The Mango Theater opens on Molokai

Molokai has a movie theater again. It is the first one in more than 15 years. The Mango Theater opened on Thursday, April 3, with a showing of “Moana 2,” shared Brad Ellis who owns the theater along with wife, Grace Chen-Ellis. So far, at least 400 people have watched movies in the new theater.

The last theater, located in Maunaloa and owned by Molokai Ranch closed in 2008, as previously reported by The Molokai Dispatch.

“It’s been terrific,” he said. 

Previously, residents of Molokai had to get on a plane to see movies in a theater.

The duo bought the building that holds the theater in 2017 and began restoring it. 

“One of the shop owners across the street said: ʻWhat are you gonna do with that?’" Ellis said. "And we said: ʻWell, we don't know, probably retail space.’ And she said, ʻYou should build a movie theater.’ ”

That started a multi-year project that culminated in a one-screen, 45-seat theater that opened this month. Today, the building that houses the theater is called the RWH Chen Building. 

The opening movie, “Moana 2,” ran for two weeks. That film played four nights each week. 

“It went great,” Ellis said. “Our staff is learning as we go, and every day they got better at handling the crowds as they come in right before the movie. Everybody left a smile on their face — so that's what it's all about.”

The journey to opening the doors of a theater on Molokai started right before the pandemic. In 2019, the owners of the building hired an architect and consultant but the Covid-19 pandemic and permitting process caused delays. 

“It's absolutely great watching the families come in ... and all leaving, as I said before, with smiles on their face," he said. "It’s just terrific.”

Some movie-goers remember days when movie tickets were just a quarter, he said with a laugh.

The theater offers a variety of snacks, including classics such as popcorn, candy, hot dogs and ice cream. There is also hurricane popcorn, which is flavored with shoyu, sugar, butter, nori seaweed and kakimochi.

“Nachos is the big hit so far,” Ellis said. 

The duo also owns Molokai Pizza Cafe. At the moment, four to five employees are dedicated to the theater “and then we get an extra helping hand from the folks who normally work over at the pizza cafe,” depending on how many people show up for each movie, he said. 

“Although the audience size is hard to predict,” he added. “You can buy tickets in advance on the website, and we thought that is what most people would do but a lot of people just show up at the door, so we've got a lot of sales at the theater itself.”

The next movie will be “Captain America: Brave New World.” Ticket sales launched on Sunday evening and within 10 minutes, about a third of the seats had been sold, Ellis said. That movie will run for three days.  

“We expect those shows will be sold out,” he added. 

The theater has 40 regular seats and an ʻohana bench, which has a table and seats up to five people. 

“That’s very popular,” Ellis said. “It's particularly nice for families with little kids and things like that.”

He declined to share the cost of the buildout. When asked about starting a theater when some on the Mainland and neighbor islands have closed, Ellis was optimistic.

“We're a unique market here,” he said. “People are really looking for some sort of additional activity to do in the evening and whatnot.”

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