02/18/2026
On Monday of this week I was notified by the owner of our building that the Jacksonville Arts Council has terminated its option to purchase the Illinois Theatre.
For the past year we have been in limbo not knowing the immediate future of this beautiful, historic theatre. Even with uncertainty, we have spent the past six months updating technology, deep cleaning, and hiring competent staff including placing one of our top managers at this location.
I am now pleased to announce that with this news, we are committed to continue offering movies at this location for the foreseeable future.
As the picture above depicts, movies are a shared experience for all. Over the past few years the movie theatre industry has changed. Some changes for the good and some bad.
Big theatre companies started remodeling their complexes with recliners and food options. While this is mostly a good thing, it was also very expensive and these companies had to raise prices to fund these upgrades. That is also the bad part. Proportionally, as prices rose, fewer and fewer people could afford to attend movies on a regular basis. We are becoming an industry catering to the upper class, more affluent citizens.
We intend to continue bucking this trend. We will maintain our low admission price of $5 for all showtimes everyday. We will still try to offer a wide variety of movies so all demographics can find something interesting to watch including more independent films. We will still offer our private theatre rental program which has become a main source of income for us. Its a great place to have birthday parties and special events. We are also traing our staff to be your host when you attend and to make your experience as positive as possible. We cant control how good the movie is but i do know its better in a good environment
Thanks to all of our loyal patrons who continued to come in even with all of the rumors and uncertainty. Please reach out to me if i can serve you in any way.
Jeff Eisentraut
Eisentraut Theatres
Bestmoviedeal.com
