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London Movie Theater Closing

Updated: Monday, February 11 2013, 08:21 PM EST
London Movie Theater Closing

LONDON, Ohio -- An era has come to an end in Madison County, as the only theater in downtown London showing first-run movies has closed its doors. However, the owner says that may not be the end of public movie showings in the city.

George Peyton said he plans to show classic movies and cult favorites at the State Theater in future, but will cease normal operations.

Peyton bought the theater 4 years ago and said he put about $250,000 in renovations into the facility, but the one change he can't afford to make is the switch to new equipment to show digital movies.

"To switch over to that is going to cost us between $80,000 to $100,000 to make that change," Peyton said.

In Delaware, The Strand theater survived the switch to digital, but manager Kara Long said she expects the digital conversion to hit small theaters as hard as VCRs did in the 1980s.

"It killed a lot of these small theaters, and you saw your downtowns die," she said.

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London Movie Theater Closing