Most of the employees at Utah’s Redstone 8 Cinemas are on strike this week, pushing the theater’s corporate owner to boost entry-level pay to $15 an hour.

Strike organizer Zinnia Kenny told City Weekly that low wages at the Redstone 8—located just outside Park City near Kimball Junction—have resulted in high employee turnover and deteriorating conditions at the venue. The Redstone is one of the largest movie houses in Summit County and a Sundance Film Festival screening location since 2007.

“This is Park City, this is Sundance town,” Kenny said. “We need to have a theater that we’re proud of.”

Kenny said the staff started talking about organizing about a month ago. When the theater reopened following a COVID-19 shutdown, Kenny said she was rehired at a lower position than she held previously, and many of her co-workers were compelled to find higher-paying jobs elsewhere.

“We lost a number of our best and most dedicated employees,” Kenny said. “They just had to go find better jobs in the surrounding area.”

Kenny said the theater employs roughly a dozen people. Of that group, a “clear majority” of at least 9 nine staff members are participating in the strike, she said.

“We are expecting that the strike will continue at least through the weekend,” Kenny said.

The Redstone 8 remains open for business, staffed by a skeleton crew, Kenny said.

“They’re management,” Kenny said. “They’re used to other people doing this stuff for them.”

The Redstone 8 is a primary anchor of the Redstone Shopping Center, located off of Interstate 80, roughly 6 miles north of Park City. During the annual Sundance Film Festival, Redstone screenings are among the most publicly accessible, as crowds quickly overwhelm the historic venues and temporarily-constructed auditoriums that make up the heart of the festival’s Park City offerings.

California-based Metropolitan Theatres owns the Redstone 8. According to their website, the company operates state-of-the-art multiplexes at 16 theatres and 89 screens in California, Colorado, Idaho and Utah. A company spokesperson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Kenny said the current starting pay at the theater is $10.50 an hour, lower than comparable jobs in the Park City area. With Park City among the highest-income areas of the state, Kenny—who is 23—said it is challenging to keep up with the cost of living with the theater’s wages. The striking employees have no other conditions beyond an increase in starting pay.

“It was just this single request and for that reason, we feel that we’re being extremely reasonable,” Kenny said. “We could work as a cashier at Smith’s and make more than what we’re asking for. We aren’t just saying $15 because we want more money, we’re saying $15 because we care about this theater.”

Kenny said talks with Metropolitan are ongoing, but so far have not indicated an interest in pay raises. She said she hopes the rush of weekend business can bolster the strike’s impact—new films are typically released on Friday and weekend screenings are critical to a theater’s operations—and that employees are happy to return to work if their request is met.

“Everyone has been deeply frustrated by the low pay at the theater and has felt sort of helpless,” Kenny said.

In materials released to the media, Kenny encouraged Redstone customers to patronize streaming services, which increasingly screen films on or near their release date in theaters. She added that fans of the big screen can also show their support for employees by declining to purchase concessions, the largest source of revenue for screening venues as much of ticket sales are returned to distributors.

“If you have to go to a movie, don’t buy popcorn,” Kenny said.