It’s BYOP — bring your own popcorn — but you can still watch current movies and support a couple of Bay Area theaters even though they remain closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

In an interesting twist to the film distribution model, the Roxie Theater in San Francisco and the California Film Institute’s Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael have joined separate national efforts by distribution companies such as Film Movement, Kino Lorber, Oscilloscope Films, Zeitgeist Films and others to stream current movies in a way that provides revenue to struggling local theaters.

The idea is to buy a $12 e-ticket to a film — say, the excellent, Oscar-nominated Polish film “Corpus Christi,” which was still in theaters when they were required to shut down to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus — through your preferred theater’s website (www.roxie.com or www.cafilm.org). You would then have about three to five days, depending on the film and distributor, to stream the movie. The revenue will be evenly divided between the distributors and the local theater.

“This isn’t just changing day to day, it’s changing hour to hour. The independent cinema is literally reinventing itself to do what we can at this point,” said Dan Zastrow, Smith Rafael Film Center general manager and programmer. “That necessity is the mother of invention has never been more true than today.”

Zastrow noted that the distributors could have just streamed the films without including local theaters. But that’s not how they roll.

“The independent cinema world and the small distributors are in it for the love of cinema. It’s not about making a whole lot of money,” Zastrow said. “That they came to the market so quickly to support their exhibitor partners is a huge demonstration of the love we all have for each other.”

While six bucks a pop isn’t going to save local theaters or bring back laid-off workers, it is one of the ways the theaters are trying to stay afloat until they are able to reopen. Both the Roxie and Smith Rafael Film Center, as well as many other Bay Area theaters and arts organizations, continue to sell memberships and/or gift cards online, and as nonprofits, are accepting outright donations.

“We hope we keep curating impactful programs, and keep our audience engaged in this time of social distancing,” said Roxie director of programming Isabel Fondevila. “Our goal is to do whatever it takes until we reopen.”

Fondevila said the Roxie is losing thousands of dollars during the shutdown. A GoFundMe campaign created last week has raised just over $15,000 for Roxie employees by Thursday, March 26, but the office staff of four people and the theater’s 25 or so employees are now using accrued paid sick and personal time. When that accrued time is exhausted, those employees will be laid off. Insurance and utilities are also big expenses.

Zastrow said the Smith Rafael is paying its 20 or so employees through the current pay period and then “we’ll see how things change.” The theater has already had to postpone a California Film Institute festival, DocLands, which was to begin April 30 (the organization’s biggest festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival, is in the fall).

Fondevila and Zastrow each said that while they love the idea of virtual cinema, it won’t ultimately save the theaters or substitute for the real thing.

“It’s primarily a way to stay in the lives of our guests,” Zastrow said. “Theaters like the Roxie and ourselves are like a second home to so many people. … We don’t want to lose our cinema family.”

In addition to “Corpus Christi,” available titles of new films include the strange Brazilian-British co-production “Bacurau,” starring Sônia Braga and Udo Kier; the Chinese noir “The Wild Goose Lake”; and two restored films from 1976 — Luchino Visconti’s final film, “L’Innocente” and Braga’s breakthrough film “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.” The American independent “Saint Frances” starts Friday, March 27.

The distributors plan to release current titles every Friday, as they did when theaters were open, and virtual Q&A’s with filmmakers are planned, but Zastrow and Fondevila each said they hope it’s not too long until the theaters can reopen for real.

“We’re looking forward to turning on that marquee again,” Fondevila said, “and having a big party.”

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