Ram Triple Theater
136 E. Rosemary Street,
Chapel Hill,
NC
27514
136 E. Rosemary Street,
Chapel Hill,
NC
27514
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The building where the Ram Theatres is still vacant.
The nightclub closed in 2007 and its been empty ever since. However,a barber shop has opened next door where it took over part of where the club was at the main entrance of the theatre.
What a horrible movie to open a theatre “MASTER GUNFIGHTER” bye bye,Billy Jack. “TAKE A HARD RIDE” on the other hand,is VERY underated Western I urge Western movie fans to see it if one can find it.
Thanks raysson.
Raysson:
Correction Here:
The official opening of the Movies 1-2-3 was on October 3, 1975.
The opening attractions were:
Screen One: “The Master Gunfighter” starring Tom Laughlin
Screen Two: “Give'em Hell Harry” with James Whitmore/Robert Vaughn
Screen Three: “Bugs Bunny:Superstar”, an animated cartoon feature
The Coming Attractions that came to the Movies 1-2-3 were
“Three Days of The Condor”, “Mahogany”, “Cooley High”,
“Take a Hard Ride”,and a adult X-rated feature title “Fossie”
Opened in the fall of 1976 as The Movies 1-2-3,and it was the first three screen cinema located in Downtown Chapel Hill,and the second triplex cinema in Chapel Hill besides the Village Plaza Theatres(which was located on the other section of town at East Franklin at Elliott Road in the Village Plaza Shopping Center).
The theater was located in the NCNB Plaza Center facing Rosemary Street on the lower level of the plaza in Downtown Chapel Hill.
Martin Theatres acquired it in the late-1970’s when it changed its name to the Ram Triple Theatres(named after Ramses,the school mascot for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Carmike Cinemas acquired it in the 1980’s until its closing in October of 2000,when it became a discount movie house. After the Ram closed in 2000,it has been converted into a nightclub,and now it has been vacant since the nightclub closed in early 2007.
The Ram Triple was also a “grindhouse” theatre that basically showed a LOT of first-run features,independent films,and at one time showed adult films(when it was originally The Movies 1-2-3) before Martin Theatres took over operations in the mid-1970’s.
I highly remember the Ram Triple Theatres late shows every Friday and Saturday nights between 11:30pm and Midnight. The late show favorites were “Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein"
along with "Wizards”,“The Last Picture Show”,“Harold and Maude”,and the all-time favorite at the Ram: “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” which played one night to capacity crowds. They even showed as a late night venue one evening the X-rated version of “Fritz The Cat”.
A lot of good movies played here at the Ram Triple Theatres:
The lines snaked all the way down Rosemary Street in 1981 for the opening show of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” which was screened in cinema one to capacity crowds.
Other movies that played here were “First Blood”,
“The Last American Virgin”,“Tim Burton’s Batman”,
“Rambo:First Blood Part II”,“Marathon Man” when it was a first-run theatre.
According to this 11/14/00 article, the Ram Triple Theater closed in October of 2000.
The Ram Triple Theatre in Downtown Chapel Hill off Rosemary Street in the NCNB Plaza Building was part of the Martin Theatres chain and later on Carmike Cimemas. Originally called The Movies of Chapel Hill had three screens and its auditoriums looked like a bowling alley instead of a movie theatre. The theatre opened in 1976,and remained operational until it changed its venue in the mid-1980’s when it went from first-run features to second run features. It stayed that way until October of 2002,when the last picture show that played at the Ram Triple Theatre was basically a Tom Cruise flick “Mission:Impossible 2” where admission was just a buck.
The theatre was converted into a nightclub in 2004 which is still operational to this day off Rosemary Street in the Bank of America Building in Downtown Chapel Hill,formerly the NCNB Bldg.