Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Hammill.
Hi Craig, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I founded Secret Movie Club April 2016 when we did our first-midnight movie screening at the Vista Theater in Los Feliz. We screened Steven Spielberg’s RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK on 35mm and had about 65 people in attendance.
In that weird way life is, this was initially a side project while I tutored students on the SAT and ACT and worked to make a feature film (I’m a filmmaker). But bit by bit, and especially after we discovered how to effectively use social media for advertising, we ended up going from 1 movie a month to 1 movie a week to 2-4 movies a week to a schedule now in 2021 (just after re-opening after COVID) of about 5-7 movies a week (or 20-28 movies a month).
Secret Movie Club has always been about bringing together a community of movie lovers and moviemakers to celebrate great cinema. We do that by doing midnight, morning, and regular screenings at various great venues in Los Angeles.
Currently, we screen either at our 99 seat Secret Movie Club Theater in DTLA’s Arts District (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) or at the 2000 seat Million Dollar Theater Movie Palace right next to Grand Central Market. We hope to be back at the Vista when it re-opens in late 2021/early 2022. And we got through COVID by partnering with Electric Dusk Drive In to do 3-4 drive in movies a week in Glendale, CA.
We are working to also build our virtual as well as our physical community. We are doing a Short Film Festival with LA’s own Channel 35. We have a team of film writers who write about great aspects of cinema for our blog. We do a weekly podcast. We have designers who design original posters. Comedy troupes who do live improvisations/re-dubs of movies.
Whatever happens, Secret Movie Club is always committed to welcoming everybody and every taste. There is no snobbery here. We just want to celebrate great cinema with everyone who wants to celebrate it. Everyone is always invited.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Hah! We’ve had a tremendous amount of luck. But even the really rough patches have felt necessary.
For instance when COVID hit in March 2020, we had just opened up our 99 seat theater in DTLA’s Arts District. When we had to shut down, we had to figure out how to survive until re-opening. We lucked out and partnered with Electric Dusk Drive In and did nine months of drive ins in Glendale, California.
COVID also forced us to really innovate including launching secretmovieclub.com, our poster store, our merchandise business, our podcasts, our virtual screenings, and more.
Interestingly also, we’ve always worked to partner with unique locations so we can screen great movies anywhere. We even did a 16mm genre movie series at the Regent Music Venue in DTLA. It was a lot of work (we had to set up couches, chairs, the projector each and every time) but we grew from it.
Secret Movie Club has always been very lucky to have the team we have as well. Without our team, we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Secret Movie Club was founded in April of 2016. We screen great movies from all around the world, in every genre, from every time period. We are a community of movie lovers and movie makers.
We’re known for our community-oriented screenings with introductions, interviews, trivia, conversation before and after the movie.
We’re proud that our audience supports what we do and shows up to attend movies wherever we screen them. We could only do this with our audience.
Readers can check out everything we do at: https://www.secretmovieclub.com/
They can also follow us to get tickets to our events at: https://secretmovieclub.eventbrite.com
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Lots of folks have written about the death of the movie theater, especially during COVID. But I’m convinced that a lot of people, especially young people, are going to want to get out of their apartments and socialize after 18 months of not being able to.
I sense a renaissance for movie culture, the movie theater, the movie experience for folks who can bring it into the 21st century.
Pricing:
- $16-$19 a ticket
- $28 for a double feature ticket
- Much of our content (podcasts, writing, etc.) is free.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.secretmovieclub.com/
- Instagram: @secretmovieclub
- Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm
- Twitter: @secretmovieclub
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIt977BB2FD58EOL3CF81vw
