On Friday the curtain at Goodhand Theater will remain closed and its doors locked.

After 12 years running the downtown movie house, owners Amy and Terry Sorensen announced that they were forced to shut down for good due to financial reasons.

“We’re not closing because we want to,” Amy Sorensen reported. “We just can’t run the place on 18 to 25 people a week.”

The theater has been struggling over recent years. When the couple opened in the late 1990s, they projected the break even point at 210 customers each week. During the entire month of September only 220 people showed up. In October it was a little brighter--340--though nowhere near what they needed to pay building costs and for films.

The studios demand a percentage of the box office, plus an up front minimum--averaging $250 per movie and another $100 in shipping. Goodhand charges $6.42 per adult, $4.82 for kids. Seniors receive a discount, as well.

“We are cheaper than anyone else, but people will still go out of town for a movie,” Sorensen said.

Last week the couple put out a plea. With the critically acclaimed hit Moneyball in for the weekend, they asked for 100 customers--a number they felt they needed in order to bring in a film for next week. Only 56 showed up for weekend showings.

“We could’ve continued if people would have come this weekend,” she said. “I’m very sad.”

Sorensen, who also runs L’il bit Country, a craft and antique shop on Chestnut, has been putting in 40 hours a week at the theater. Her husband works at Eatman Well Service full time, but would often remain in the building until 3 a.m. on Thursdays, changing out reels and cleaning up.

The couple operated like this for 12 years without pay, other than what they bring home from their day jobs. Theater receipts did pay for operational costs, but the couple rarely could afford to hire part time help.

Goodhand Theater was built in the mid 1950s, when Kimball supported three movie houses. As the economics of the industry changed, small town operations began falling behind. First run films are out of the question, as studios require a run of several weeks and up to 90 percent of the box office. Over the past few months, Goodhand presented a series of recently released hits, including Contagion, Abduction, the controversial 30 Minutes or Less, the international blockbuster The Help (based on a best selling novel) and the dip into 1970s camp called Rise of the Planet of the Apes. None were shown on their release date, but all appeared in Kimball within weeks after the films hit the major markets. The transition to digital is also putting financial pressure on the smaller venues.

The Sorensens have been looking for a buyer for several years, without success. A few people called, but the conversations never turned serious.

“People want a sure thing,” Sorensen pointed out.

So the town’s--and the county’s--only remaining theater shuts down after the final showing of Moneyball on Thursday night. And then the marquee darkens.

Ironically, the closing of Goodhand Theater comes just as Kimball’s new economic development director takes over the long vacant position and the Kimball Area Foundation promotes an auction to raise endowment funds.

“We need growth,” Sorensen said of the community. “But we also need to save what’s here.”