By Thom Stone
Last year, Movie Madness announced that the business will be relocating to NE, just across the street from its owner, the Hollywood Theater. Although there is no set date for the move yet, there is already a sense among customers and staff alike that change is imminent, as it will be happening sometime within the next year
As the last dedicated video rental store in Portland, Movie Madness has become both a local landmark and a tourist destination due to its small but mighty museum of props and costumes and its gargantuan collection of movies (fast approaching 100,000) available on VHS, DVD and Bluray.
Many Portlanders will miss their glory days spent in the soon-to-be vacant building where they once rented movies that would soon become their favorites and exchanged opinions with fellow cinephiles; some may have even met their spouse-to-be while browsing along the same aisle.
But what does it mean for SE specifically? Founder of Movie Madness, Mike Clark, and Managing Director/Head Curator, Matt Parnell, had their own thoughts and feelings on the subject but both expressed that Movie Madness would not be moving out of SE unless it had to.
Parnell cited lack of space as the primary reason for the move because there is only a year’s worth of growth left at the rate it’s currently going (13-16 movies added per week) before they would need to start downsizing or removing less popular titles. But that would go against one of the founding principles of Movie Madness which was that the store should function like an archive as much as a video rental store. “When something’s in the collection, it’s here to stay,” he added.
Parnell compared the experience of navigating the store to a maze with staff recommendations and sections featuring obscure directors or oddly specific subgenres along the way. But ultimately, customers get to choose their own adventure. They, not a streaming platform’s algorithm, are the ones who find, select and rent movies that interest them rather than follow a path set out for them based on their tastes and demographics.
To paraphrase what Parnell said, one of the reasons why Movie Madness has always been unique is that it is an extension of Clark’s personality and philosophy regarding movies. He asserted that “anybody else given the same opportunities would not have made it the way it is today.” If it was just another sterile and orderly video store sitting on the corner of SE Belmont St. and 44th Ave., Movie Madness likely would have shuttered its doors.
Despite the heavy toll that the advent of streaming took on video rental stores nationwide, Movie Madness survived thanks to its loyal customer base who donated enough money to their Kickstarter, which helped convince the folks in charge of the Hollywood Theater that buying it would be a worthy investment. But Clark wanted to set the record straight: “It wasn’t about the money. It was about what was best for Movie Madness.”
Still, what he and many customers fear is that no matter how hard the Hollywood Theater tries to retain the look and feel of Movie Madness in its current state, the new location will not offer the same experience.
One customer who has been going to Movie Madness since it first opened in 1991 told Clark that it will be more difficult in NE between the traffic and parking; he said he’s going to feel like he’s walking into a Blockbuster and that might be because it will lose all the personal touches. “It feels like a part of me is being left behind,” Clark confessed.
He still believes, however, that the new location is going to do very well and is excited about some of the new additions that the extra space will allow, like a conversation room (similar to the area on the second floor of the Hollywood Theater) and a much larger theater than the current 18-seat Miniplex. “It’s my child and now my child is off doing something in the world that’s [going to be] better.”
Sometimes a store is more than just a store. When it opened more than 35 years ago, Movie Madness may have appeared to be a video store like any other with movies on display, posters up on the walls, opening and closing hours attached to the front door, all of which could be replaced or rearranged. But for those who actually inhabited the space (quite literally in Clark’s case) it may be hard to imagine or accept that anything else could possibly occupy it, let alone the idea that the Movie Madness experience could be replicated anywhere else.
Inevitably, there will be many current and former staff and patrons in the community who will feel a sense of loss; for some, the move will mark the end of an era. But hopefully in time, all will be able to find comfort in knowing that Movie Madness will carry on as a place where people can gather around a shared love of movies and experience the joy of discovery for generations to come.
Mike Clark in front of Movie Madness in 1994. Photo by Movie Madness.
