COOK — The first film shown at the newly reopened Comet Theater in Cook this past week was “F1,” a high-octane tribute to speed and precision. But getting to that moment? That was a long, slow crawl through floodwater, frustration, and the slow task of rebuilding.
After more than a year of repairs following the devastating June 2024 flood, the theater in the historic movie house reopened with limited seating and a renewed sense of purpose. While work continues on the walls and side sections, several rows of newly installed center seats now face the big screen. Seats with cup holders, no less, are just one of the new amenities patrons will find when they come to take in a show.
“So yes, it’s limited, but hopefully it brings people,” said co-owner Stephanie Horner. She and her husband, Ryan, have spent the past year juggling flood recovery, running the theater’s boutique and coffee shop, while continuing to manage the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary in Orr.
The Comet, which debuted its first movie in 1939, took on water all the way up to the stage during the flood, transforming the theater into something more akin to a swimming pool than a movie house. Horner remembers stepping inside for the first time to survey the deluge.
“I was pretty sure that reopening was going to be a long time coming, that we were going to have lots of damage, and that we would be closed indefinitely,” she said.
Then came a deeper fear.
“It felt like, oh, we’re in trouble. We might not open our doors again,” she said.
That possibility stung, not just as a business owner, but as caretaker of something much older than her own time in Cook. She and Ryan bought the Comet in 2023, knowing full well what it meant to the community. And in the months after the flood, people kept reminding her why.
“Gosh, we’ve heard so many stories over this last year. I had my first kiss here, I met my husband here, we had our first date,” she said. “So, to bring that back, there’s just not words for that.”
In those early days after the flood, others had hoped for a faster recovery.
“They were like, oh no, it’ll be fine. We’ll get you all pumped out and you’ll be open by the Fourth of July,” Horner said, referring to previous owners John Metsa and Carol Carlson. “But that water sat for, I think, three days and just did a lot of damage just sitting there.”
One of the biggest losses was the theater’s seating. None of it was salvageable. Fortunately, the Comet’s longtime film booking agent had a connection. A theater in Wadena was putting in new reclining chairs and would let the Horners have the old ones for free.
“They’re really nice, and ours needed to be replaced anyway,” Horner said. “It was just a huge blessing.”
With those seats came momentum, and a whole lot of community support.
“There’s still no words for what the community did for us. I still get choked up about it, the generosity, the love that people have for this theater and keeping it open,” Horner said.
The new seats are larger than the old ones, which means slightly fewer people can fit in the space. But the trade-off is worth the quality of the upgrade, and the new cup holders, Horner said.
In another upgrade to the operation, a wall came down between the boutique and theater, and the coffee shop counter was reconfigured to consolidate ticket sales and concessions in one place, adding to the ease of making payments, now including Apple Pay.
And fortunately, there was no way the water could get high enough to affect the projector system upstairs, a digital system installed in 2012 with the help of more than $80,000 in donations from the community, yet another reminder that the Comet has always been more than just a place to see a movie.
“We’re just in a town where there isn’t that much to do,” Horner said. “Giving people a place to go on their first dates and to bring their grandkids, to bring that back, there’s just not words for that.”
Unlike decades ago, when small-town theaters got movies months after their release, the Comet now screens first-run films thanks to careful planning and a willingness to pay upfront.
“We choose to spend a little bit more to bring those movies,” she said.
This past week’s reopening was intentionally quiet, more of a soft launch.
“We just didn’t have the time to put it like in the paper here, and I think a lot of the people in town aren’t super savvy on Facebook and Instagram,” she said.
But Horner is looking forward to larger crowds in the weeks ahead, as they bring in the live-action version of “How to Train Your Dragon” and the blockbuster hit “Superman,” and she’s optimistic that the theater will be fully restored in time for the holiday season.
“I think the goal is (to be finished) for those Thanksgiving and Christmas movies – I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to,” she said.
But today, the Comet is back. Maybe not fully, but fully enough. Dim the lights and cue the projector – it’s movie time in Cook once again.