The movie theater in the town I grew up in has fallen victim to the movie industry's switch to digital projection. The Sun Journal is reporting that after 17 years of operation in the Oxford Plaza, Flagship Cinema will show its last movie on Labor Day. This sucks.

The movie theater opened up after I had moved away from the Oxford Hills and started my job here at the Q, so I didn't go to this theater often. However it reminds me of when we had no place in town to watch movies. The Norway Drive-In closed in the early 80's. The short lived Opera House theater in Norway tried to fill the gap but it didn't last long. I have fond memories of seeing the premiere of E.T. and Return of the Jedi there.

With these closed, we had to travel to Lewiston/Auburn to see movies either at the Promenade Mall or the Auburn Mall. Both of those are closed now too, although Flagship has a theater there today.

Now it's come full circle and people will once again have to travel to Lewiston/Auburn to see a movie. Stereo, surround sound and home video killed the theaters back when I was a kid, and this time it's another change in technology: digital projection.

Movie studios are phasing out movies on film and the places it hurts most are the small hometown theaters and the drive-ins that are still around. A digital projector will cost $700,000 and Oxford has seven of them meaning an upgrade will cost $4.9 million dollars. The math just doesn't work out to allow them to stay in business.

How do you feel about the closing of the small movie theaters? Is there a place you used to go to see the movies that no longer exists? Tell us about it in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter.

 

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