Curtain rises anew at Lively Cinema 10

With live music playing and the smell of jambalaya and chocolate bread pudding in the air, Lively Cinema celebrated its grand opening this month.

Owner Len Lively, who managed the movie house when it was Destin Cinema 10, said that although it reopened under its new name and ownership in December, he wanted to promote the cinema before the summer movie season kicked off. A crowd of Lively’s family, friends and Destin residents showed up at the May 7 event to help out.

“If every one of these people told just one other person about us, and they came just once a month ...” Lively said. “The Snowbirds loved us, and people say ‘thank God you’re open.’ ”

Lively said it’s not just the lower prices — $8 in the evening, $6 for matinees — but the fact that the cinema, which closed last year after two decades as Destin’s local theater, is open at all.

“A lot of people don’t go to (Destin) Commons, they come here,” Kim Moore of Linens By the Sea, one of the night’s guests said. “They don’t have to worry about parking.”

Lively told The Log last year that the cinema closed because the out-of-state company that owned it went bankrupt, not because the cinema wasn’t profitable.

“The owners didn’t appreciate him,” Lively’s partner Roy Broussard said. “I’m going to let him do the things he can do.”

Broussard said that having known Lively for 20 years, he has confidence he’ll make Lively Cinemas a success. Confidence enough to put probably $100,000 into the cinema by the time all the planned upgrades are done, he added.

The upgrades range from basic steps — putting arms with cup-holders in all the seats, remodeling the bathrooms — to larger ones, such as converting three theaters to digital projection and installing stadium seating.

Sheryl Smith of Pelican Real Estate, the cinema’s landlord, said the work Broussard and Lively have put in is “phenomenal — we’re thrilled they’re investing.”

The investment for the party included Broussard, a Louisianan, shipping muffulettas, jambalaya and brisket over from his home state for the night. The desserts came from Calhoun’s Pub in Destin.

Lively’s booking agent, Janine Bradford of Cinema Service, said she hopes the cinema can eventually hold a film festival or a similar event to publicize itself and give Destin something different to watch on the screen.

“This used to be an easy business — not any more,” Bradford said. “You have to reach out. The world is getting so homogenized you’ve got to have people who can do something a little bit different.”

Want to go?
For information on movie listings and showtimes, call (850) 654-2992.