Mason City council approves funding for project that well re-open downtown movie theater

MASON CITY – The Mason City council is going into the theater business, as they awarded a contract to CES+ in November for the outfitting – and on-going operation – of a long-dormant movie theater located inside Southbridge Mall.

The decision was made at the November 4, 2025 city council meeting. City Administrator Aaron Burnett recommended that the council accept the proposal from CES+ for the Southbridge Mall theater. The Southbridge Mall theater is ready for installation of the seating, projection, sound, curtains, and other specialized equipment, to please audiences. The city issued an request for proposals for this equipment and received two responses. The responses ranged from $202,712.14-$469,801.91. The CES+ proposal was $202,712.14 and was considered the best proposal for the renovation and will provide equipment that will fit the intended use well. The theater renovation is a budgeted capital improvement. However, any cost overrun will require a modification to the budget to reflect the increase. I respectfully request the acceptance of the CES+.

Mayor Bill Schickel stated at the meeting that in 2008 the Cinema 5 theater in Southbridge Mall was closed and he was very excited to announce it would be reopening this spring, thanks to the good work of Council Member Masson, City Administrator Burnett and the City Council. Masson provided a presentation on the Southbridge Mall Theatre Project.

Council Member Paul Adams mentioned they were starting work in March and wondered when they anticipated opening with Council Member Masson stating once the Resolution was approved, they would begin ordering with the goal to be open May 23, 2026, pointing out there were still items to be worked out.  Council Member Adams questioned moving forward, whether this would be a City budgeted operations item each year with Administrator Burnett concurring, advising there would be a learning curve as to what could be expected as far as revenues and expenditures and obviously there was a significant capital outlay to get it up and running. He also stated he would reach out to other entities in similar situations and hopefully be able to incorporate in the upcoming budget cycle and then go from there as far as tweaking that and making sure that it’s as accurate as possible.

Masson mentioned they were going to try and break even if possible and were not planning on being open every week or anything like that.

Council Member John Lee (and newly-elected mayor) referred to the day-to-day operations and wondered who the contact point would be and whether there would be someone for the day-to-day operations with Burnett stating that had not yet been worked out and mentioned the good collaborative effort between Council Member Masson and the mall manager, who he stated had been an absolute godsend and had done an amazing job of coordinating the various trades and getting them in and out, and the city electrician who had reduced a lot of the costs with his efforts to replace the lights that were in pretty rough shape. He also stated he had talked to many people who had great stories about the theatre and were nostalgic about Southbridge Mall and reiterated from an operational there was still a lot to figure out and he was a firm believer in, ‘rob and duplicate’, meaning look at who has successfully done these kind of spaces, get their input and keep the overhead costs as low as possible and stressed having a group of people who are passionate about it, like the folks with the Independent Film Festival and the staff at the mall made figuring things out pretty easy.

Many in Mason City are looking forward to the future, where the nostalgic days of seeing movies in Southbridge Mall are soon to return.