OTTAWA, IL — In less than three weeks, people can view something at the Majestic Theater that hasn’t been seen there in a dozen years:

First-run movies.

Kyle Mitchell, most recently of Flagstaff, Ariz., has entered a lease agreement to renovate and operate the Majestic, which has not shown first-run movies since Oct. 1, 1995. The movie theater briefly reopened in 1998 to show classic films, but that lasted only six weeks. It also hosted music concerts for a few months in 2002.

Mitchell and his wife, Cindy, have experience running a movie theater. They operated Movies at the Mall, an independent theater in Flagstaff, from 2002 through January. Mitchell is a friend of Streator native Tim Burke, now of Los Angeles, who owns the Majestic Theater. Mitchell, who moved to Streator last month, said he is fully committed to making an independent theater successful in a smaller town.

“I moved here specifically for the Majestic,” said Mitchell, who lived in Los Angeles and Phoenix before moving to Flagstaff.

The Times