Today we’d like to introduce you to Jimmy and Brooke Sweeney.
Jimmy and Brooke, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
(Jimmy): I’ve always been a big fan of movies. I grew up in Sarasota, FL in a creative environment with a lot of peers that are now working in the film industry in some capacity. It wasn’t something I necessarily thought I would come back to, but I moved out to Fort Worth to go to TCU, and quickly found that I didn’t have the access to independent film that I had had in high school. After graduating and working for Amazon for a few years, I knew it was time for a career change, and my wife, Brooke, and I decided that we wanted to be the ones to bring the only active full-time home for independent film to Fort Worth!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t think it’s ever a smooth road to opening your own business, haha. For us, we spent a lot of time with our wheels being spun by City of Fort Worth planning. Part of that was that being our first time opening a business, we didn’t know the right questions to ask to get the solutions we needed. I feel like that’s the root of any struggle we’ve had that we wouldn’t have again: what are the right questions to ask of people to bypass some red tape and get to a solution.
The Grand Berry Theater – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The Grand Berry Theater is a mission-driven, community-based business which strives to create a unique, high-quality movie going experience by:
-Promoting community within the theater and beyond by connecting strangers who might not otherwise meet and encouraging understanding through our diverse offerings.
-Being accessible and welcoming to everyone in Fort Worth and beyond by being affordable and by offering a diverse range of programming.
In harkening back to a time where Fort Worth was filled with motion picture theaters, we are taking the names from two that still stand. The Grand, located off Rosedale in east Fort Worth, opened in 1938 as a neighborhood theater serving the African American community. The Berry, located at the intersection of Hemphill and W. Berry, opened near 1930 as a theater serving a predominantly white population. In providing a safe space that encourages understanding, we hope we can pay homage to how Fort Worth has grown and come together over the years since these theaters first opened.
I would say that we specialize in showing movies that you won’t find at AMC or Movie Tavern, but I feel like what makes us special is more than that. We want to provide a safe and comfortable space where people can come and experience film together in community. With the takeover of streaming services in our culture, it’s becoming more and more commonplace to watch something in isolation. But, it’s in our human nature to want to talk about what we watch and relate to others that have also seen the same things. This is why avenues such as Reddit and Film Twitter have become such popular places to discuss opinions over what we see. We as a company want to create avenues for people to watch thought-provoking and inspiring movies, and then discuss them together, with the hope of positive understanding and relationship between people with a different worldview coming out of that.
A big part of what we’re proud to do is highlight female and minority directors, actors, and productions, which are severely underrepresented when it comes to major box office movies. We want to continue supporting them in hopes that we can continue to bridge the gap in opportunity when it comes to theatrical releases of movies.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
This might sound weird, but I think I’d have to say making the decision to leave my job at Amazon. I know for myself, and I think I could relate to a number of people my age on this, we’ve watched our parents work tirelessly at unfulfilling and unhappy jobs for a really long time. I think that’s what I saw in front of me: the opportunity to live extremely comfortably (nothing wrong with that), but without any sort of work/life balance, and constantly unfulfilled by the politics of working for a major corporation. It took a lot to walk away from Amazon, and up to that point it was something that very very few of my peers at the company had done.
Pricing:
- Buying our tickets through our website: $9.25 including service fee
- Buying tickets through Atom Tickets: $9.75 including service fee
- Buying tickets at the box office: $10
- Buying tickets through Fandango: $11.79 including service fee
Contact Info:
- Address: 2712 Weisenberger St.
Fort Worth, TX 76107 - Website: grandberrytheater.com
- Email: info@grandberrytheater.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegrandberrytheaterftw/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegrandberrytheater/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/gbtheaterftw
Image Credit:
Matthew and Andrew Reyna
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