Harbor Theater launched its first annual fund drive last week to raise the $40,000 it needs yearly to sustain its operations. The cinema’s volunteer board is in the second year of a three-year campaign to save the financially challenged theater it bought last fall. The theater, converted to a 501( 3c) non-profit organization, now operates under its new budget of 50 percent earned revenue, such as ticket sales and memberships, and 50 percent community support — as practiced by all 22 nonprofit independent movie houses in New England.

Board President Bob Devine said, “We are grateful that the community rallied so enthusiastically last summer when we announced we’d continue the theater’s operations in Boothbay Harbor’s Meadow Mall. Memberships this past year have exceeded 500 and donations have met the 50 percent community support target. Attendance, buoyed by a $2 cut in ticket prices, has exceeded 2,000.”

“We ran five days a week through a difficult winter as snow closed us only once,” Devine said. (In summer the theater runs daily with matinees and evening shows on Sundays.) And, he noted, “this past year we’ve broadened our program to include the latest art, indie and film festival releases as well as first run blockbusters for a total selection of 90 to 100 films a year.”

However, Devine pointed out, “This starts our second year in a three-year drive to see if the community will support its own cinema, the only movie house on the peninsula. We need to raise funds now for 2018-19.” Devine said supporters are being asked in mailed appeals to designate their gifts for the theater’s general operations or, alternatively, for ten specific projects, such as overdue theater renovations or equipment upgrades, or free film showings for Boothbay school children as chosen by their teachers to supplement classroom readings.

Hamilton Meserve, board vice president and development director, noted in the fund campaign’s written appeal, “We believe that the Harbor Theater is a valued contributor to our quality of life and, indeed, worth saving. We need the help of both Boothbay year-round and summer residents as 2018-19 will be a critical year in the theater’s survival.”