What's next for a soon-to-close Wilmington theater, including a 'Swift' ending?

When the news dropped last week about the closing of the AMC Classic Wilmington 16 movie theater — its last day open will be Oct. 15 — the general reaction was surprise, but not really shock.

Anecdotally, people had been noting low attendance at the theater for years, with some even saying they preferred seeing movies there because they didn't have to deal with the more crowded theaters at Wilmington's two newer multiplexes.

It has been widely reported that the pandemic shutdown was brutal for movie theaters in general, with attendance only beginning to approach pre-pandemic levels in recent months. Certainly, that was a likely factor in the theater's closing.

Here's what to know about the final week in business for the AMC Classic Wilmington 16 after a run of more than a quarter-century in the Port City.

Movie history

When it opened May 5, 1997, as the Carmike Cinema 12, it was the first movie theater in Wilmington to have more than six screens. Two and a half years later it would add four more screens, reopening on Christmas Day of 1999 as the Carmike Cinema 16.

It's seen its share of cultural events.

Folks camped out in line to get tickets to the new "Star Wars" movies in 1999, 2002 and 2005, and to see "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" in 2002.

Before the cultural ascension of Taylor Swift, young female fans packed the theater to see a concert film with Hannah Montana, aka Miley Cyrus, in 2008.

The theater has even seen a moment or two of controversy, like in 2006 when some 20 people, members of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, protested a screening of "The Da Vinci Code."

Old enough that it started screening movies on film, it began switching to digital projections in 2006. In 2016, the Carmike chain was bought out by AMC.

There's not much about the theater that stands out — it definitely carries a generic, suburban, '90s-era multiplex vibe — but when the news broke about the closing, folks had fun on social media recalling both movies they had seen and various technical mishaps they had experienced there, and more than a few recalled a curious climate control system that somehow got things both chilly and humid.

What's left?

With AMC getting out of the Wilmington market, that leaves two multiplexes in Wilmington: Regal Mayfaire & IMAX in the Mayfaire shopping center, which has 16 screens, and The Pointe 14 in Barclay Commons at the intersection of Independence Boulevard and South 17th Street.

Surf Cinemas in Southport is an older, four-screen theater.

Movies are also screened most weeks at Thalian Hall in downtown Wilmington as part of the Cinematique film series put on by the Hall and public radio WHQR. And Jengo's Playhouse, headquarters of the Cucalorus Film Festival, screens movies most Friday nights in its microcinema.

A final weekend for 'The Eras'

If nothing else, the Wilmington AMC should see a busy final weekend thanks to "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour," which hits screens Oct. 13. It's also showing at Regal Mayfaire and the Pointe 14 in Wilmington, and at Surf Cinemas in Southport.

What's next

AMC reps did not respond to questions about what might happen to the building.

If history is any indication, however, there would seem to be a good chance that the building won't be there much longer.

Former Wilmington movie theaters including Cinema 6 on Oleander Drive, College Road Cinemas and the theater at Independence Mall, as well as the old Cinema 4 in Carolina Beach, were all torn down.

On the other hand, the former Long Leaf Mall Cinemas (later Hollywood East Cinema Grill) was converted into a Medac, and the old New Centre Cinemas is now a car dealership showroom, so maybe there's hope for the building.

Of course, the AMC Classic Wilmington 16 is just the latest of many local movie theaters to close before it. A half dozen movie theaters were located downtown back in the day, including The Manor, The Bailey, The Bijou, The Colony and The Royal.

And we're not even going to get into all the old drive-in theaters that used to exist here, which would be a story in itself.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Taylor Swift The Eras Tour to close AMC Classic Wilmington 16 theater