Forbidden love often yields tragedy, but not only is the romance between small-town girl Bella and 104-year-old vampire Edward in “Twilight” an exception to the rule, but it may also inspire a real-life happy ending where a local theater is granted another lifeline.

Laemmle Claremont 5 is nestled among Claremont Village’s restaurants, boutiques, art galleries and other community cornerstones. Its lobby is decorated with shelves displaying the work of local artists, giving the theater an edge that fits with Claremont’s creative identity. Yet despite its beloved history in the community since opening in 2007, the 18,743-square-foot, single-story theater has been on its last leg in recent years.

Declining foot traffic has been steady, leaving managers and staff to brainstorm creative ways to boost attendance. A kiss from a vampire might lead to death or eternal life, and Laemmle was poised to gamble.

Enter its latest idea: A “Twilight” screening alongside a character lookalike contest slated for Thursday. The event, mostly advertised on TikTok and by amateurish flyers taped haphazardly to power poles and windows around Claremont Village, quickly sold out its 7 p.m. showing. TikTok comments flooded the theater’s channel with Twi-hards pleading for an additional showing, and they got their wish in a second screening at 10 p.m. Tickets may be sold out by now.

“If you’re Edward, you’re gonna have to have the hair gel ready to nail that 2008 Robert Pattinson hair — it’s just perfect — which is a tough hill to climb,” said Laemmle Claremont 5 manager Chris Valverde in a phone interview. “If you can nail the hair, you’ve got a great chance to win, and if you’re coming for Charlie Swan (the dad), that’s just going to be whoever has the best mustache. The Bella impression might need that kind of stuttering, stumbling, weird, awkward but also cool persona to win.”

Valverde added that there will be “Twilight”-themed snacks, including three themed Icees: “Vampire’s Blood,” “Edward Cullen’s Dazzling Blue Eyes” and “Bella Where The Hell Have You Been Loca Cola?” The theater will also sell other tasty bites and blood-red wine for fans to enjoy while they watch Edward and Jacob battle it out for Bella’s love. The lookalike contest will then judge those best dressed like the film’s fanged (and unfanged) characters for a chance to earn prizes.

The Claremont 5 is one of eight locations in the Los Angeles-based art house chain Laemmle Theatres. Additional movie houses operated and owned by Greg Laemmle, son of the late Robert Laemmle, include the Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles, Glendale 5 in Glendale, Monica Film Center in Santa Monica and NoHo 7 in North Hollywood.

Claremont 5 has faced issues not exclusive to other industries and theaters, mainly led by the market disruption of the coronavirus pandemic. However, being a smaller-scale operation, it has struggled twofold. In 2023, Greg Laemmle told Inland Valley Daily Bulletin columnist David Allen that as far as the numbers were concerned, “We’re about half of where we need to be as far as revenue.” The theater has been auctioned twice in five years but has failed to find a buyer, including in December. According to a report in the Claremont-Courier, it failed to reach the reserve price, which was somewhere below its previous asking price of $4.25 million. A sigh of relief for the community, but the theater remains in limbo.

Carlos Casillas, who’s been a manager at the theater since it opened, said community protests ensued in 2021 when plans were floated to sell the theater and turn it into a structure equipped with an organic market, two restaurants on the second floor and a rooftop bar.

“The city would not let the theater be turned into anything else, so it pretty much demolished the plans of the buyers,” Casillas said in a phone interview. “They said it had to remain a theater because the community wanted that. Every time something like that happens, the community ensures that the theater doesn’t disappear.”

Among those with an affinity for the Claremont theater was Valverde, who had experience with Regal and AMC chains but jumped at the chance to be a Laemmle employee.

“The Laemmle has always had just a different aura to it than other theaters,” he said. “It has this cool art house vibe and wasn’t like the chains.”

Valverde developed the idea for the “Twilight” contest. He was initially thinking of hosting a lookalike contest for Timothée Chalamet for the release of “A Complete Unknown,” but the film was released when local college students, a substantial part of the theater’s clientele, would be absent on winter break.

“So I put that idea in my back pocket, and then about a month ago, we started to think about doing special screenings, and I thought ‘Twilight’ would be this perfect opportunity to bring that idea back,” he said. “Everyone has been in a dorm room or your friend’s house, and you’ve put it on and laughed or said your favorite lines. That’s the feeling we want to re-create with this showing.”

Valverde said most of the theater’s clientele is older adults who come in and watch films throughout the day and are regulars. They and the theater staff tend to be on a first-name basis, with some regulars even bringing staff Christmas presents. Laemmle is missing a returning younger customer base, which the staff is working on establishing long-term.

The building blocks of appealing to younger audiences involve meeting them where they are, which is online for Gen Z and younger. The theater’s team advertised the “Twilight” screening and lookalike contest on TikTok, where they knew they could reach an audience who wasn’t as moved by traditional ads.

“They need a reason to put down TikTok and come out, so we have to have fun ways to engage with them,” he said.

That means enticing a more online group away from rival pastimes such as streaming services. Casillas sees streaming as one of the leading factors in the ongoing struggle with attendance.

“All those big streaming companies like Netflix and Hulu buy the movies as soon as they come out,” he said. “It used to be a big movie studio that would buy it and put it into the market for months before it made it out to streaming and DVD or Blu-Ray. It’s hard for us to compete with something as big as Netflix, especially when we’re an independent movie theater, not as mainstream as AMC or Regal.”

A May report by market research company Advan showed that theater attendance is still below prepandemic levels but is slowly increasing, thanks in part to Gen Z audiences. According to the December report of the National Association of Theatre Owners, “The Strength of Theatrical Moviegoing,” people age 10-24 listed seeing a movie on opening weekend as their No. 1 preferred activity, regardless of time and money.

Alicia Kozma, director of Indiana University Cinema, attributes part of Gen Z’s increased enthusiasm as a lingering reaction to the social distancing requirements that upended their social lives.

“People go to the movies not just for the content but for the experience with other people,” Kozma said in a phone interview. “They are tired of watching things alone in their home and want to be out together. They don’t want to feel constrained by the algorithm because, oftentimes, that means they’re missing many things.”

Going to the movies together can feel like a respite from what has been seen as a loneliness epidemic, at a time when people ages 15-24 spend 70% less time in person with friends than those of the same age did in 2003. Enhancing a “Twilight” night out with a contest is a way to boost that in-person engagement and get new people into the theater.

“Eventizing is really great for generating new audiences, but once they get in the door, that’s when you really want to use your programming to turn them into repeat customers, community members and supporters,” she said.

Kozma added that versatility is key for an art house to stay competitive, especially when it comes to funneling people away from more dominant chains at a time when all theaters don’t make much profit on ticket sales alone.

“A good theater and a good programming team understand that at any given time, your theater is four things to four different people, and really clear and consistent programming can take advantage of that so you can have the type of sustained audience community that you need to keep your doors open,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that you disregard or forget the audiences that have been there in the past, but it should have multiple audiences who all have their different needs met.”

Casillas said the theater is focusing on working with Claremont Colleges and their professors to set up some long-term programs where students and faculty can utilize the theater by hosting events.

The Laemmles also started World Wide Wednesdays, where they show foreign films. “Ma Mère,” “Blond Boy for the Casbah,” “Amal” and “The Importance of Being Earnest” will be shown in the middle of the week and early Saturdays and Sundays in February. This kind of programming also speaks to Claremont’s roots, where cinephiles in the “city of trees and Ph.Ds” are able to catch flicks out of indie and foreign studios.

“I love this place,” Casillas said. “I’ve always appreciated that they were a family-owned business that tried to show these types of movies to the community, where otherwise there wouldn’t be a place to watch them. The fact that they’ve done it for so long and they’re still family-owned is something to be prideful about.”