Digital Casualty: Curtain Call for Popular Discount Theater

A popular Gwinnett County theater that showed near first-run movies at discounted prices closed its doors this month, citing the costs of running the business in the digital age.

The owners of Town Center Value Cinemas, located at 700 Gwinnett Drive, just off Ga. 20 in Lawrenceville, said the closure was necessary because it would be too expensive to convert its 35-milimeter film projectors to digital equipment without significantly raising ticket prices.

The Georgia Theatre Company also said it was getting more difficult to get 35mm films.

The theater had 10 screens, and charged $2.50 per ticket for movies, many of which were in first-run theaters just weeks prior.

Georgia Theatre Company announced the closing on Facebook last week:

Town Center Value Cinemas is now closed due to the industry’s conversion in recent years from 35mm film projectors to digital projection equipment. As you may be aware, it was becoming increasingly more difficult to get new 35mm film product each week since the film studios have stopped producing their product in that specific format and it would be too expensive to install the modern projectors which would have raised the pricing up and it would no longer have been a value location.

Thank you to all of our customers for your patronage over the years. If you need to contact us, please do so through our Customer Service Link in our “About” Section.

Sincerely, Georgia Theatre Company

The company ran the theater since 1999; it originally opened in the ‘70s, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

It wasn’t the first closing for Georgia Theater Company, which closed a similar discount theater in Warner Robins last year due to the digital costs, GPB reported.

“It’s questionable whether you could recover your investment. It’s something like $50-$70 thousand a screen to convert to digital,” Georgia Theatre Company CEO Bill Stembler told GPB last July.

Small, and particularly independently owned, theaters have been left with the same decision of whether to close their curtains for good or change with the digital times.

About 1 in 5 theaters still use 35mm, USA Today reported, and many of those cannot afford the expense to convert.

Some have fought to stay open. An Indiana theater has taken to GoFundMe hoping to raise $35,000 to go digital, and last year, a Wisconsin theater raised $60,000 to covert its equipment and said the expense was worth it. But many, like the Lawrenceville theater, are simply closing.

The 35mm supply is dwindling, too. Last year, “The Wolf of Wall Street” became the first major movie released entirely in digital, according to NPR, perhaps the biggest step to date in the industry’s digital transformation. Digital movies dominate the market because they are of higher quality than film and cheaper to produce and distribute.

But, that won’t make the Lawrenceville theater’s patrons feel any better about losing an inexpensive movie option in town.

Some of the comments on the theater’s Facebook page included:

“This was always the first place we checked when my family wanted to see a movie. And, you had the best popcorn in town! It will be missed.”

“This is so sad!! My kids and I frequented this establishment often.....for many many years, thanks for the memories!”

“So sad...my husband and I both worked there when it was a Regal theater”

“Yep, expected that, same thing happened to our old theater in my hometown until everyone in town donated money to revamp the place and keep it open!”