Colonel Glenn 18

This is part of a July 2002 article in the Arkansas Business Journal:

No movie theaters in central Arkansas played the type of movies Matt Smith prefers.

So in March, Smith, 32, opened Market Street Cinema in Little Rock to showcase the thought-provoking independent and foreign films that rarely show up at the multiplex.

Smith's move was the first indication that the movie theater business is making a comeback in Arkansas after a wave of bankruptcies by national chains a couple of years ago.

Smith is being followed by Rave Motion Pictures of Dallas, which plans to open in December an 18-screen theater on 15 acres on the south side of Col. Glenn Road, just west of Interstate 430.

Rave officials won't say what the cost of the project will be, but the company spent $3.7 million to buy the land, and the building permit filed with the City of Little Rock shows the building will be 95,000 SF and cost about $8.2 million.

Fueling the resurgence of movie screens were record box office receipts in 2001, when ticket sales in the United States reached $8.4 billion. With hits such as "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones" and "Spiderman" in theaters now, the record could be broken again this year.

Don Burchett, president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association of Theater Owners, said he didn't know of any theaters other than Rave's under construction in the state.