The 4.12 announcement that the beloved Arclight theatre chain would close with no apparent scheme for re-opening shocked every local movie fanatic to the core. Culturally and emotionally it was one of the most traumatic events this city and certainly this industry had suffered in many years, and one that arguably rivalled the impact of the tragic Notre Dame fire in Paris on 4.15.19.

But remember what happened right after that tragedy on the Ile de la Cite? Super-rich people pledged funds to rebuild almost immediately. It was obvious within hours that things would be okay. Not so much with the Arclight. Discussions may be underway as we speak between Arclight honchos and, say, the Cinemark or Harkins chains to possibly relaunch. Or reps from Netflix, Amazon or Apple may be poking around and kicking the tires…who knows?

But the expressions of shock and devastation were so great earlier this week that I thought we might’ve heard about a possible solution by now.