The Vali Twin Cinema is usually closed on Monday nights, but on Dec. 7, it was packed. The concessions flowed, and both theaters were filled with kids and adults, laughing and cheering.

The first Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Tournament brought out about 150 people to the local theater to play the popular video game on the big screen.

The idea came from Brian James, who ran around the theater in a referee shirt all night — along with his daughters, River and Madison — trying to create some order out of the fun chaos.

“The cheering was amazing,” James said. “With every win and loss there were screams, chanting and arms waving, as you’d imagine a Superbowl coming down to the last second with everything on the line, but it was every match.”

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vali Twin Cinema has struggled to keep afloat, like all theaters across the country. Public health orders have limited the number of people who can be indoors, and many people feel safer staying home. On top of that, studios aren’t releasing new movies, which are the big draw for theaters.

“They’ve had such a hard time this year,” James said.

He got to thinking about ways to utilize the Vali Twin Cinema for something other than movies, and it dawned on him that playing video games on the big screen might help bring some people in. The theater’s system can project the display of any device with an HDMI connection, including a game console or desktop computer.

From a couple dozen local businesses, James raised $2,500 in prizes for the winners. The prizes included free pizza, groceries, clothes and tattoos.

Admission to the tournament was $5, all of which went to the theater, as did the concession sales.

“I’m just trying to make my daughters look cool,” James joked about donating his time to promote and run the event. At the end of the night, he was scratching his head over how his two children managed to rack up a $74 concession bill, but it helped out the theater, anyway.

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate is the latest Nintendo Switch version of the Super Smash Bros. franchise, which came out about 20 years ago for the Nintendo 64. The original had just a dozen characters, but with the latest version, the players in the tournament could select from more than 80 characters, each with their own abilities, special moves and characteristics.

In the family-friendly game, players try to knock each other out of an arena. The more damage they take from other players, the easier it is to get knocked out.

“It was awesome,” said 12-year-old Michelle Hodges, who competed in the tournament with her sister, Julie Hodges, a fifth-grader at Westside Elementary.

Michelle said the enormous screen made the gameplay more exciting.

Earlier this year, Vali Twin started a sponsorship program in which businesses sponsor an older movie. Admission is free and the concession stand is open during the flicks, but co-owner Brandon Asay said the program isn’t drawing in the people he had hoped. However, it has brought in enough revenues to save the local theater, and for that, he’s grateful.

“The response and support has been fantastic. We can’t stress that enough,” Asay said.

So, now he’s looking into other ideas, such as hosting church services, seminars, or other events that could use a giant presentation screen.

“If you can put it on your TV at home, I can put it on my screen,” Asay said.

With the success of the first game tournament, James said he plans to do more of them, which will provide regular support to the theater.

The event ran late for a school night, and James said he’s going to do future tournaments a bit more efficiently. He’s looking at holding the event on a Saturday morning and then finishing the tournament on Sunday, if it runs too late. He’s also going to conduct the tournament so that there’s less need for players to move between theaters, as more kids wandering between screens means a lot of cat herding before each match.

James also plans on featuring other games, such as Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken and Killer Instinct.

“Basically old school games that we’ve all been playing since we were kids,” he said.

In the Dec. 7 tournament, the adult winners were, in order, Malik Vernon, Greg Jakubowski, Sean Spiering, Brian Amaahl and Kurt Bullinger. In the kids’ class, the winners were Dante Lauk, Taber Wilson, Isaac Stensing, Levi Hawley and Braxton Bott.