In major cities with large numbers of first and second-run theaters like Detroit, the film companies leased office spaces and facilities in buildings called "film exchanges".
After dropping out of college, the brothers operated a second-run theater in Buffalo, N.Y., and promoted rock concerts.
However, like many current second-run theatres, it has shown films that were market-tested at other movie houses.
On June 19, 1992, the Saratoga Mall theaters became a second-run theater with ticket prices at $1.99.
That's little consolation to Connecticut's second-run theaters, many of which are already in precarious financial shape.
"One of the advantages of having a second-run theater is that you get to pick the best movies - the ones that have already proven to be winners," he said.
In the late 1990s, the Movies at Miller Hill Mall became a second-run theater, showing films between 6 and 12 months old; tickets cost $2.
Lacking the presence and funding needed for first-run movies, the theater progressed to a second-run theater shortly before it was closed in 1984, due to a health code violation.
Many were second-run theaters, but offered viewers a homey ambience and the chance to see a film on a giant screen.
And he is intent on setting himself apart from Collegiate's privileged milieu, which is slightly alien to a kid who gets scholarship help and waits to see movies at cheaper, second-run theaters.