The Pointe 14 to welcome back movie lovers for the first time in over a year

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — After more than a year being closed, a Wilmington movie theater will open its doors yet again.

The Pointe 14 has been closed for 13 months and briefly served as a mass vaccination site for New Hanover Regional Medical Center.

Ready to press play on 12 different movies, General Manager Steve Sherwood says he’s ready to dive into a new reality once again.

“Your phones are off, you get to sit back, relax, and escape into the world that you came to watch,” Sherwood said.

He’s not the only one excited. Sherwood says their phones have been ringing off the hook and they’ve been getting several messages on social media. The most common question, “what are your safety protocols?”

“We want to make sure that all of our staff is safe and our customers are safe coming in,” Sherwood said. “We’re doing limited capacity, we have sanitizer stations set up everywhere, social distancing set up, we have rows roped off in the auditoriums.”

Depending on the size of the auditorium, they’re operating between 30 to 40 percent capacity and only a limited amount of registers will be open to promote social distancing. That’s why the manager asks everyone to be patient when they come in to enjoy the movies.

“We’re ready and, of course, like anything, this is new,” Sherwood said. “We’re going to adjust if we have to to make sure we continue to stay safe for everybody.”

Starting on Friday, the show will go on.

“The community is very excited to get in and watch a movie. They’re just like me, I’m a huge movie fan and it’s not the same watching a movie at home,” Sherwood said. “Getting here, escaping, the sound, the fresh popcorn…it’s just…it’s the greatest feeling coming to the movies.”

The Pointe 14 will open Friday at noon. For more details and showtimes, visit their website.