Capri/Paradigm Theaters

Years ago, a movie theater called 'Paradigm' was open in Morristown, Tennessee. Before that, it was the 'Capri' movie theater. I watched my first two movies at Capri 40 years ago in 1979. Those two movies were 'The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again' and 'The Black Hole'.

At first, Capri only had one theater. They built an extra theater in the late seventies or early eighties and renamed it the 'Capri Twin' movie theater. During the summer of 1983, they built an additional two theaters and renamed it 'Capri Four'. I remember that it was during the Summer of 1983 because they were building the extra two theaters when my family and I went to watch 'Superman III'.

The only competition that Capri had at the time was the 'Volunteer Twin' movie theater. Because Capri had two more theaters than Volunteer, Volunteer was no threat to Capri Four. Volunteer twin eventually went out of business.

A movie theater was opened at the College Square Mall when the mall opened in 1988. At first, it had six theaters. A few years later, they added an additional three theaters which made it have nine theaters. The theaters at the mall were a threat to Capri Four.

Capri Four had to eventually become a discount theater to be able to compete with the theaters at the mall. Capri started charging only $1.50 per movie ticket. I watched 'Batman & Robin' there when it was a discount theater. Sadly, even lowering the price of movie tickets couldn't save Capri Four. They soon shut their doors.

A couple to a few years later, a new theater opened where Capri Four was located. The new name of the theaters was Paradigm. Like Capri, Paradigm also had four theaters and for a while, it was also a discount theater. But then they made a bad decision. Paradigm decided to charge full price for movie tickets.

I knew they were in trouble when I read that they were no longer a discount theater. The theaters at the mall were too much competition. They offered over twice as many movies to watch. They also had bigger screens and better sound than Paradigm had.

I knew that nobody would pay full price at Paradigm when they could get a better deal at the theaters at the mall. I made a prediction and sadly, my prediction came true. When Paradigm started charging full price, I predicted they would go out of business in six months or less. And they did go out of business.

While Capri/Paradigm have been closed for many years, it was still a great place to watch movies at, and I have fond memories of going there.