Blue Ridge Twin Cinema

Sadly, it seems that this theater is permanently closed. It has shown ‘Closed for Winter’ since around September 2013. Additionally, from what I can see from the doors, most of the seats have been removed, the screens are missing, and the front lobby area is being used for storage for either a company or person. The rumors around town is that the building will be converted into a liquor store or some other business.

Whatever the plan for this old theater building is, it will be starting from an almost clean sheet of paper. At some point after it closed, the screens and speakers were removed and large roll up doors were installed in the back wall in each side. The seats were removed and the floor slope leveled with concrete. This turned the two auditoriums into massive high ceiling warehouses. The concession stand was stripped out and the lobby also used for storage as shown in a picture I posted in the photo section in 2021. In the summer of 2022 the place was cleared out, the lobby gutted and the wall dividing the theaters removed. The lobby walls and restrooms remained and the projection booth was still intact complete with its Century projectors, pathetic Potts platters, Christie lamphouses, sound racks, and lenses as can been in another picture, this one of the booth that I posted in the photos.

After a short pause demolition resumed and all of the interior has been completely gutted to the point that it would be one big empty shell except that even the exterior walls have been removed. Now there is nothing left but a roof, a floor, and an open steel skeleton. By the time whatever it is that is going in this place is finished there will be nothing left to suggest either of its past uses. I have posted a final picture of the surviving building frame.

As for the history of the theater itself goes, as I write this, the overview as it is currently written is incorrect regarding digital capability and current use. It may indeed be rebuilt as a craft brewery as there are several of those in this increasingly tourist oriented town but that remains to be seen. There was a demo permit posted earlier but as yet no building permit indicating what it will eventually be. Also, it is obvious that this theater never had digital projection installed and I could see no evidence in the remaining booth equipment (when it was still there) that it ever had any type of stereo sound. Nor was there any evidence of speakers being mounted on the walls, when there were still walls there to inspect. Being built in the pre Dolby days it would have certainly been mono then but I could find no sign that it had ever been upgraded to optical stereo. Given the closing date in 2013, it is entirely possible that it was the end of film stock print availability that caused this location to cease operation as it was obviously not worth the cost to upgrade to digital.

What little demand for the movie going experience there is here is more than satisfied by the Swan Drive In across town now approaching its 60th year in operation. In 2012, the Ellijay twin, 20 miles to the south, did upgrade to digital projection and served the indoor needs of this area until 2018 when it was put out of business by the new GTC Mountain Cinemas.