Cinema Twin Theatres

Mike Rogers on August 15, 2010 at 5:43 pm

Asheboro is a pretty decent size town,don’t see why a mom and pop operation couldn’t have kept it running as a dollar house,most these big outfits however never want to sell to even a small time theatre owner,I have seen Georgia theatres first hand go in a tear everything out,so no one could even try to reopen.CARMIKE from what I see is not much of a theatre chain,certainly not like the pros i worked for ABC,Plitt and GCC.

cphillips on November 2, 2013 at 5:37 pm

I was the first Manager of the Cinema II Theatre in Asheboro, NC and was present during it’s construction and grand opening – I was transferred from the Park Theater in Kinston to open and manager the theater. It originally opened as a single screen in October, 1971 with 500 seats. Our first movie on the screen was John Wayne’s “The Cowboys”, which opened to a sell-out capacity crowd. The theater was originally owned and built by Winyah Bay Theaters of Easley, SC, who had previously bought out the Eastern Federal Theater group.

When the Cinema II opened, it was the “latest and greatest” in movie entertainment – sound system, digital projection equipment, state of the art concession, etc. etc. As part of the construction process, I actually had duct work installed directly over the popcorn machine and piped into the auditorium. We had a “caliope” type popcorn machine that was ooooooo sooooo good…. Just after the feature film would start, I would make sure we popped an entire kettle of fresh corn… you could smell it throughout the auditorium. Also, about half-way into the film, I would do the same thing – we had the largest concession sales of any of Winyah’s theaters, lol. Projection equipment was on a single pan with a xenon bulb…..awesome equipment – didn’t need a projectionist!

At the time of our opening, the Asheboro Zoo was in the process of being built and the local radio station changed it’s call letters to “WZOO”, of course, being a new theater in town, we were the stations' biggest advertiser and well as a huge spender for the local newspaper. As I learned from my experience as assistant manager at the Park Theater in Kinston, we would always have some type of static or dynamic display in the lobby to coincide with the movie we were playing. We also did late shows on Friday nights, as well as kiddie movies on Saturday morning and afternoon.

There were two other competitors at the time, a walk-in called the Sunset Theater, and a drive in called teh North 220. We eventually bought the Sunset as well.

From the time from of opening through late ‘72, Winyah Bay owned both.. In early – mid '73, Martin Theaters bought it out. I left Asheboro in November '73 and it was still a single screen at that time.

Charles Phillips

raysson on June 16, 2014 at 9:46 am

Opened as the Cinema II on June 8,1972 as a 500-seat single screen theatre as Asheboro’s modern entertainment cinema with the grand opening attraction of John Wayne in “The Cowboys”. Owned and operated under Atlanta-based Martin Theatres/Fuqua Entertainment Group.

The coming attractions for the CINEMA II were……

Marlon Brando in THE GODFATHER

Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall in JOE KIDD

Was twinned in 1975 under Martin Theatres/Fuqua Entertainment when the CINEMA II was split into two sections seating 250 seats each. Carmike Cinemas took over this theatre in 1982 from Martin Theatres until its closing in 1995 when Carmike turned the CINEMA II into a second run discount house.

raysson on June 20, 2014 at 12:47 pm

From Mike Rogers' comment: Asheboro is a pretty decent size town and don’t see why a mom and pop operation couldn’t have stayed opened as a second run discount house like the Cinema II. However,the demise of the Cinema II’s closing in 1995 was the opening of a newer and flashier state of the art five screen multiplex at Randolph Mall that opened in the mid-1980’s. Carmike Cinemas put the Cinema II from a first-run theatre into the second run discount house by letting go downhill turning moviegoers from this theatre over to the state of the art Cinemas at Randolph Mall. Carmike Cinemas let this theatre go completely downhill and basically ran Asheboro’s only twin cinema down into the ground. Carmike has had a steady record of destroying good movie theatres and to make a sadder point a lot of good multiplexes too. From what others have experienced,I’m not in the theatre business,but from what I’ve seen from the butchering of cinemas from this theatre chain,they’re certainly not professional. Carmike is the YUGO of theatre chains!!! They’re certainly not like the pros like AMC Theatres, Cinemark,ABC Southeastern Theatres,Plitt,Martin,not to mention General Cinema and Lowes Theatres.