in 2009, the theater has begun screening more films, hosting sing-alongs in conjunction with musical classics such as “The Wizard of Oz,” as well as running special series, such as a Coen brothers month last year.

In September, the Tower will hold screenings of Monty Python movies during so-called “dark” nights, when the musical comedy “Spamalot” will not be in performance during its upcoming run.

“We tend … to focus on what the Tower can offer and what the Tower can do well,” Solley said. Next year, the film industry is expected to stop producing movies on 35 mm film, forcing theaters to upgrade, do without or perish. Solley said the Tower expects to get a digital projector, as well as upgrade its surround-sound system, in 2015.

Because, like Regal, the Tower wants to draw an audience.

“What we want to be able to do with 460 seats is fill the theater up for that great feeling of community that you have when you watch a movie. The Tower Theatre is a great place to see a film,” he said. “As the film community evolves and hopefully grows, we will find the right role for the Tower to play.”

Tin Pan Theater

Esme and Micah LaVoy opened the 28-seat Tin Pan Theater in downtown Bend last year.

“We very much shared the same clientele,” Micah LaVoy said of his art-house theater and Pilot Butte 6. “Everybody’s pretty much completely devastated” by Pilot Butte 6’s impending closure.

However, it also provides a direct opportunity for Tin Pan to show more first-run indie films, he said. “We know that Old Mill will be trying to fill in a little bit there,” he said, “but with (Pilot Butte) gone it opens it up a little bit more for us.”

“We’re trying to jockey into position with some of the studios and distributors that (Pilot Butte 6) got to predominantly use, so maybe we can pick up some more titles in the whole art-house realm, reach our fingers a little farther out there,” he said.

LaVoy added that his theater will soon add more time slots, including at least one matinee on weekdays; currently, movies screen just at night on weekdays.

“The clientele that we share is kind of a 50-plus clientele,” he said. “They want to see movies earlier in the day. I just talked to somebody and said, ‘What are some good (show) times that you like?’”

The reply was, he said, “Most everybody I know loves the 3:30 show, then eat dinner and be home before it’s dark.”

The theater expects to add the matinee in September, timed “with them closing their doors,” LaVoy said. “In the fall, when people are back in school … our season starts picking up more.” Current weekend matinees may bump up even earlier, to a noon screening, he added.

Since the theater opened, they’ve had to turn away potential customers a dozen times. For the most part, “28 seats just covers most shows,” LaVoy said.

However, there’s also additional space available in its current home at 869 N.W. Tin Pan Alley, into which the theater could conceivably expand, LaVoy said.

“We’ve got a couple of irons in the fire,” he said.

The theater recently upgraded to a new system provided by Portland company Proludio that helps ease the transition to digital format for small theaters like LaVoy’s.

“We’d never be able to … spend $40,000 on a new projector,” he said. “Essentially, what they do is they go out and get the contracts with studios, so that everything is done in the new style. Their tech side ingests the movies, codes them so no one can steal them, and then they send them over on a server. I have a computer here that they’ve set up that they can send the movie to.”

Even more preliminary than expanding into its current home: possibly talking to other theaters, such as Greenwood Playhouse, about bringing in the Proludio system and serving as Tin Pan satellite venues.

“There’s part of me that, even if we could expand to just one more screen in this building, would love to be called a ‘cineplex,’” LaVoy said, laughing. “’We’re the tiniest cineplex you’ve ever seen, but we’re a cineplex.’ We’ll see.”

McMenamins Old St. Francis School

Portland-based Mike Wyant is the official movie booker for the McMenamins chain around Oregon.

Like Tin Pan, the closure of Pilot Butte 6 will conceivably affect when McMenamins Old St. Francis School in downtown Bend can open a movie. However, that means second-run movies in the case of McMenamins.

“We might be able to get stuff a little sooner than we used to. Currently, we have to wait for (movies at) the Old Mill and Pilot Butte to come off screen,” he said. “We’re in direct competition with them.”

The upgrade to digital at McMenamins is happening on Thursday, when the theater will be closed for the conversion.

“We’re having to. It’s the way the movie business is going,” he said. “I think it’s unfortunate (35 mm) is going away, but I have a feeling after most theaters are converted, they’re going to find it so much nicer. I’m definitely a film person … but as the programmer I can see the benefit in transitioning.”

Volcanic Theater Pub

Derek Sitter, owner of Volcanic Theatre Pub, located in the Century Center on Bend’s west side, said, “I’m very disappointed to see that Pilot Butte 6 is closing. It was the only place I got to catch limited-release films here in Bend. Without Pilot Butte, I would have never gotten to see (Terrence) Malick’s ‘Tree Of Life’ and Martin McDonagh’s ‘Seven Psychopaths’ on opening weekend.”

Otherwise, the closure won’t directly affect his establishment, which focuses on Blu-ray screenings of classic and cult-classic films, along with live music and stage productions.

“The cost to screen first-run films is way out of our range. Even second-run films are too spendy,” Sitter said. Even Blu-ray screenings can be costly.

“The studios are very strict in their policies, and we must purchase rights to screen the movies and must have the crowd to make it worth it,” he said. Volcanic’s number of movie showings has dropped due to the expense and lack of attendance, Sitter said. “However, we do plan on screening films once a month as an event and to support the current theme, story or actors/directors that relate to our … play production.”

Then again, Sitter said, “There may be a time soon that we can afford to bring those limited-release independent films to our theater because we know the audiences out there are going to miss Pilot Butte and we are the perfect venue to fill the void.”

Bend film fan Martha Murray would appreciate that. She hopes other venues will step in to fill any void left in the wake of Pilot Butte 6’s closure, she said.

“We need films that make us think. The escapist romp is great every now and again, but I love films that stay with me and make me think.”