Carmike Oakwood Twin

At the time of its opening as the Oakwood 1 & 2 on July 29, 1977, it was the only operating indoor theater on the Edgecombe County side of Rocky Mount. It was also the first indoor theater on that side of town open to integrated audiences (the only indoor theaters in East Rocky Mount- the Booker-T Theater and the Manhattan/Ritz Theater- were strictly for African-Americans).

The Oakwood Cinema was Stewart & Everett’s second location in Rocky Mount, after the Cinema 1 & 2 at Englewood Square having been opened in March 1972 as the chains first-ever indoor twin theatre located in the Englewood Square Shopping Center. It was the first theatre to open after the Cardinal Theatre, which opened also in November 1972 under the Southeastern Theatres banner.

Because of the Oakwood Cinema’s opening, the downtown Rocky Mount theaters (which included the Center Theater and Cameo Theater which both went from showing second-run films to exploitation/adult films) along with the Tower Drive-In would all suffer from the Oakwood Cinema’s presence, and all of those would be gone by the early-1980’s.

Carmike bought the Oakwood and Englewood Cinemas in 1986 and under Carmike would face bigger competition from the opening of the Golden East Crossing Cinemas in 1987, which was operated by Cineplex-Odeon. As a result Carmike also bought the the Cardinal 3 and Golden East 4 theaters in 1990, leaving the Oakwood and Englewood cinemas going from showing first-run films to becoming second-run 99cent discount houses. The Oakwood Twin Cinemas was closed by 1996 by Carmike Cinemas and was demolished and replaced by a full service Southern Bank and Trust. The Oakwood Cinema became the last theater in Edgecombe County outside of Rocky Mount and Tarboro.

Recent comments (view all 7 comments)

dsavage on May 28, 2012 at 4:57 pm

The Oakwood Cinema opened in August of 1977. It was part of the Stewart & Everett Theatre chain.

raysson on September 28, 2015 at 11:46 am

Opened under Stewart & Everett as the Oakwood Cinema 1 & 2 on July 29, 1977….. Seating capacity was at 600. Auditorium 1 seated 300 Auditorium 2 seated 300

raysson on September 28, 2015 at 11:49 am

THE OPENING ATTRACTION FOR THE OAKWOOD CINEMA 1 & 2: JULY 29, 1977……

SCREEN 1: Susan Sarandon in THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT

SCREEN 2: Richard Harris in ORCA

COMING ATTRACTIONS:
“EMPIRE OF THE ANTS” with Joan Collins

“RACE FOR YOUR CHARLIE BROWN”

“GREASED LIGHTING” with Richard Pryor and Pam Grier

raysson on September 28, 2015 at 12:14 pm

DSavage: I have in my possession the grand opening newspaper ad for the Oakwood Cinema’s attraction. Please Mr. Savage feel free to contact me at if you need to see them and I would be glad to sent it to you.

raysson on October 5, 2015 at 3:11 pm

Seating capacity 600

2 screens

Chris1982 on October 5, 2015 at 4:35 pm

reeysson, why not post them to the photo section so we can all see them.

rivest266 on October 24, 2017 at 4:21 pm

2 screens on December 21st, 1977 and 3 screens on April 19th, 1985. 1977 grand opening ad in the photo section.