WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS: Vicksburg's Only Theater Closes

Vicksburg's Only Theater Closes

By Roslyn Anderson
roslyn@wlbt.net

Vicksburg, like the capitol city, is now without a major form of entertainment.

The River City no longer has a theater.

Movie goers will now have to take their money to another city for big screen entertainment.

A fixture in the Pemberton Square Mall, the Cinema 4 movie theater, closed its doors after 26 years in operation.

It is the city's only movie theater and offered 920 seats and four screens.

Residents will now have to travel 30 miles to the closest theater in Clinton to see the upcoming holiday big screen features.

Vicksburg resident Jennifer Williams said, "I'm an employee at Dillard's, and I just found out today that they were closed so I go to Clinton anyway. I haven't been here since I was little."

Matthew Brogdon of Vicksburg said, "It's been in bad shape for a while, and it's probably a better thing. I mean if they had put more work into it."

Vicksburg Mayor Laurence Leyens doesn't want to see those dollars leave the city.

He attributes its closure to the declining condition of the mall.

Mayor Leyens said, "The theater story is just another sad story for our community. They had told us last year that they found a new tenant for the theater and it was going to be completely rebuilt and it'd be a modern facility and obviously that has fallen through."

The mayor says the city has been in talks with Pemberton Mall owners C.B.L. and Associates on an $8 million dollar renovation plan.

The city offered owners $2 million dollars in renovation assistance.

Leyens added, "We've had multiple meetings with them and in the last meeting they actually executed the design for the new mall and said that they would be implementing that, that they wanted to have construction underway by January. Of course I haven't heard from them in the last three months."

The mayor says the city's 29% sales tax revenue is the highest in recent history, and he wants some positive movement on the property to help attract more businesses and retailers to their growing economy.

WLBT was unable to reach theater owners or mall management for comment.