Granada, Raleigh St. Cinemas, will fill void in AMC theaters closing

Mar. 1—BLUEFIELD — Bluefield city officials anticipate that the closing of the AMC Theaters at Mercer Mall will help give the Granada Theater and Raleigh Street Cinemas a boost.

The mall theaters abruptly closed on Sunday, but the company has not returned calls or emails for details on what happened.

City Manager Cecil Marson told members of the City Board Tuesday that the closing should help bring residents to the Granada Theater, which started showing first-run movies in January, and the two theaters in the Raleigh Street Cinemas that are slated to open this spring will also show first-run movies.

"That is a great project and should be done by May," he said of the Raleigh Street Cinemas, which will have two screens located in the bottom floor of the Granada Building with the front facing Raleigh Street. "We will have two great theaters down there and it is going to be phenomenal for our community."

Renovations at the historic Granada were finished in 2021 with the first movies since the 1970s shown there on Aug. 28, 2021.

Mayor Ron Martin said the city is "fortunate" to have those theaters now with the only other movie house in the county now closed.

"People have a place to go for their movies and entertainment," he said, adding that two first-run movies shown in February at the Granada, "Cocaine Bear" and "80 for Brady," did well.

Martin said he hopes everybody will spread the word that the Granada is open and showing first run movies and two more theaters are coming.

"We have what you need to have a date here in Bluefield," he said. "You can go to dinner and go to the movies and have a good time."

Marson said once the two theaters are open, more first run films will be shown as the city can work better with movie distribution companies on showing them on a schedule with more frequent screenings.

Martin also said Princeton now has the funding needed to finish the Royal Theater project of renovating the old LaVon Theater on Mercer Street.

"Our team at BARC (Bluefield Area Revitalization Corp.) wants to work with them so we will show different movies than they are," he said. "You will see the same movies that we had in the theaters, but one may be in Princeton and one may be in Bluefield."

Nicole Thompson, House Manager and Program Director for BARC, said many people still may not know the Granada is open and now showing first run movies, and with the AMC theaters closed, the option is available to see a movie in a restored, beautiful historic theater.

"It certainly is an opportunity for us to bring people to downtown Bluefield," she said.

Thompson also agreed that everyone should spread the word about the Granada and the Raleigh Street Cinemas.

"I have been trying to let people know," she said.

The Granada, which is now open on weekends, is showing "Cocaine Bear" Friday and Saturday nights at 7 p.m. and on Sunday at 5 p.m.

Children's movies are also being shown on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. The classic "Pinocchio" Disney movie will be screened this Saturday, followed by Lady and the Tramp on March 11 and March 18 and "Beauty and the Beast" on March 25 and April 1.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or visit bluefieldgranada.com.

Marson also said the HopeWords Christian Writers Conference will once again be held at the Granada this year, featuring writers and visitors from all over the country, including 38 states and nine countries.

The conference was held last year with great success.

"We have a world class event here in Bluefield," Marson said. "This is phenomenal."

"It is sold out online," Martin said.

Martin said that at last year's event he saw license plates from all over the country.

"It was awesome," he said. "This year we'll have an even bigger turnout than last year."

The event will be held on March 24 and March 25.

BARC is also presenting an art show at the Paine Gallery, located inside the Bluefield Arts Center, from Feb. 28 to March 16, Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Marson said the show, Bluefield and Beyond, is the work of local artist Andrea Brunais.

Brunais is a juried artist at Tamarack where her paintings are frequently shown, along with exhibitions in Blacksburg, Radford and Stuart in Virginia, and in Beckley and Charleston.

Her painting, "Curvaceous Juggernauts," recently won Bronze in the Scottsdale-based Camelback Gallery's international still life competition, and "Alone Yet One With Everything" was awarded Silver in the Shades of Purple competition.

A wine & cheese reception for Brunais will be held in the gallery on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

— Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com

Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com