Matt Smith, operator of Market Street Cinema, has leased the Riverdale 10 Cinema in the Riverdale Shopping Center and will upgrade it with digital projection and Dolby sound.
Smith, who owns six other movie theaters, said he hopes to have some of the Riverdale 10 screens operational by June 6 and all running by June 13. Some of the screens will carry first-run Hollywood releases and some will carry the fare that patrons became accustomed to at the five-screen Market Street Cinema, Smith said.
"We're going to dedicate some of our screens to independent films, documentary films, art films and foreign films, which we specialized in at Market Street Cinema," Smith said.
The Riverdale 10 on Cantrell Road has been closed since December.
"When this theater closed, it was 35-millimeter film and analog sound," Smith said. In addition, some carpeting and seats will be replaced, and there will be new concession equipment.
The 35,000-square-foot Riverdale will enable him "to fulfill my vision when I opened up Market Street Cinema."
Smith has operated the Market Street Cinema for 14 years at the Market and Merrill Shopping Center in west Little Rock. Market Street will continue to operate until the Riverdale 10 Cinema is open, Smith said. Market Street passes will be honored at the new theater, he said.
Market Street Cinema patrons were pleased to hear of Smith's plans, which include an application for a beer and wine permit to offer that amenity, as he did at the Market Street Cinema. "I'm a fan of drinking and watching movies," said Jay Jennings, a Little Rock writer. "Probably 90 percent of the movies that I saw in a theater were at Market Street."
Former Pulaski Circuit Judge David Bogard said the "biggest complaint about Market Street was the sound system and screens."
"He brings in great films you can't see anywhere else and shows them in the bare-minimum of facilities, but we go because it's the only place in town."
Smith signed a lease with Kappa Realty, which owns the Riverdale Shopping Center. The sound systems and projectors and other assets will be Smith's, he said.
The monthly showing of classic movies will continue and two stages will be built for monthly live-music performances and monthly performances by stand-up comics.
He also said he is talking with the owners of Market and Merrill Shopping Center about making improvements in that movie house and possibly reopening the Market Street Cinema.
If negotiations with Market and Merrill Shopping Center officials are successful "we plan to reopen the Market Street and show $1 movies," he said.
Smith owns the Hot Springs Mall Cinema; the Searcy Cinema 8; the Cabot Silver Screen 8; the Skyview Drive-in in Belleville, Ill.; the Troy, Mo. Plaza 4, and the Granite City Cinema in Granite City, Ill.
Business on 05/28/2014