The 5 Points Theatre takes the offbeat path

Though it kind of happened by accident, Jacksonville finally has what a vocal contingent of movie fans has been seeking for years - a theater that shows something different.

Offbeat indie stuff? Check.

Vintage movies? Check.

Locally made pictures? Check.

Midnight movies? Check again.

Then toss in SEC football games on the big screen.

That's the reality now at the 5 Points Theatre, the 82-year-old single-screen movie house that, after years as a nightclub, was reopened a little more than a year ago.

Its eclectic nature, however, is not entirely by design. First-run movies that play at multiplexes weren't always big hits at the 5 Points, so it seemed natural to go in a different direction.

"We're sort of making it up as we go along," says Jack Shad, public relations manager of the theater.

Its gentrified yet still funky Riverside neighborhood is probably as favored a location as any in the city for this kind of place. Still, consider it an experiment in progress, as the theater tries to figure out how moviegoers will respond to its new look.

One-time auto dealer Mike Shad was among investors who bought the Park Street office building that houses the theater. First, they renovated the offices, most of which are rented, and then turned their attention to the theater.

Jack Shad and theater manager Pete Mosely say they hear all the time from people who say they want a theater like the 5 Points. "But will they come out?" says Shad. "Hopefully that's a question we'll be settling over the next year."

Mosely once played in Jacksonville rock bands Inspection 12 and Yellowcard, both of which got some national attention. Now he's putting on a party every night, hoping people will come.

"In the end, it's a business, and you've got to figure out how to put butts in seats," he says. "It's more about finding out what people want rather than what you want."

One thing that didn't work was a steady stream of first-run movies. Some did OK, but major studios usually insist that theaters show their films for weeks at a time. For a single-screen theater such as the 5 Points, that's a killer deal if the movie doesn't do well.

"The comedies and the slightly more intellectual movies are big for us," says Mosely. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," did well, as did "Milk," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Away We Go." So did mainstream comedies such as "The Hangover" and "I Love You Man."

In between, offbeat films made their way on to the schedule, sometimes for just a day or two at a time: A Leonard Cohen concert film from 1970. "The Girlfriend Experience," one of Steven Soderbergh's experimental works. "It Might Get Loud," a look at rock guitar gods Jimmy Page, Jack White and the Edge. "Crude," a documentary on Ecuadorians imperiled by an oil company.

The theater has shown movies with Jacksonville connections: a collection of local shorts, a documentary on Jacksonville punk-rock icon Stevie Ray Stiletto, an old creature-feature named "Zaat" and new feature named "Chiaroscuro, Baby."

It did well with a mini Hitchcock festival, and it showed "Casablanca" for free. The theater has worked closely with the Jacksonville Film Festival; it hosted it this spring, and runs occasional festival-related events throughout the year. Selected movies from the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival have been playing since Thursday and continue through today. There's also been a Latino film festival, a horror film festival and the Manhattan Short Film Festival.

The free weekend college football games have done well, Shad says, as have a series of midnight movies, mostly horror or cult films.

"There's a lot of different audiences out there," says Shad. "We're not asking the same people to come out every night."

The 5 Points has one advantage over big theater chains: Like the San Marco Theatre across the river, it has a license to sell beer and wine. "That's the main attraction," says Mosely. "No matter what we're showing, you get to have beer and wine."

The way Shad sees it, that might help him meet his goal for the theater - a gathering place for people to share in the experience of watching a movie, and then perhaps even getting together to talk about it afterward.

"When you've got 150 people in here at midnight watching 'The Big Lebowski' and you run out of pitchers," says Shad. "That was a good night."

matt.soergel@jacksonville.com,

(904) 359-4082