![]() "Going to the movies used to be an event, so that's what we've recreated here," said Stata. The large reupholstered seats, the thick velvet curtains and the ornate wall coverings take older patrons down memory lane and give the younger crowd a chance to experience bygone days. The result of his labour of love is that each of his cinemas - the largest seats 200 - provides a plush movie-viewing experience. In all, he has snapped up contents from 450 defunct cinemas including a "porn house" in Indiana, the International Cinema in Toronto and small town theatres across Canada, selecting the best for his theatres. As small movie theatres closed up across North America, Stata, who used to run a construction business, began picking up used equipment and projectors. That's when Stata decided to expand and add a second screen, then a third, fourth and, by 1996, a fifth screen, in sizes comparable to those found in multiplex cinemas. But gradually the word got out and, by the mid-1980s, Stata found himself turning away hundreds of movie patrons. People thought it was a just a TV in the basement because it was in a house," said Stata, who as a 6-year-old got his start as a theatre operator in the family woodshed charging 2 cents a head. Stata started modestly in 1979 with a 58-seat theatre, "where the rec room should be," in his newly built house. "We get so many people that it's unreal," said Kinmount's unlikely movie mogul. Churko and her friends didn't have to line up to buy their $7.50 ticket - Thursday is the quietest night of the week - but once school is out for the summer and the cottagers arrive in droves, it's a different story, said Stata. It also seems no one is concerned about the other wildlife, which includes raccoons and a black bear with a fondness for popcorn, although a bat that found its way inside during the screening of the Blair Witch Project did cause at least one woman to run out in panic. The first time we came, the lineup was right around the parking lot, so we got eaten alive," said Kellie Churko, 31, of nearby Haliburton. ![]() The millions of mosquitoes that lurk in the bush surrounding the parking lot invade the theatres every time the doors open, so regulars know that a liberal dose of bug spray before you get out of the car is a good idea. In Theatre 3, where Skanun and his nephew, Matt Adams, 11, were among 30 people who turned up to watch Jim Carey in Bruce Almighty, the air was an unusual aroma of popcorn and bug spray. "We've got 12 grandchildren and every one of them prefers seeing a show at Highlands to going to a big city movie theatre," said Ruby Wilkes, whose family has owned a cottage on a nearby lake for three generations. For many cottagers in the surrounding 80-kilometre radius, a visit to Stata's theatre has become a summer tradition. My first reaction was: "It's incredible,' " said Wesley Skakun, 41, of Vancouver as he lined up to buy popcorn - $4 for a decent sized combo - at the theatre during a recent visit. "It's not your average movie theatre, that's for sure. Only when you step through the double-glass doors - where the garage should be - do you realize you've stepped into a celluloid oasis. The only hint is a small marquee that's largely obscured. Hidden in a bit of bush, on the hill just outside the village limits, it looks like an average two-storey house. "It's on the left as you go out of town, you can't miss it," said the clerk behind the counter of one of Kinmount's two general stores. This season - from May to Thanksgiving - 50,000 moviegoers are expected to enter Keith Stata's home to enjoy the movie experience in the middle of cottage country. Highlands Cinemas, a 550-seat complex with five theatres showing first-run movies, has drawn customers from the surrounding area for more than two decades. KINMOUNT, Ont.-On the border of the Kawarthas and the Haliburton Highlands, this village of 300 boasts an unusual demographic: More movie theatre seats than people. About Us "It's not your average movie theatre"
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