Marketplace 6 Cinemas
2095 Peters Creek Parkway,
Winston-Salem,
NC
27127
2095 Peters Creek Parkway,
Winston-Salem,
NC
27127
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Opened in 1985. First film I saw there was “Fletch”. I became a projectionist back in 1986 through 1989. Manager from 1990 until 1996. Lots of great memories! Theater sound bled into other theaters causing numerous complaints. A riot was nearly started when we had “Higher Learning”!
Not the most pleasing theater to the eye when Carmike (the Yugo of theater chains) got a hold of it from Plitt in 1990, but one heck of a money making machine as I recall!
Was closed back in 1999 I believe but has since been reopened as a $2.00 re-run house.
Contributed by
Michael Hicks
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2095 Peters Creek Pky
Winston-Salem, NC 27127
This is an 8/21/2000 article that mentions this theater closing when Carmike operated it.
“Winston Salem, N.C., Movie Theater Complex Closes.
Source: High Point Enterprise
Byline: Richard Craver
Aug. 21—A glut in theater construction, along with a less-than-blockbuster summer movie season, contributed to the closing of a Triad complex this week.
Carmike Cinemas allowed the lease to lapse on its Marketplace 6 facility in WinstonSalem as part of an initial downsizing related to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The theater’s final day of operation was Friday.
Carmike spokeswoman Suzanne Brown said Thursday the company also had closed two cinemas in Raleigh and one each in Charlotte and Matthews.
She said it was “business as usual” at the other Triad Carmike theaters, which included the Carmike 8 at 2705 N. Main St. in High Point.
“The theaters we closed were not meeting financial expectations, and it was in the best interest of the company to close those theaters at this time,” Brown said.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Regal Cinemas, the country’s largest chain, said Thursday his company had no plans to close theaters at this time even though it is actively evaluating its facilities.
“We’re getting pretty oversaturated with theaters, including the stadium seating ones, in the marketplace,” said Dick Westerling, senior vice president of marketing for Regal Cinemas.
“The entire industry is suffering through lower revenues and having to think about cutting back.”
According to a published report, the number of screens in the U.S. has increased about 22 percent to 37,000 since 1997; attendance has grown only about 3 percent.
Regal reported last week it is $1.8 billion in debt, due in part to having too many theaters open. It has plans to sell 25 percent of its operations.
It has eight theaters in North Carolina, including Oak Hollow Mall 7 at the mall and Greensboro Cinema 7 at 4631 High Point Road.
The oversaturation of theaters nationwide was exposed in part this summer when Hollywood failed to deliver a series of blockbusters to keep moviegoers' attention all summer long.
“There were some good movies, but no
Star Wars,' noBlair Witch Project,‘ and no `The Sixth Sense’ that kept people coming back for a second or third viewing,” Westerling said.“There’s still as many movie-going customers as ever out there. But now that audience is spread out among more theaters so that each theater is getting fewer patrons overall.
“Going to movies is cyclical in nature,” he added. “If we get similar blockbusters next summer, business will pick back up again.”
Brown said Marketplace’s 10 employees may be transferred to other Triad theaters owned by Carmike.
Carmike filed last week for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors, which include Wachovia. Carmike said at the time all 436 movie theaters would stay open during the company’s restructuring".
I worked at the Marketplace in the summer of 1985. I was one of the first employees. At the time, this was the best theater in Winston-Salem. Mike, you forgot to mention that the Canadian firm Cineplex Odeon purchased the theater during it’s expansion in the late ‘80s, while Garth Drabinsky was CEO (in the late 90s he got into legal trouble for all sorts of accounting fraud). He had this vision of enhancing the movie theater experience with cafes, as opposed to simple concession stands. We used real butter on the popcorn. The Marketplace was not one of the palaces he was building in larger cities, but it was the most upscale theater in W-S at the time.
Garth proved to be ahead of his time. I live in LA now and theaters like the Arclight and The Bridge Cinema De-luxe are the sort of high end theaters Garth was creating. Unfortunately, America was not ready for it and Cineplex Odeon ultimately went bust in the states.
The Marketplace still holds alot of great memories for me. It was the best high school job I could have had. I worked in the projection room, where I was able to do my homework as the movies played. So, I was paid to do my homework. Also, I still have a nice collection of one-sheets from all sorts of bad 80s flicks.
Now a discount house and still open, here is the Web Page.
http://www.cdcmovies.com/index.html
The theatre is alive and well now as a discount cinema, with people lined up sometimes to the side of the building on Friday and Saturday nights. I remember in the late 90’s when it got REALLY bad. I went to see the movie ‘Idle Hands’ and 20 minutes after the start time I had to ask the concessions clerk if she could please get someone to start the movie. The projection guys were playing video games in the lobby. They also made a lot of really strange choices in what films they would play, possibly the result of what films they could actually GET since business was so bad. I remember the ‘99 box office dud 'Black and White’ with Brooke Shields was playing on 2 screens! Something you would usually only see out of a summer blockbuster.
Carmike the Yugos of movie theatres great quote Mike Hicks.
Right on.