New Star Wars Movie Finally Reaches Remote Oregon Town

By Anna King
New Star Wars Movie Finally Reaches Remote Oregon Town
Tiny Pedersen bought the Desert Historic Theatre in downtown Burns, Oregon, about 13 years ago. Since then he's been making improvements: a new digital projector, some newer sets of seats and a new, larger-volume popcorn popper. (Anna King/Northwest News Network)
Tiny Pedersen bought the Desert Historic Theatre in downtown Burns, Oregon, about 13 years ago. Since then he's been making improvements: a new digital projector, some newer sets of seats and a new, larger-volume popcorn popper. (Anna King/Northwest News Network)
1 / 2
New Star Wars Movie Finally Reaches Remote Oregon Town
Tiny Pedersen bought the Desert Historic Theatre in downtown Burns, Oregon, about 13 years ago. Since then he's been making improvements: a new digital projector, some newer sets of seats and a new, larger-volume popcorn popper. (Anna King/Northwest News Network)
Tiny Pedersen bought the Desert Historic Theatre in downtown Burns, Oregon, about 13 years ago. Since then he's been making improvements: a new digital projector, some newer sets of seats and a new, larger-volume popcorn popper. (Anna King/Northwest News Network)
1 / 2

New Star Wars Movie Finally Reaches Remote Oregon Town

By Anna King
WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

In Burns, Oregon, tonight’s planned community meeting with armed militants occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is has been canceled.

That’s good news for some residents who were torn between attending that meeting or going to the local debut of the new Star Wars movie. “The Force Awakens” is already the biggest money-making movie ever in the U.S., but hasn’t gotten to Burns yet.

Burns’ cinema, the Desert Historic Theatre, was built in the 1940s and is the only movie house for more than a hundred miles. Residents have been waiting anxiously for weeks to see the “The Force Awakens.”

From the Here & Now Contributors Network, Anna King of the Northwest News Network has our story.

Note: In an earlier version of this story, the community meeting had not yet been canceled. The audio and story above have been updated to reflect that change.

Reporter

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit NPR.