Mango Theater Will Bring Movies Back to Molokai

Photo courtesy of Brad Ellis and Grace Chen-Ellis.

By Catherine Cluett Pactol, Reporter 

For the first time in nearly 20 years, Molokai residents will be able to eat popcorn, sit in a theater seat and watch a movie on the big screen without traveling off island. The Mango Theater in Kaunakakai is anticipated to open next month, bringing with it much excitement for Molokai residents. 

“We’re hoping that it’s going to be a good thing, that it will be well received, and that it’ll be seen as a really positive thing for the island,” said Brad Ellis, who owns the theater with his wife, Grace Chen-Ellis. 

The single-screen theater has padded black walls, Molokai art, a laser projector for the big screen and seating for 45 people.

Ellis and Chen-Ellis bought the building next to Fish and Dive and renovated it as retail space back in 2018. A theater wasn’t in their plans, but community members urged them to consider it.

They originally hoped it would open back in 2019, but they didn’t give up after years of permitting and pandemic delays. 

“I’m just grateful that they’ve persevered and stuck it out to provide this place for us, and it’s going to be fun,” said Molokai resident Ali Kaina, who will work as manager of the theater. “So it’s pretty amazing what they’ve gone through…They’re investing in the community. I’m excited that Molokai will have this kind of beautiful space to spend time with their families and loved ones.”

Ellis and Chen-Ellis first visited Molokai from California in 2008 and finished building a house here in 2014. They decided to move to the island full time in 2017. 

The Kaunakakai building they renovated, named the RWH Chen Building honoring both their families, has served as a retail space for several local businesses. Now, the end portion will soon open as The Mango Theater. 

“Folks now get on planes to go to fly, to go see movies, right? So we want this to be as nice, if not nicer than the experience of having to travel to see a movie,” said Ellis.

What to Expect

Along with the theater space, concession food will be a focal point. 

“We’re going to have popcorn. We’re going to have pizza, hot dogs – all the standard things you would get at a regular movie theater,” said Ellis.

The couple bought Pizza Café about a year ago, so they’re not new to the Molokai food scene. Along with Kaina and another dedicated theater employee, Pizza Café workers will also rotate shifts at the theater. 

Ellis and Chen-Ellis plan to roll out an app that will allow residents to reserve their seats and order food in advance. 

“We’d hate to have people drive all the way from Maunaloa, drive all the way from the east side, only to be disappointed and not get a seat,” said Ellis. 

The theater will be open four nights a week to start, with two to three showings each night. Ellis said they’ll cater to the community’s movie preferences.

“There’s so much content out there now that we’ve missed out on here, on Molokai, right? So we have lots and lots of stuff to choose from, but we’re going to have first run movies,” he said. “We believe our first movie will be Moana 2.”

Prices will run at $12 for general admission, $10 for kupuna and students, and $8 for keiki. 

The parking lot and entrance is in the back of the building, from Manako Lane. 

Inside, 40 of the theater’s seats are regular movie chairs. 

“They’re not the big reclining, luxury chairs, but they are very comfy,” said Ellis, as he sat down and sank into the seat. “And they’re rockers, very comfortable.”

There’s a different kind of seating option at the top of the amphitheater-style space. 

“We have what we’re calling our ohana bench, which, if you come back up here, you can see is not just a seat, but also has a table,” Ellis explained. “So a family of five could sit here on this bench and put their food and drinks up on that table.”

Ellis said they also had a multi-use space in mind. 

“We’ve designed this so that it’s more than a movie theater,” he said. “It can be a community gathering spot. So here we’ve put in a countertop with a sink and an under-counter refrigerator, so people can come in with a birthday party or a business meeting or something and set up their own food in the back.”

The theater is a showcase of Molokai workmanship. 

“We’ve made a point of using only Molokai folks, and the talent on this island is amazing,” said Ellis. “The only place we had to go off-island was for the air conditioning, because the duct work and stuff, and we really couldn’t find anybody on Molokai who could do that. But otherwise, everything in here – Molokai hands built it.”

The theater will also serve as a gallery space for Molokai High student art in the corridor between the entrance and the auditorium. 

Ellis explained the behind the scenes of how the theater operates. 

“The way this works is we have a movie broker who actually goes out and gets the films for us, negotiates with the studios, [for example] how many days you actually have to run it, and all of those kinds of things,” said Ellis. “And then another company zaps the film here digitally over WiFi… depending upon the length of the film, it takes five or six hours to download it. We’ll have the before-movie stuff, ads, previews, that kind of thing, and then the movie will roll.”

The exact opening date has yet to be announced, pending a couple of final touches and infrastructure connections. 

Chen-Ellis, who works as a teacher at Molokai High School, said excitement is building as the opening date approaches. 

“Not a day goes by at the high school that I don’t get asked when the theater will open,” she said. “The students are super excited about it.”

Theater Memories

For Molokai keiki, sitting in a movie theater on Molokai will be a first-time experience. And for many local kupuna, it will bring nostalgia from the past, when there used to be four movie theaters on the island during the 1950 and 60s. 

“I’m so excited for this to happen. We need something for the community, something for the family to get back together again,” said Molokai’s Annette English. “I’m happy it came back.”

English recalled the Maunaloa theater when she was growing up, and the Kamoi Theater in Kaunakakai, where the post office is now located, that was built in 1939. Then there was the Kukui theater, an open-air style theater also in Kaunakakai, where the grass grew tall between the amphitheater benches. 

“We used to call it the mosquito punk theater, because of all the mosquitos,” she laughed. She and her friends in high school would take their popcorn to the hospital parking lot and even though they couldn’t hear the movie, they could still see it on the outdoor projector. 

There was also a theater in Kualapu’u, where the Molokai Land Trust currently occupies.

“At that time, the sodas were like only 10 cents, and the coconut candy in the small little package was like five cents, 10 cents,” English said of the Maunaloa theater when she was young. 

A movie ticket cost just 25 cents.

“They had the small little hole, you go over there, line up, pay your 25 cents, and she would give you a ticket,” English recalled. 

Still, growing up in a family of nine kids, she said they often couldn’t afford a ticket so when they were young, they’d sometimes sneak into the movies. They’d sit in the back, drink a bottle of Coke, then roll the bottles down the dark theater aisle. 

“Bang, bang, bang! And then you get these older parents, like, screaming at us, like, ‘what are you guys doing?’ We kind of just ducked down because it’s not lit, you know, it’s all dark,” she laughed. 

She remembers when theaters across the island showed “Endless Summer.”

“It was a really big thing and the whole Molokai came. And the line was so long, and that was so neat,” English said.

The last theater on Molokai, in Maunaloa owned by Molokai Ranch, closed in 2008. 

Now, Ellis and Chen-Ellis say they hope The Mango Theater will be a “positive for the community.”