Cinema Spotlight: Athens Movie Palace
- Onni Creative
- Oct 1
- 5 min read
How one cinema's activations drive community engagement
OC is excited to announce a new blog column: Cinema Spotlight! Each column will feature a cinema from across the country that continues to do incredible work to elevate the moviegoing experience + create a community in cinema. Our goal is to celebrate cinemas we admire for their work + share their stories, inspiring other cinemas to connect with them or implement similar creative approaches at their own venues.
Our first featured cinema is Athens Movie Palace in Athens, TN! We chatted with Kavitha Reddy, Director of Operations at Athens Movie Palace, to learn more about how their cinema is able to create such a special moviegoing experience and stay connected with the local community.
An Unlikely Cinema Story
The story of Athens Movie Palace begins with one of the most unlikely cinema owners in the country: Sekhar Reddy, who himself didn’t go to the cinema often at all. However, when both of Athens’ cinemas closed by 2013, Sekhar saw that the small community in Athens was missing a gathering place to share in the experience of watching films on the big screen. Although he didn’t have a background in the industry, Sekhar purchased one of the old cinema buildings, thinking he could simply renovate it back into its former state as a twin-screen cinema.
“He had been to one movie in his life, so he was really out of touch with just how the industry works,” explains his daughter Kavitha, who now runs the day-to-day operations at the cinema. They soon realized that it was going to take more than a simple renovation to bring their vision to life.
A Palace is Born
The transformation from “Athens Five Cinemas” to “Athens Movie Palace” happened almost by accident.
“I couldn’t come up with a name for it, with Athens Five Cinemas as my base…there just wasn’t anything,” Kavitha remembers. She went down a rabbit hole of research, trying to come up with a better name. This research led her to a list of the world’s best cinemas, where she discovered the Palace Theater in Jaipur, India. Given her father’s Indian heritage, the connection felt meaningful. When she sent him the link, however, he was less excited saying “That’s not the Palace Theater…It translates to King’s House.”
“Well, that’s a palace,” Kavitha quipped, “so we’re going with Athens Movie Palace,” –and Athens Movie Palace was born.
The conversation gave the cinema more than just a name: it gave an identity and a mission. The palace theme provided a framework for everything from the castle-like facade to the lobby details that serve as “easter eggs” for moviegoers. It gave something to base the aesthetic around, but the theme runs deeper than decoration. It affirms the principle that every person who walks through the door should feel like royalty, a philosophy that drives every program + interaction at Athens Movie Palace.
Putting Values Into Action
The palace branding could have remained surface-level, but for the Reddy family, treating customers like royalty means addressing real community needs. That translates into creating programs focused on education + accessibility.
Athens Movie Palace recognized that many local children had never experienced films on the big screen. As a result, they created a field trip program that allows schools to bring classrooms of children into the cinema during off-hours for private screenings, complete with drinks + popcorn.
“A lot of these kids, it’s the only time they get to come to the movies,” Kavitha explains. “Their parents just aren’t bringing them. So we get a lot of first-time movie theater kids.”
The cinema’s commitment to local schools extends to teachers through their “Featured Teacher Program.” Randomly selected teachers’ Amazon wishlists are displayed as QR codes on the concessions stand, allowing movie goers to directly support classroom needs.
Creative Community Partnerships
Athens Movie Palace has mastered the art of turning film themes into community support. When The Secret Life of Pets played, they organized a pet photo contest where people voted by bringing in pet food for donation to a local animal shelter. “We had truckloads of stuff for them because people were trying to win,” Kavitha laughs.
A summer series featuring book adaptations benefited the local library, with local morning news anchors reading story excerpts. When local food pantries post about being low on supplies, the cinema offers ticket discounts for food donations.
Their November “Giving Tuesday” program expanded on giving back to the community even further. Every Tuesday, a different nonprofit kept the profit from ticket sales plus a portion of concessions, while gaining exposure within the community about their work.
Kavitha’s advice for other cinemas? “Look for a built-in market…just [be] aware of your community.”
Taking a Big Swing
This commitment to community involvement has reached a new peak recently with the success of Athens Movie Palace’s Screen of Dreams event, what Kavitha called “one big, crazy social experiment” + their most ambitious undertaking yet. The event brought University of Tennessee baseball players to the cinema for an interactive event that went far beyond a traditional film screening.
The inspiration struck when a UT coach’s father quoted Field of Dreams during a post-2024 championship win interview. “I was like, well, that’s really cool…here’s proof that movies are important,” Kavitha realized. The event featured screenings of baseball classics, meet-and-greets with players, photo opps, and other activities– all designed to be a more personal experience than a typical autograph signing.
The 75 VIP tickets sold out weeks in advance, even before announcing which players would attend. Though Kavitha admitted to being “sick” about the logistics beforehand, calling it “probably the most intense and biggest event we’ve ever attempted,” the event was a huge success + exemplified their approach to pushing beyond just showing films to create memorable community experiences.
The Philosophy Behind It All
For Kavitha, who handles everything from HR to social media at this local cinema, success isn’t just measured in ticket sales. Her favorite cinema memory– watching Horrible Bosses with a group of friends in California where a jump scare caused a chain reaction of overreacting responses– reinforces her core belief.
“Things are funnier when you are with other people. That whole collective moviegoing experience really does add to it,” she reflects. “For us it was going to have to be more than somewhere to just watch movies. We had to give people a reason to have memories beyond, ‘Oh, I saw this movie there.’”
That philosophy drives every program at Athens Movie Palace. They have proven that cinemas can thrive by embracing their roles as an important center of the community, where memories are made and everyone is treated like royalty.
Written By: Faith Banach
Faith Banach is the Marketing Coordinator at Onni Creative. She is passionate about building community by connecting people through what they love most. Aside from being an avid moviegoer, she’s an enthusiastic hiker, seasoned road tripper, and lover of all sorts of live performances!
Want to be featured in our Cinema Spotlight series? Email us at hello@onnicreative.xyz
