Center Theatre 4
2000 Chapel Hill Road,
Durham,
NC
27707
2000 Chapel Hill Road,
Durham,
NC
27707
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The Center Theatre opened in 1966 next to the Lakewood Shopping Center, originally as a twin theater. I used to rememeber going down there a lot as a kid when they held their summer movie program. I even remember how huges and spacious those auditoriums were!
In 1983, one auditorium was split in two, making it a triple screen cinema. In 1986, the other auditorium was spilt in two, making it a 4-screen complex. This made the auditoriums seem quite long and narrow, thanks to the split-down-the-middle technique that they used. Still, it proved to remain quite a draw into the early 1990s, when a showing of “Boyz N The Hood” brought in record crowds. I used to work in a restaurant nearby and worked late hours for a couple of weeks to handle the movie-going crowd at the time.
By the following year, the Center fell out of favor and began showing second-run films in an attempt to stay afloat. Also, the surrounding neighborhood had been perceived to be a high crime area, which didn’t help draw in moviegoers needed to stay open. The Center Theatre 4 was closed by Carmike in 2001, and was later converted into a surplus store run by Duke University.
Contributed by
Jimmy Storey, Raymond
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Recent comments (view all 29 comments)
Wouldn’t you like to see"PATTON" on that large screen today. I hate these 20 plexs!
PATTON when it played at the CENTER II was presented as a roadshow enagement as was presented in 70MM-Six Track Stereophonic Sound during its release. However,it was re-released too. The CENTER also re-released other roadshow enagements like “My Fair Lady”,and “2001: A Space Odyssey”(presented in 70MM as a Durham-Chapel Hill Area Exclusive),“The Sound of Music”,“Doctor Zhivago”,and “Hello Dolly”.
It also presented other films that the CENTER show when it played as roadshow enagements as well. The World War II film “TORA! TORA! TORA!” was given the full roadshow treatment where it played for three weeks,both as an original and as a re-released. In the 1971 advertisement of the Durham Morning Herald,it was presented as a North Carolina exclusive in 70MM and Full 6-Track Stereophonic Sound with the advertisement stating..“70-MM Makes You Believe You Are There!” The roadshow treatment was given with reserved seating and three shows daily with special admission prices.
Also to point out as well….When DIRTY HARRY played at the CENTER II
during its original release on December 24, 1971, it was given also the roadshow enagement treatment and also as a exclusive enagement.
The second Center Theater (cleverly called the Center II) opened in the autumn of 1971.
thanks raysson.
Potpie:
CENTER II’s featured attraction in October of 1971 was a James Garner flick called “Skin Game”. While CENTER I re-released “My Fair Lady”,and it was given the exclusive enagement run presented in 70MM. While “Skin Game” didn’t do well in the second auditorium,the next attraction “Billy Jack” for the CENTER II was a megahit when it played to record crowds in late-October of 1971.
While “My Fair Lady” played in 1971 as a re-released,the CENTER also re-released other classic films as exclusive enagements presented in 70MM. Among them “Lawrence of Arabia”,“Gone With The Wind”,“Ben-Hur”,
“Ryan’s Daughter”,and “Giant” to name a few.
Steven Spielburg’s THE COLOR PURPLE also played here.
But it was NOT one of the three theatres in North Carolina that showed it as an exclusive engagement showings. It did played here until January 17,1986.
The exclusive engagement showing of THE COLOR PURPLE
were in Raleigh,Charlotte and Greensboro only.
Somehow we never played “LAWRENCE OF ARBIA” or “BEN_HUR” during my time in the business in the 70’s.We did get “RYAN’S DAUGHTER” “GWTW” “DR.ZHIVAGO” and my favorite of all time,“2001”.They all ran over three hours are darn close to it.We got the same four dang classics every year from MGM.
FYI: There will a photo of this theatre posted soon. The theatre is still standing,and it looks great in its condition.
The theatre opened as a 800 seat single screen theatre on November 24, 1966(aka The Lakewood Center Theatre)
Expanded a second building in 1971 when it was a twin cinema(aka,The Center I and Center II) the second auditorium opened on October 24, 1971
Became a three screen cinema in 1983,when the original 800 seat auditorium was split down the middle,making two shoebox screens,keeping the second auditorium in tact until 1986.
The second auditorium(that was opened in 1971) was also split down the middle in 1986,making two shoebox auditoriums until its closing in 2001,after more than 35 years serving Durham and Chapel Hill.
A lot of great movies played here at the CENTER…. Not only did the “The Sound of Music” played here during its exclusive engagement,but films like “PATTON”,“THE FRENCH CONNECTION”,“DIRTY HARRY”,“THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK”,“THE RETURN OF THE JEDI”,“GANDHI”,“REDS”,and the re-releases of “BEN-HUR”,“MY FAIR LADY”,“LAWRENCE OF ARABIA”,and “DOCTOR ZHIVAGO” brought in record crowds.I got to see “THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE”,and “THE TOWERING INFERNO” where it played at the CENTER. A lot of blaxploitation flicks played here as well…from “COFFY”,to “SLAUGHTER”,and even “SUPER FLY” and to the others like “NEW JACK CITY”,and “BOYZ IN THE HOOD” brought in massive crowds. Its best films played during the 1970’s in its largest auditorium until the 1983,when the theatre was split down the middle giving it a really bad impression to a once great cinema showplace.