Music Box Theatre Continues to Adapt In the Face of New Challenges

WDCB’s Gary Zidek sits down with Music Box Theatre general manager Ryan Oestreich to talk about what’s been a very challenging 2020 to this point and this year's socially distant version of the Music Box of Horrors.

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WDCB's Gary Zidek sits down with Music Box Theatre general manager Ryan Oestreich to talk about the challenges of staying open during a pandemic and this year's socially distant version of Music Box of Horrors.

“The business changed dramatically when we opened TENET. It was a big difference for us in terms of what audiences wanted to see. What we did right was that we made it explicitly clear in our communications of all our efforts to mitigate risk, top to bottom, mask enforcement to HVAC systems, just the amount of time and money we put into those procedures. But in the end it’s not just those things that you need to do, you also need new movies. That’s what we found out from July 3 to TENET. So, basically all the movie theaters are going to struggle now until the next big release.” - Music Box Theatre general manager Ryan Oestreich talking about the the importance of having new releases to show at movie theaters trying to reopen.

Music Box Theatre general manager Ryan Oestreich

COVID-19 has created operational challenges for virtually every business in the world, though some are being hit harder than others. For example, many of the safety rules in place make especially hard for movie theaters to stay open and make a profit. On top of those operational challenges, movie studios have started pushing back new releases until later in the year or 2021.

The Music Box Theater has survived a lot over its 90-plus year history, though this current situation is unlike anything that’s come before. The theater’s general manger Ryan Oestreich has been working on creative ways to keep things going over the past several months. The Music Box has a long-running tradition of hosting a 24-hour horror movie marathon in mid October. The popular MUSIC BOX OF HORRORS usually sells out. This year, with restrictions on movie theaters limiting capacity, the historic Lakeview-neighborhood theater was left with little choice but to cancel the event . But Oestreich had a better idea, rather than drive a stake through the heart of the Halloween tradition, he gave the event new life, Frankenstein-style, by expanding it into a month-long festival of scares at a local drive-in theater. The Music Box has partnered with Chi-Town Movies Drive-In in the Pilsen neighborhood to present the month-long Music Box of Horrors at the Drive-In. 

The festival started on October 1 and continues all the way through Halloween, with horror movies playing every night in between.

The never-before-seen 1983/2020 film GRIZZLY 2: REVENGE is among the movies that are part of this year’s Music Box of Horrors. The film which features George Clooney, Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen, was filmed in 1983, but was never released. Production was finally finished (you can read about the movie’s crazy history here) and its being released 37 years after shooting wrapped. You can see it at Chi-Town Movies Thursday October 20 at 9:30pm.

Horror fans can check out Grindhouse Fridays, Rip-Off Saturdays and Sequel Sundays, as well as scary movies every other night of the week in October.

“Let’s take Box of Horrors and do something ambitious. A 24-hour marathon is very ambitious, what is 31 nights? What does 31 nights of terror look like? How could we do every single night, a different horror movie or a different double-feature?” - Music Box Theatre general manager Ryan Oestreich talking about the early conversation about changing the format of this year’s Music Box of Horrors.

The Music Box of Horrors at the Drive-In will culminate with a Halloween night screening of the original A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET paired with the Bollywood rip-off, MAHAKAAL.

You can find a full schedule for this year’s Music Box of Horrors at the Drive-In here.