Hiding in an old industrial building on Maple Street is a quaint little theater in the making.
While the Bulldog Cinema is currently under construction, the theater is expected to come to life by mid-March.
“We are completely independent, locally owned, we don’t have any affiliation with any chain,” Bulldog Cinema owner Kylie Szpiech said. “I hate that you can’t go out and have an affordable night and there’s not a whole lot to do in Big Rapids, so that’s what we want. We want to be able to come in and have a comfortable, fun experience and get good food and great films and not worry about, you know, ‘I can’t spend that money.’”
While the Bulldog Cinema will have to compete with the AMC theater in town, Szpiech believes that their prices and food will be an easy choice for students.
“We’re not doing too many discounts because we’re trying to keep all our prices affordable. Our ticket price right now is between seven and eight dollars. I think our big advantage of your traditional movie theater is our food,” Szpiech said. “We’re going to have more meals like gourmet hot dogs, pizza and all that’s going to be very affordable. So it would be just like if you went out to eat and you wouldn’t expect to pay more having a meal while watching a movie.”
Theater goers can also expect traditional movie theater snacks such as popcorn, candy and cotton candy. In addition to affordable food, students can also have a say in which films the theater shows.
“We also want Ferris students to know that we’re here and we do have some movies that will appeal more to them, being the independent or foreign films,” Szpiech said. “I am doing a poll on Facebook every month, so if people have little films or independents that they want to see, then all they have to do is comment on there.”
While nothing is set in stone, some of the films that the theater is considering for this spring include: “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” “Pacific Rim” and “Ready Player One.” Szpiech hopes to show one major movie each week, as well as one independent, foreign or classic film.
“We have two theaters at the time of opening, each one sits about 80 people. We do have room for an expansion in the future but right now we’re kind of going back and forth on if we want to do a VIP theater or if we want to do a game room where people can do competitions on X-Box and Playstations,” Szpiech said.
While the Bulldog Cinema may be too good to be true, they won’t be hiring for another six months to a year.
The theater is set to be open Wednesday through Sunday and students can learn more by finding them on Facebook under “Bulldog Cinema” or by going to their website at bulldogcinema.com.