HIGGINSVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A western Missouri movie theater in danger of closing because it can't afford to switch from film to digital equipment got a boost from a community that sees value in a venue that has been one of the main local entertainment options for decades.

The Davis Theatre in Higginsville, about 50 miles east of Kansas City, was a livery building before it was transformed into a grand movie theater. Fran and George Schwarzer bought the theater in 1998 when it was in danger of closing after serving as a concert venue since the 1980s.

"We didn't know anything about owning a theater, except for my selling tickets when I was 15," Fran Schwarzer said. "I can remember sitting across from the banker and he said, 'What if this doesn't work?' It was like somebody threw cold water in my face. I never considered that it wouldn't work.

"We understood from the beginning that this was a service. You figure if you didn't do another thing in your life, at least you did this; you made a difference in the community."

But with movie studios phasing out 35 mm film, theaters are having to switch to digital equipment, at a cost of $70,000 or more per screen, to keep going. The Schwarzers say they don't have the estimated $300,000 needed to upgrade the equipment in the theater's main auditorium and three smaller rooms.

The couple began spreading the word last year that the Davis would have to close, but residents at a town meeting last summer couldn't bear the thought of it.

"No, no, no," Michelle Wahlers-Anderson remembered saying. "That's not acceptable."

Community members launched a campaign to raise money for the switch and eventually operate the facility as a nonprofit community theater for movies and performing arts.

Then residents learned of a Reader's Digest contest dubbed "We Hear You America" that comes with a grand prize of $50,000. Backers of town projects across the U.S. submitted entries, and online voting will determine the winners. Higginsville residents have responded vigorously, vaulting the Davis into second place.

Wahlers-Anderson told the Kansas Star (http://bit.ly/z9J7WV) that she grew up in town and saw her first movie, "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," at the Davis. Her parents and aunts and uncles all went.

"It was a big deal," she said. "As a teenager, the Davis was my Friday and Saturday nights. It's a part of me. I have children now, and my oldest is 14. I feel comfortable with her going there with her friends. I don't have to worry."

Brad Bills, of Independent Film Services in Leawood, Kan., said small-town theaters across the country have found ways to make the digital conversion or are in the midst of trying. Those in greatest danger of closing are theaters with a small number of screens in larger markets, he said.

"It's an interesting phenomenon," Bills said. "People in small towns do not want to see their movie theater close."

Fran Schwarzer said going nonprofit probably would have been a good plan from the start, since the couple never intended to make a big profit and mostly just break even. Tickets at the theater cost $7, and concessions are reasonably priced.

Friends of the Davis Theatre 4 has raised about $15,000 since June through donation drives, benefit concerts, a Halloween carnival and bake sales. While the total is impressive for a town with a population of about 4,700, it's far short of what is needed.

"We're thinking we can do this in stages," president Colleen King said.

She said the first goal is to raise $90,000 to digitize the main auditorium, dubbed the Grand Lady, and make it ready for other performing arts events.

The digital switch has been on the horizon for several years, with about half of the 39,000 movie screens across North America already converted. Experts say most theater closings that result from the change — or inability to do so — will take place in the next two years as the industry ends the use of 35 mm film.