MOVIE SCREEENS SEEM MUCH BIGGER IN PERSON. Connie and Mike (pictured) Olson recently took over Grengs Theatres in Eau Claire (Cameo Budget, London Square, and Gemini Drive-In) and have big plans on the horizon.

Excitement has been running high for area cineastes ever since news broke a few weeks ago that Gene Grengs would be selling his three Eau Claire theaters to Mike and Connie Olson of Micon Cinemas in Chippewa Falls. Now that the deal is done, plans are already in motion to expand and reinvent the local film landscape.

 The Grengs family oversaw and nurtured the local cinema scene for almost eight decades. In their last gesture, they handed the baton off to the Olsons. I can’t think of a better family to continue the legacy.

“We’re pumped; we’re excited to bring the things that have made us popular in Chippewa Falls down to Eau Claire,” Connie said. “These days it’s a lot more than just running movies.”

     Mike and Connie, who have about 75 years in the business between the two of them (six of them in Chippewa), just got back from a theater convention in Geneva and are energized by new possibilities.

   For London Square, they’re planning to make Micon Cinemas Eau Claire. Though not a clone of its northern counterpart, the theater will include a whole new lobby (stealing some space from the parking lot) with an arcade, expanded concessions, and meeting/party rooms. They‘re optimistically hoping it will take shape by the end of the year. As far as programming goes, they plan to add 25-cent matinees on Wednesdays and Thursdays starting in summer, a popular promotion among daycares in Chippewa.

    For the Budget Cameo, they plan to rename it Downtown Cinema, a moniker recycled from the past and already on the marquee. They said they’re planning some updates, but will preserve its reputation as a second-run hotspot and place to screen locally made films.

Looking at what budgets have done in other markets, Connie said they’re open to hosting limited releases, arthouse flicks, and midnight movie series. “Movies that aren’t normally screened here,” Mike said. The most drastic idea they’re throwing around is adding beer and food concessions.

For the Gemini, the couple envisions expanding it in almost every sense, including opening earlier and attracting the dinner crowd, adding a second screen “so it’s a true Gemini,” and keeping it open through October for scary movie season. They’re also considering using the grounds during off-hours as a flea market or other revenue-generator.

“This is really exciting for us,” Connie said, adding that it’s particularly nice now that their son, Dan, a Stout business grad, has joined the biz “so we have someone to pass it down to and keep it in the family just like the Grengs.”