Sarah Irby ~ Copy Editor
Last year, the Lynchburg community suffered the loss of its only discount movie theater, Cinemark Movies 10, located in Candlers Station. However, the community will soon be able to take advantage of lower prices once more with the opening of Lynchburg’s newest discount movie theater, Venue Cinemas, located behind the Plaza shopping center off of Lakeside Drive. With the Venue Cinemas opening nearby, Lynchburg College students now have a theater less than five minutes away from campus.
Venue Cinemas is owned by Ralph Harrison Jr., his father Ralph Harrison Sr. and brother Robby Harrison. All three family members have past experience with movie theaters. Ralph Harrison has worked with Lynchburg’s previous discount theater, Cinemark Movies 10, back in the ‘90s, so discount movie theaters are not a foreign concept to him.
The theater will show second-run films, after they have left Regal River Ridge Stadium 14.
However, Ralph Harrison Jr. says, “There are no plans to compete with Regal Ridge 14 since they release feature films once when they come out, like whenever the Star Wars is released I’ll be there.”
Venue Cinemas has plans to release indie and art movies, ones that typically don’t find their ways into bigger theaters. Ralph Harrison Jr. also stated that there are plans to hold events to interact with the community, and they are considering even hosting live radio casts for grand openings of movies.
There are talks currently underway about the idea of providing shuttles for students from Liberty University who want to come to the theater for a showing. It is also possible that due to Lynchburg College being so close, students might be able to receive discounts with their IDs.
After an article from The News & Advance was written about the theater being in the process of opening, Venue Cinema’s Facebook page went from under 50 likes to over 1,000.
“We had a couple of obstacles come up along the way, but we do plan to open around Nov. 4, and if it is not opened by then, you can expect it opened in early Nov. and no later,” declared Ralph Harrison. Movie tickets will be sold for around $3.
