Caine's Arcade (2012)

A cardboard arcade made by a 9-year old boy.

Caine Monroy is a 9-year old boy who spent his summer vacation building an elaborate DIY cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto parts store.

Date of release
2012-04-09
TMDB
4.8 / 10 (3)
Runtime
11m
Genres
Documentary, Family
Director
Nirvan Mullick

Casting

Interesting facts

Caine's Arcade is a 2012 documentary short film directed by Nirvan Mullick. The film depicts a cardboard arcade created by 9-year-old Caine Monroy, who operated it from his father's auto parts store in East Los Angeles in 2011. Mullick, who became the arcade's first customer, documented the project in this 11-minute film.

Background

Before 2011, Caine spent weekends at his father George's auto parts store, both to pass the time and to earn some money. Caine tried various business ideas, including selling yard signs for sports teams and snacks from vending machines. However, as the store was located in an industrial area of East Los Angeles with low foot traffic and mainly served as a warehouse for online sales, these efforts were largely unsuccessful.

In the summer of 2011, Caine discovered several discarded cardboard boxes at the store and asked his father's permission to set up an arcade in the front. George agreed, and Caine built the games and created a ticket and prize redemption system. He initially used his old toys, such as Hot Wheels cars, as prizes, before switching to items purchased at dollar stores.

Filmmaker Nirvan Mullick first noticed Caine's project when getting a new door handle for his 1996 Toyota Corolla. Intrigued by the arcade, Mullick spoke with Caine and was impressed by the business elements, such as the $2 "Fun Pass" that offered 500 plays. Mullick bought a Fun Pass himself and played the games.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended