Tower Twin Theatres
3649 New Bern Avenue,
Tower Shopping Center,
Raleigh,
NC
27610
3649 New Bern Avenue,
Tower Shopping Center,
Raleigh,
NC
27610
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: ABC Theatres, Carmike Cinemas, Cineplex Odeon, Plitt Theatres
Functions: Retail
Previous Names: Tower Theatres 1 & 2
Nearby Theaters
Located in the Southeastern section of Raleigh off New Bern Avenue at the Tower Shopping Center off the Raleigh Beltline, the Tower Twin Theatres were built on the same location where the Tower Drive-In Theatre had once stood.
The Tower Twin Theatres opened to the public on Sunday December 18, 1977 as a special sneak preview for those who would like to get a glimpse of Raleigh’s newest movie show palace that was held that day between the hours of 2:00pm until 6:00pm. During its special sneak preview of this theatre, there was no charge for admission and free refreshments and door prizes were honored. Auditorium One was the largest with a seating capacity of 450. Auditorium Two’s seating capacity was at 350.
The regular attractions for the Tower Twin Theatres began on Wednesday December 21, 1977 with Auditorium One showing Clint Eastwood in “The Gauntlet”. Auditorium Two had George Burns and John Denver in “Oh God!”. A lot of great blockbusters got first billing at this theatre ranging from “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Aliens”,and much more.
By the time Carmike Cinemas took over the operations of the Tower Twin in the mid-1990’s the theatre was losing ground due to the nearby competition from neighboring Tower Merchants Six that was getting the better films. It was closed in 2001 by Carmike.
Contributed by
raysson
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
That was one of the theatres CARMIKE abandoned and left for dead when it close in 2001. When it closed,the theatre was completely guttered. So Sad.
This was one of the old ABC Plitt Theatres that Cineplex took over with the purchase of Plitt Theatres!!!
This was one of the theatres that showed the “X” rated “YOU SO CRAZY”(Martin Lawrence’s stand-up comedy film) as a exclusive area engagement.
The Tower Twin did not have 1200 seats. The larger auditorium had about 450 and the smaller had about 350.
In the early 1980s, in the middle of the night someone stole a bulldozer from the construction site next door (Tower Merchants) and took it for a joy ride. With the blade up, the bulldozer crashed through the left side exit door, went through the lobby and demolished the concession stand. Police and firemen arrived to find the bulldozer stopped against the interior lobby wall. No arrest was made, but rumor had it that it was a local high school kid that lived nearby. (Keith Carpenter was the theatre manager at that time.)
The Tower Twin was not demolished. It remained vacant and virtually unchanged for many years after it closed. Several years ago it was used as a haunted house at Halloween for a few years. More recently it has been converted to retail space. Just so you know, Carmike owned BOTH the Tower Twin and the Merchants Six and ran them concurrently. Also, the two auditoriums at Tower were mirror images of each other. They had exactly the same seating capacity. I cannot remember what the capacity was, but it was around 400 each.
Steven Spielburg’s RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK played here on its opening weekend as one of two theaters that booked the film in Raleigh..the other was the Village Twin over at Cameron Village. Tried to get advance tickets for its opening weekend,but it was completely sold out for both evening shows and matinees where the lines for the movie snaked from one end of the Tower Shopping Center to the other.
Same thing also happened when I tried to get tickets for NEW JACK CITY on its opening weekend in October of 1991. It was sold out within the first 15 minutes and there were no advance ticket sales for this feature.
December 21st, 1977 grand opening ad posted. It opened the same day as the Fitzeralds twin cinemas and two days before the opening of the Imperial 4 in Cary.