Former foreign service officer has second act rehabbing movie theaters

Jordan Stancil has always been in the movie theater business.

“My great grandfather founded The Rialto Theater in Grayling, Michigan, in 1915,“ said Stancil. “So, I grew up working in that theater.”

As an adult, Stancil worked as a foreign service officer in the State Department. After his service and several years as a professor, he came back to revitalize The Rialto.

After successfully reopening the family business, he bought another independent theater. Then another.

His latest project is The 400 Theater in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. Once the city’s oldest continuously running movie venue, the theater shuttered its doors back in 2023. Last year, Stancil bought the business and is hoping to reopen in the coming weeks.

To hear the rest of Stancil’s story, click the audio player above.

Correction (June 8, 2026): A previous version of this story misstated how long Stancil was in the foreign service.