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Dvorah and Joseph Governale opened Maven Cinemas in October, replacing Towne Cinemas on Main Street in American Fork. The theater shows classic films and old movies, and during the holiday season Christmas classics will be shown on the big screen.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Dvorah and Joseph Governale stand in front of Maven Cinemas, which they opened in October to replace Towne Cinemas on Main Street in American Fork. The theater shows classic films and old movies, and during the holiday season Christmas classics will be shown on the big screen.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Dvorah Governale fills a bag with popcorn at Maven Cinemas. She opened the theater with her husband, Joseph Governale, in October to show classic and old movies — reviving the building's history as a theater dating back to 1950.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Dvorah and Joseph Governale stand in front of Maven Cinemas, which they opened in October to replace Towne Cinemas on Main Street in American Fork. The theater shows classic films and old movies, and during the holiday season Christmas classics will be shown on the big screen.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Dvorah and Joseph Governale stand behind the counter at Maven Cinemas, which they opened in October to replace Towne Cinemas on Main Street in American Fork. The theater shows classic films and old movies, and during the holiday season Christmas classics will be shown on the big screen.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Maven Cinemas is a two-screen theater on Main Street in American Fork that opened in October to show classic films. Towne Cinemas occupied the building for years but closed in 2019. Dvorah and Joseph Governale reopened the building as Maven Cinemas, giving American Fork residents a town theater again.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Dvorah and Joseph Governale opened Maven Cinemas in October, replacing Towne Cinemas on Main Street in American Fork. The theater shows classic films and old movies, and during the holiday season Christmas classics will be shown on the big screen.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Throughout the holiday season, Maven Cinemas in American Fork will be showing 24 Christmas movies and nine “Christmas-adjacent” movies — films that take place in the winter or have Christmas as part of the plot.

The local theater — previously known as Towne Cinemas before it closed in 2019 — is kicking off the holiday season with “Home Alone” as its first classic Christmas movie, playing this week until Thursday.

Owner Joseph Governale shared how a mother told him her daughter who loves the 1990 comedy starring Macaulay Culkin — and who would have usually watched it six or seven times by mid-November — has been excitedly waiting so she can see it for the first time this season on the big screen.

Co-owner Dvorah Governale added, “I love that we get to provide that experience and memory-making opportunity for her, and I feel like we have been so fortunate to be told so many stories like that, of how this is a meaningful place, either because they came here when they were kids or their parents did.”

Joseph and Dvorah Governale opened Maven Cinemas in October and have been playing all genres of classic and retro movies until now, when Christmas movies will take over the theater for all of December. Every group of Christmas films will play for one week from Friday to Thursday.

They include thriller, animated, comedy and feel-good movies, so there is something for everyone to see this holiday season. They will be showing movies like “The Muppet Christmas Carol,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Krampus,” “The Polar Express,” “Rise of the Guardians” and more.

Located at 120 W. Main St., Maven Cinemas is open Monday through Saturday with varying showtimes. They do not show the same film more than once a day, but instead take the approach of showing several films throughout the day on each screen, catered to the audience that would likely see the movie at that time. For example, cartoons are usually shown in the late afternoon for children while adult movies are usually shown in the evening.

The word “maven” means connoisseur or expert. Joseph explained they named the theater Maven Cinemas because “We like the idea (that) we’re all film connoisseurs, whether it’s us or everyone else. We all appreciate film, which is why we opened it and why people come here.”

The original theater opened in 1950, and Joseph and Dvorah Governale said many of their customers share stories of coming as little kids, or as teenagers when it opened, or in the ’70s and ’80s to watch films for the first time that are now being shown at the same theater, only this time as classics.

The Governales were married in 2005 and have each been working in the live theater or movie theater businesses their entire careers. Joseph said, “I’ve always in that time kind of had the idea and wanted to show old, retro movies.”

He noticed that over time, small town theaters have started to disappear. “So, for me, kind of (with) this idea of wanting to show the old, retro movies, I really wanted to find an old cinema that was in a town that was this sort of age and preserve it, because it’s such a cool piece of history. To think that this building … with an exception of about three years, has been showing movies since 1950.”

A few weeks ago, when they showed the movie “Alien,” which was released in 1979, they said they had a gentleman come to see the movie who said he had watched it first at that same theater when it was released, and he was back to see it again in the same place.

“That’s a really cool thing to think about — that we’re kind of continuing this legacy of showing films here on Main Street in American Fork to a community that loves this building, whose grandparents used to come here as kids and watch movies,” Joseph said.

One of the first movies the couple played was 1950’s “Cinderella.” Dvorah shared that one of their first customers was a family with three little girls, the youngest of which had never seen a movie in a movie theater before.

The family told her, “We love that this gets to be part of her life story, that her first movie on a big screen was the 1950s Cinderella.”

The theater looks almost identical to Towne Cinemas except for some new painting and design features. In the future, the Governales plan to update the lighting and the seating, Dvorah said. A new aspect they are adding to the theater is working with local businesses to have themed movie marathons or movie nights that will bring business to both the theater and the small businesses. Updates will be posted on their social media pages on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Dvorah said, “I just feel like our list is very long of the ways that we can turn this space into something that can really enrich the community and bring a lot of joy and make a lot of new fun memories, but also go back in time and relive that nostalgia. … I think a lot of us … remember when we saw a movie, when it came out, where we were at in life, and the things that were going on and the people that we had that experience with. It can be a great opportunity for reflection as well as creating the new experiences right along with it.”

The Governale say they want to offer something for everyone. They are going to be showing children’s movies, family movies from the ’80s and earlier, classics, old Western movies, action movies, horror classics and more.

While they pick most of the movies based on what they think people will enjoy and what they enjoy, they said they want suggestions from their customers. Since they are a theater that is playing old movies, with some limitations, they get to pick and choose what they show on the big screen. Inside of the theater lobby, there is a chalkboard where customers can write movie suggestions. Joseph and Dvorah Governale said they look at every one of them and take into consideration what their customers want.

The list of films that will play during December (five additional films, including some Christmas classics, are waiting on studio approval and cannot yet be announced):

• “An American in Paris”
• “Anna and the Apocalypse”
• “Batman Returns”
• “Bell, Book and Candle”
• “Christmas in Connecticut” (1945)
• “Cool Runnings”
• “Deadly Games”
• “Die Hard”
• “Elf”
• “Family Man”
• “Frozen”
• “Frozen: Sing Along”
• “Gremlins”
• “Home Alone”
• “Hook”
• “It’s a Wonderful Knife”
• “Krampus”
• “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944)
• “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947)
• “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”
• “Rise of the Guardians”
• “Scrooge: A New Musical” (1970)
• “Spirited Away”
• “Star Wars” Episodes 1-6
• “The Fugitive” (1993)
• “The Grinch”
• “The Holiday”
• “The Iron Giant”
• “The Lego Movie”
• “The Muppet Christmas Carol”
• “The Nightmare Before Christmas”
• “The Polar Express”
• “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972)
• “The Santa Clause”
• “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940)
• “The Thing” (1982)
• “Tokyo Godfathers”
• “Twilight” saga marathon
• “WarGames”
• “You’ve Got Mail”

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