For many Astoria businesses, the Goonies 25th anniversary celebration was a bigger money-maker than the Memorial Day weekend.

“It was a like a winter month in a week,” said Tim Allwein, owner of Amazing Stories Comics and Games on Commercial St. “It was absolutely outstanding, best way I can say it.”

Approximately 2,500 Goonies fans came through town that weekend and in four days of brisk business, the shop made enough money to pay off all its winter bills.

Saturday was the busiest day. Allwein and his staff worked around the clock with a line out the door and 60 to 70 people in the store at any given time.

“That was great,” Allwein said. “This shop is not a huge money-maker, it’s a ‘get by’ kind of place,”

Allwein had spent several months stocking up on Goonies collectibles and spent an additional $10,000 on inventory. His stock included trading cards, buttons, posters, a Goonies Mad Magazine and iron-on patches.

While the Goonies stock definitely went fast – the shop is almost completely cleaned out in that department – Allwein sold a little bit of everything all weekend long.

“These are Goonies fans,” he said. “They’re into kinky stuff: comics, games…”

“Memorial weekend was really good, but this one was probably two and a half times better,” he added. “I wish we could get them to do it every year.”

The story was the same across town.

On Sunday, at the Astoria Coffeehouse and Bistro, white paper cups snaked around the counter, passing the drip coffeemakers, waiting for the barista to fill them with espresso drinks customers had already ordered. They sold 2,200 espresso drinks on Sunday alone – not counting house coffee orders, said co-owner Jim Defeo.

The Coffeehouse put together a Goonies-themed menu, and sold out of several items. The weekend was considerably busier than the Memorial Day holiday. They almost doubled their sales, Defeo said.

Many large groups came in for meals and drinks, and because so much of their business is “grab and go,”?the coffee shop didn’t have to add too much more staff to accommodate the boost in business.

“We just put aces in their places,” Defeo said.

One surprise was that Goonies fans ended up being a lot older than Defeo expected.

Clemente’s, a locally-owned restaurant located kitty-corner from the Liberty Theater, was packed with Goonies fans all weekend long, said co-owner Lisa Clement. She watched the lines ebb and surge across the street, and stream into her business before and after events.

“It was like a city. It wasn’t typical Astoria, even at the busiest summer days,” she said.

After crunching the numbers, Clement was delighted to find that sales were up 42 percent from Memorial Day weekend and had increased 32 percent from last year. While she knew it wouldn’t be a typical early June weekend, the higher volume of customers was a surprise.

“We had no idea,” she said. “It certainly exceeded our expectations.”

Having such a strong weekend early in the summer season helps all local businesses that typically make much of their profit between July and September, she added.

“It’s an early push and it’s good for repeat business,”?Clement said.

For the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce, which organized the Goonies weekend, the event hasn’t quite ended. The crowds are gone and the temporary Goon Docks store is closed, but the invoices are still coming in and there’s a lot of wrap-up work stretching into the horizon, said Regina Willkie, with the Chamber of Commerce.

Willkie was in charge of much of the organizing for the Chamber. She established a headquarters at the Goon Docks store off Marine Drive. This was where people could buy commemorative Goonies merchandise, wait for tour buses and buy tickets to events.

The Chamber had originally budgeted for $200,000. As of Thursday, Willkie said it looked like the Chamber would break even, after tallying up the sales of merchandise and event and tour tickets, but invoices are still coming in.

“Everything kept building up there near the end,” Willkie said. “There were a few expenses we added and were not expecting until the invoice came in.”

The Sunday concert, for example, had to be moved to the Fairgrounds at the last minute because of weather concerns. That added an additional, and unforeseen, seven miles to the shuttle routes.

The Chamber’s budget went to renting facilities, providing buses for the movie location tours, paying bus drivers, buying merchandise and paying for Goonies cast to come into town. Some of the Goonies actors waived their appearance fee and just asked the Chamber to pay for lodging or travel, Willkie said. Corey Feldman (“Mouth”) asked the Chamber only to pay for his band, Truth Movement, which played at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds Sunday night.

“A lot of the businesses in town helped out too,” Willkie said. Many provided services or goods at discounted prices.

“We were looking for some sponsorship, but with the economy, everyone’s struggling and the point was to bring business to them. So we tried to cover as much as we could on our own,” Willkie said.

To help recoup any other costs, the Chamber plans to sell the remaining Goonies merchandise from the Goon Docks store at the Chamber office throughout the summer. Because the Goon Docks store itself was pretty well cleared out, except for some extra large and double extra large T-shirts and collectible coins, the Chamber plans to order more merchandise.

“It will pay for itself down the line,” Willkie said.

The ultimate goal of the weekend was to help the local economy, funneling people to local businesses, Willkie said. The stories she’s heard from around town have been encouraging.

Meanwhile the non-business side of Astoria seems split on the Goonies issue.

Hundreds of people from across the world and the country flocked to Astoria for a movie, leaving locals both perplexed and gratified.

Some people don’t get the mania. Others see it as a part of their community. Very few seem to rise to the level of die-hard Goonie fans witnessed often at events this past weekend.

“I think, in general, it’s just exciting for us,” said Michelle Buoy, standing behind the counter at Deja Vu, a thrift shop on Duane St.

“Well, there’s not a whole lot else that goes on here,” replied a customer as he leafed through a stack of CDs.