Carmike Cinemas took over this theatre in 1990 when they bought most of Cineplex Odeon’s North Carolina theatres. They were the last chain to operate this theatre.
After this theatre closed it became a gentlemen’s club known as Silver Bullet, later Silver Bullet Dolls. About three years ago it became a music venue (I forgot the name of this incarnation) after Pitt County essentially banned strip clubs.
The map shows the wrong address for the 264 Playhouse theatre. This theatre was actually on the west side of Greenville, on OLD Highway 264 West (now US 13 South) between Greenville and Farmville, about 2 miles west of Frog Level. This was the only theatre in Pitt County to show X-rated films. It closed in 1986 when the Reagan Administration began cracking down on pornography. I turned 18 right after this theatre closed, thus denying me the chance to see adult films in a theatre.
This theatre was built in the early 1970’s as the Southgate Cinema 1 & 2, possibly Eastern North Carolina’s first twin indoor cinema. The owner was Gordon Parrott of the Gordon’s Foodland supermarket chain. One of the Foodlands was next door to the Southgate Cinema (last time I was in New Bern it was a Piggly Wiggly), and Mr. Parrott also owned the Midway Drive-In on Old Cherry Point Road near another one of his Foodland stores. The Southgate was expanded to six screens about 1988-1989. I lived in New Bern from 1990 to 1995 and the Southgate was the larger of New Bern’s two cinemas (the Neuse Boulevard Cinema, then operated by Carmike Cinemas, had only three screens). I spent many hours watching movies at both theatres when I lived there. The Southgate was one of only two theatres in eastern North Carolina to show the NC-17 rated film “Showgirls” (the other was the UA Litchfield 4 in Goldsboro). I am surprised to learn that this theatre has been closed and reopened, as it was the best cinema in town.
I was working for TJMaxx back in 1996 when they asked me to help with the remodeling of their store in Cross Pointe Center (my home store was Greenville, NC). The first week I went to Fayetteville was the same week that the Carmike 12 at Westwood had its grand opening. The night before they officially opened the 12-plex, Carmike had a 10-cent preview night featuring second-run films. (I had to work graveyard shift at TJ’s so I couldn’t go to the dime shows.) Two years later, Carmike repeated the idea when they opened their 12-plex quasi-stadium cinema in Greenville, NC (same name), except in Greenville Carmike charged a dollar for the preview night. The Fayetteville Carmike 12 was on the back side of Westwood Shopping Center, facing the All-American Freeway. I have corrected the Google photo so that the Carmike 12 is visible.
This theatre opened in 1977 as the Buccaneer Movies 1 & 2, a twin theatre with a lobby divided by the concession stand. A third auditorium was added a year later in order to compete with the newly expanded Plaza Cinema (which went from twin to triple shortly after the Buccaneer opened). Carmike bought the Buccaneer in 1989and slowly ran it into the ground. In 1998 the Buccaneer became the dollar theatre in Greenville after the downtown Park Theatre was closed. The Buccaneer closed around 2000 due to Carmike’s bankruptcy,along with all other Carmike “dollar grindhouses” east of Raleigh.
I attended one of the last shows at this theatre in 1998, “There’s Something About Mary”. The ceiling tiles in the auditorium were dangling from the ceiling, as if they were about to fall to the floor. The Plaza Cinema 3 had long been Greenville’s most dilapidated movie house (even more so than the downtown “$1.50 grinder” the Park Theatre, also a Carmike theatre. Carmike owned all of Greenville’s cinemas at this time, including the Plaza, Park, Carolina East 4 and Buccaneer 3. The then-new Carmike 12 was running a “preview night” on the same night that I went to see one last show at the Plaza.The next night the Carmike 12 officially opened as a first-run theatre (preview night was second-run films) and the Plaza closed forever. The Plaza Cinema was demolished sometime around 2001,and the lot (behind JCPenney) remains empty.
Carmike Cinemas took over this theatre in 1990 when they bought most of Cineplex Odeon’s North Carolina theatres. They were the last chain to operate this theatre.
After this theatre closed it became a gentlemen’s club known as Silver Bullet, later Silver Bullet Dolls. About three years ago it became a music venue (I forgot the name of this incarnation) after Pitt County essentially banned strip clubs.
The map shows the wrong address for the 264 Playhouse theatre. This theatre was actually on the west side of Greenville, on OLD Highway 264 West (now US 13 South) between Greenville and Farmville, about 2 miles west of Frog Level. This was the only theatre in Pitt County to show X-rated films. It closed in 1986 when the Reagan Administration began cracking down on pornography. I turned 18 right after this theatre closed, thus denying me the chance to see adult films in a theatre.
This theatre was built in the early 1970’s as the Southgate Cinema 1 & 2, possibly Eastern North Carolina’s first twin indoor cinema. The owner was Gordon Parrott of the Gordon’s Foodland supermarket chain. One of the Foodlands was next door to the Southgate Cinema (last time I was in New Bern it was a Piggly Wiggly), and Mr. Parrott also owned the Midway Drive-In on Old Cherry Point Road near another one of his Foodland stores. The Southgate was expanded to six screens about 1988-1989. I lived in New Bern from 1990 to 1995 and the Southgate was the larger of New Bern’s two cinemas (the Neuse Boulevard Cinema, then operated by Carmike Cinemas, had only three screens). I spent many hours watching movies at both theatres when I lived there. The Southgate was one of only two theatres in eastern North Carolina to show the NC-17 rated film “Showgirls” (the other was the UA Litchfield 4 in Goldsboro). I am surprised to learn that this theatre has been closed and reopened, as it was the best cinema in town.
I was working for TJMaxx back in 1996 when they asked me to help with the remodeling of their store in Cross Pointe Center (my home store was Greenville, NC). The first week I went to Fayetteville was the same week that the Carmike 12 at Westwood had its grand opening. The night before they officially opened the 12-plex, Carmike had a 10-cent preview night featuring second-run films. (I had to work graveyard shift at TJ’s so I couldn’t go to the dime shows.) Two years later, Carmike repeated the idea when they opened their 12-plex quasi-stadium cinema in Greenville, NC (same name), except in Greenville Carmike charged a dollar for the preview night. The Fayetteville Carmike 12 was on the back side of Westwood Shopping Center, facing the All-American Freeway. I have corrected the Google photo so that the Carmike 12 is visible.
This theatre opened in 1977 as the Buccaneer Movies 1 & 2, a twin theatre with a lobby divided by the concession stand. A third auditorium was added a year later in order to compete with the newly expanded Plaza Cinema (which went from twin to triple shortly after the Buccaneer opened). Carmike bought the Buccaneer in 1989and slowly ran it into the ground. In 1998 the Buccaneer became the dollar theatre in Greenville after the downtown Park Theatre was closed. The Buccaneer closed around 2000 due to Carmike’s bankruptcy,along with all other Carmike “dollar grindhouses” east of Raleigh.
I attended one of the last shows at this theatre in 1998, “There’s Something About Mary”. The ceiling tiles in the auditorium were dangling from the ceiling, as if they were about to fall to the floor. The Plaza Cinema 3 had long been Greenville’s most dilapidated movie house (even more so than the downtown “$1.50 grinder” the Park Theatre, also a Carmike theatre. Carmike owned all of Greenville’s cinemas at this time, including the Plaza, Park, Carolina East 4 and Buccaneer 3. The then-new Carmike 12 was running a “preview night” on the same night that I went to see one last show at the Plaza.The next night the Carmike 12 officially opened as a first-run theatre (preview night was second-run films) and the Plaza closed forever. The Plaza Cinema was demolished sometime around 2001,and the lot (behind JCPenney) remains empty.