I know that all that takes money, money to reinvest that Kiefaber doesn’t have, what with his huge mortgage payments. But the writing has been on the wall about single-screen theaters for years, if not decades. It might have survived by combining special events (both film and live) with pack-’em-in blockbusters.

A couple of good models to follow are in Oakland, where I used to live. The Paramount is a gorgeous Art Deco masterpiece, the features concerts, plays (a lot of which are religiously themed plays produced by African-American churches — surely there’d be a market for those in Baltimore), and special movie nights, when classic films are shown with a short, newsreel, prize drawings, etc. Not far away is the Grand Lake, which still shows first-run movies and seems to be doing all right. In addition to the gorgeous main theater, there are two newer, smaller theaters added on, which allows for some economies of scale. But Kiefaber seems determined to keep the Senator a “temple of cinema” — i.e., doing what it’s always done, with new movies. It’d be great if that worked, but obviously it didn’t.