DUMAS, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — “Maybe a month, month and a half, something like that,” said Randy Nies, Evelyn Theatre Owner.

That is how long Nies thought they would initially be shut down for due to the pandemic.

“When it turned out to be a 15-month ordeal, that completely changed everything. Hollywood shut down. Hollywood is still not making movies like they should,” said Nies.

Born and raised in Dumas, Nies has owned the Evelyn Theatre for nearly 30 years now and says the shut down has been tough on theatres across the country.

“Product is hard to get. So that’s affected a lot of the small town theatres. Every theatre, not just small town. Small town feels a little worse because we got just movies and nothing else to go along with it. So we feel that,” said Nies.

Nies opened the theatre back up a few weeks ago and so far it has not been the re-opening he was anticipating.

“Right now it’s off to a slow start. We sure hadn’t jumped into it like we thought we would but I think everybody thought this was going to be huge when they just opened. The numbers coming in from other theatres nationwide and stuff is not there. It’s just not there yet,” said Nies.

But Nies remains optimistic that business will pick back up.

“We’re going to hit a lull period here in the next month until we get to F9, the new movie. It’s going to be a little slow here and there in spots. Hopefully Hollywood can pick up the slack. I hadn’t seen it yet but hopefully,” said Nies.

Right now Nies said they are just having one showing per night.

For Evelyn Theatre showtimes, updates and information, click here.