NACOGDOCHES, Texas — AMC 6 in Nacogdoches played its final showing Tuesday, announcing earlier this week its sudden closure just days before Thanksgiving.
On Tuesday, residents of Nacogdoches were out to catch one last film before the theater is closed for good and shared their feelings of the unexpected closing of the only cinema in the city.
“I don't like that feeling at all. It's pretty devastating,” longtime moviegoer Jeffrey Hopson said.
The theater was a landmark for many living in Deep East Texas, who are now left shocked by its sudden closure — like Hopson, who has been coming to this theater since he was a child.
“My grandmother and I used to come,” Hopson said. “There was a solid three or four years we came every Sunday so that's why I like this place so much.”
Hopson's grandmother passed away last year and reflecting on the memories they shared at AMC brought on warm and nostalgic feelings.
“Here I feel happy,” Hopson said. “I come here there's so many great memories of coming with her.”
Once a place of solace for him is now reduced to nothing.
“It was the same place we came to for so many years, “ Hopson said. “I remember where she would sit, and even today I had to make sure to sit where I normally sit.”
With the theater’s closure, locals will now be forced to travel over 20 miles to catch a movie on the big screen in Lufkin.
“It's gonna be sad because now we have to commute 30 minutes away,” another patron Thomas Dimmitt said. “But it’s a disappointment that we won't have a theater as close for the theater experience.”
Workers said they were told about the theater closing on Saturday leaving them just as stunned as moviegoers.
“Sadly, it's going away, but maybe it'll be something else,” Dimmitt said.
Juan Valdez said he's hoping another theater can come to town in the future.
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