By Faith Parker
By the beginning of next month, Monroe County residents should expect to see the completion of the construction on the brand new Cinemark Holdings movie theaters that are being constructed inside the Stroud Mall.
The new theater will consist of twelve brand new screens, instead of the five that were part of the old AMC Theater. Each auditorium will have stadium seating and digital surround sound. One of the twelve auditoriums will be formatted in Cinemark XD. Cinemark XD describes the entertainment environment of an auditorium.
According to Cinemark’s official website, the features of a Cinemark XD theater include: “a large, wall-to-wall and ceiling-to-floor screen, plush seating, a custom JBL sound system featuring, and digital images delivered by a Doremi server and a Barco digital projector. The Cinemark XD auditoriums are able to exhibit the newest movies every week, including 2D and RealD 3D pictures.” For the first time ever, Stroudsburg residents will be able to see a movie in 3D without having to travel to Easton, Bethlehem, or Marshalls Creek.
This new addition also means big changes for mall retailers and local business owners. With the new theater there are fewer spaces for retailers. The old theater space, located across from Bath & Body Works, will expand approximately 35,000-square-foot in order to create the new multiplex. The theater expansion will take over the area in which the former American Eagle, Dollar Tree, Lids, and mall offices were located at as well as the old theater space, ending next to sears.
Local restaurant owner of the Stroudsburg Texas Roadhouse, Nick Oviedo revealed to the Stroud Courier his excitement of the theater’s opening. “This theater is going to do wonders for my restaurant,” Oviedo reports, “I’m expecting this theater to increase my sales drastically, I am ready to see what the effects of this theater are.”
Construction of the new theater began in September of last year. Rumor has it that the theater was originally supposed to open in July 2011, in time to catch some summer business, but plans were continually pushed back for unannounced reasons. The official grand opening will be held on November 4th, 2011 with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Chamber of Commerce Vice President of Operations, Patricia Metzgar will have the honors of cutting the ribbon.