Milford is slated to get a cinema complex
The News Journal and other media outlets reported the theater will go into a state-of-the-art cinema complex at former Walmart in the city on the Sussex-Kent County line.
The stories indicated the theater to be developed by Delaware cinema owner Arthur Helmick will have multiple screens.
Milford lost its movie theater decades ago as independent operators fell victim to large multiplexes in more heavily populated areas, and the conversion of strip centers, some with interior mall space, complexes with big box stores.
Residents of the fast-growing Milford area now travel to Dover or the beach area to see first-run movies.
Milford’s Riverfront Players have periodically shown movies at its theater in the city. Theater groups in other communities in Delaware have done the same.
More recently, smaller operators that hung on with a few screens struggled with the expense of digital equipment that replaced projectors.
Click here for a history of movie theaters in Milford from Milford Live.
Thanks to smaller operators and financing options for multimillion-dollar projects, theaters are making a gradual return to growing towns and cities in the region.
Both Middletown and Wilmington have seen new cinemas in the past decade.
Helmrick helped develop Westown movie and renovated and overhauled an aging cinema complex in Newark.
Meanwhile, Penn Cinema is slated to expand to Huntingdon Valley, PA in the Philadelphia suburbs. Penn also has a cinema complex near Lancaster, PA
