Colleen Barstow, champion of American independent cinema, dies at 64

Colleen Barstow, a co-founder of the ACX Cinemas chain and a prominent advocate for independent movie theaters across the United States, died Saturday. She was 64.

Barstow’s family said she passed away following an 18-month battle with cancer.

Since 2022, Barstow served as the treasurer of Cinema United and chair of the organization’s independent theater owners committee. Michael O’Leary, CEO of Cinema United, remembered her as a "tireless advocate" for independent exhibitors.

Barstow and her husband, Bill Barstow, founded Main Street Theatres in 1988 after purchasing a small cinema in Nebraska. The company eventually grew into ACX Cinemas, which now operates seven locations.

During the pandemic, Barstow played a critical role in lobbying for federal relief funds for theaters forced to close. She was also an active member of the hockey community in Omaha, Nebraska.

The passing of Colleen Barstow marks more than the loss of a veteran entrepreneur; it serves as a high-stakes case study in the resilience and strategic evolution of independent American cinema. Her trajectory followed a quintessential arc of American enterprise—leveraging personal credit lines to bootstrap a small business into a competitive circuit capable of challenging industry conglomerates.

Barstow’s operational philosophy—that "the movie is secondary"—offered a vital blueprint for a sector under siege by digital disruption. In an era defined by the dominance of streaming behemoths, she recognized that independent exhibitors cannot compete on content alone. Instead, she pivoted toward social infrastructure, transforming theaters into community hubs and centers for localized engagement. By prioritizing the physical experience of gathering over the digital delivery of media, she leveraged a competitive advantage that Silicon Valley cannot replicate.

From a policy perspective, Barstow’s influence extended into the halls of government. Her leadership in lobbying for federal pandemic relief highlighted a critical moment of industrial realignment, where traditionally rivalrous independent owners moved to form a unified front to secure essential liquidity. This collective action was instrumental in the survival of the sector during an unprecedented global crisis.

Ultimately, Barstow’s legacy provides a definitive lesson for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the broader economy: in a market increasingly commoditized by technology, deep community integration is not merely a brand preference—it is a core survival strategy.

Mrs. Barstow’s journey of building a family business from the ground up deeply resonates with the Vietnamese-American experience. Her story mirrors the entrepreneurial spirit found in countless nail salons and phở restaurants across the country—enterprises where family-run operations and close-knit community ties are the foundation of success.