The Grandin Theatre is a cultural icon in the Roanoke region. If you think about a montage collage poster of a place, in Roanoke, it’s the H&C Coffee sign, the Mill Mountain Star, and the Grandin Theatre marquee.
Executive Director of the Grandin Theatre Foundation, Ian Fortier, says the theatre is 92 years old and is the first talking cinema house in Roanoke. In Grandin Village, it’s the economic, geographic, and historic anchor.
Fortier says they don’t just operate as their own facility, but think about how they contribute to the small businesses that are around them, because Grandin Village is almost entirely populated by small, independent businesses—a lot of them women-owned—and they care about that a great deal. He says if the Grandin Theatre is doing what they’re doing correctly, they should be filling their seats so that people either coming in or out of the building are going to ice cream shops, grocery stores, ballet theaters, and retail shops.
Coming out of COVID in 2021, the Grandin Theatre decided to only be a for sale movie theater on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Monday through Thursday, they’ve become a rich cultural community center with comedy, author series, and live music programming.
Lear more about the Grandin Theatre at grandintheatre.com
