BY SARA LINDAU: Staff Writer

Bankrupt Carmike Cinemas closed the Cinema 4 in Southern Pines without notice after Thursday night’s screening.

That leaves Sandhills Cinema as the sole commercial movie theater in Moore County.

Carmike, based in Columbus, Ga., was cleaning out the vacated Cinema 4 building on U.S. 15-501 Friday morning, preparing for the new owners, Central Carolina Nissan of Sanford, to take over.

The Lee County dealership has purchased the property from Carmike and plans to make a $4 million investment.

“Our intentions are to tear down the building and replace it with a new Nissan dealership,” said Bob Strickland, owner and president of Central Carolina. “We hope to start work in the spring, depending on the approval process that is now before the town of Southern Pines.”

Strickland expects to create 40 new jobs. Most of the hiring will be done in Moore County, with the exception of the management and administrative staff, he said.

Strickland already has a used car business under the name Central Carolina Nissan on U.S. 15-501 across from the entrance to Wal-Mart, just south of the Cinema 4.

Central Carolina will continue to operate the used-car business at its present location, possibly bringing in more top-of-the-line models such as Volvo, Mercedes and other models, Strickland said.

The 10-screen Sandhills Cinema, a $6 million facility, opened in 1999 a few miles north on U.S. 15-501 next to the Kmart Super Center in Southern Pines.

There has been speculation for more than a year that the four-screen Cinema 4 theater would close because of the parent company’s financial difficulty. There was no advanced notice that the theater would close Thursday night. The former manager David Hall declined to comment.

The Cinema 4 may have fallen victim partly to competition from the newer, bigger Sandhills Cinema. Ironically, Cinema 4 may have ultimately led to the demise of the Town & Country Cinemas 1 and 2 at Town & Country Shopping Center. They had been Moore County’s only movie theaters after the Sunrise closed in the 1970s.

“I didn’t look on Cinema 4 as a competitor,” said Brian McCall, president of All-Star Entertainment, a West Virginia company that owns and operates Sandhills Cinema. “I hate to see them go.

“They helped us in this market, both of us together were able to bring in films like ‘Frida’ that attracted small, select audiences in addition to the more commercial movies that sold more tickets.”

But McCall said he will consider adding four or five more screens and expanding the parking area at Sandhills Cinema in a few years. He would have to buy more land to expand.

McCall said the theater is not making a profit yet, because of the debt on the original construction.

“We have been very well supported by customers in this market,” he said in a telephone interview from West Virginia.

Will Redding, SunFlix operations director for the nonprofit group that brings select movies to the Sunrise Theater in downtown Southern Pines, said the closing of Cinema 4 will naturally reduce the number of movie choices for movie-goers.

“We’re going from 14 screens to 10,” he said. SunFlix shows two different feature movies in an old-fashioned, one-screen movie theater.

But Redding said at times SunFlix and Sandhills Cinema have competed for the same movies. In some cases, Sandhills Cinema can keep a less heavily attended movie a few days, then pass it on to SunFlix, to give more people an opportunity to see it.

“We can’t pick up the slack left in movie choices by the closing of the four screens,” Redding said.

But he said, “people are only going to see just so many movies.”

Redding didn’t think there was really room for three theaters (two commercial and one non-profit) in Moore County.

The Sunrise is leased by Sunrise Preservation Group, a private nonprofit organization that sponsors performances in the 350-seat theater. The Sunrise is home to Sandhills Theatre Company. The theater is also used for other performances and events.

“I think the Sandhills Cinema will almost certainly move to take over some of the films previously shown at the Carmike,” Redding said. “When you lose four screens, there will be a more limited variety of offerings for viewers. To the greatest degree possible, we will try to increase SunFlix offerings.”