The Athena Cinema is a movie theater in Athens, Ohio that has been showing 35mm film movie presentations since 1915. Originally called Majestic Theatre, the name was eventually changed to Schine's Athena before being called The Athena Cinema.
In 2001, the Athena went up for sale but no one showed interest in operating the nearly century old cinema. The theater was contracted to Ohio University which sought to restore the building. The Athena reopened in February 2002. Ohio University contracted the theater to an independent manager. When the lease was nearing expiration, a committee formed to decide how the theater could have a place within the university’s mission. The committee employed clusters of business students who added ideas of how the Athena should operate.
The students and the committee decided that the Athena should continue as a movie theater and that the College of Fine Arts should run it. “Other recommendations included improving marketing, exploring linkages to the academic enterprise, connecting with more students, co-promoting with uptown businesses, looking at new programming that has community appeal and giving the theater a different niche than other local movie houses.” [1]
On September 19, 2008 the Athena reopened under the management of the College of Fine Arts and began screening art house as well as international films.