STAFFORD, Va. — There was no final evening showing on Thursday.
By 5 p.m., the sign that hung on the front of the building had been removed. The lights inside the theater were dark, and trash had been strewed across the floor.
The doors to the Regal Aquia Cinemas 10 — the only movie theater in Stafford County, the place where for so many residents memories were made — is closed forever.
The theater will be demolished to make way for a new Harris Teeter grocery store at the newly redeveloped Aquia Town Center. New condominiums named 15 Aquia have been built, and the Harris Teeter will provide new shopping options for new residents and to those who live in the adjacent Aquia Harbour neighborhood.
A final showing at the theater was reported to take place Thursday. Multiple phone calls and an email placed by Potomac Local to Regal Entertainment group prior to Thursday went unreturned.
One Stafford County resident who posted to Twitter was saddened by the closing.
@PotomacLocal So much for a closing-forever party. Odd. Lots of memories there. Poof.
— NickZ (@nickz) October 21, 2016
Movie fans in Stafford County won’t be sad for long, however, as a new, expanded Regal Cinemas will be built on nearby Garrisonville Road.
The Regal Aquia 10 was built in 1989, according to the Stafford County Commissioner of the Revenue’s Office.
