Destination Theater is in Hopewell's The Crossings Shopping Center.
The newly remodeled Destination Theater in Hopewell will have its grand opening today, showing The Boxtrolls and The Maze Runner. Tickets cost $5 and to celebrate opening day, attendees get free popcorn. The theater will be showing mid-run movies, two weeks into their run, and eventually just-released movies as well. (That’s different from Richmond’s Byrd Theatre, which shows movies that are a month away from DVD release.) Destination also plans to host themed movie nights in the near future. Also, in a practice the theater calls “movies with a mission,” Destination will be donating 10 percent of its proceeds to local nonprofit organizations and schools. JoAnna Korkos, the theater’s chief operating officer, says that Destination Church, which owns the theater, already has relationships with local branches of the YMCA and American Red Cross, as well as other area nonprofits.
Destination Theater was once The Crossings Cinema, named for The Crossings Shopping Center where it’s located. The shopping center terminated The Crossings’ lease in February of 2011, and Destination Church bought the space in the spring of 2013. Bryan Briggs, Destination Church’s lead pastor and the theater’s CEO, says, “We are excited to bring quality entertainment back to the area.” The theater has been completely renovated, with new digital projectors, screens, and Dolby Surround Sound in the auditoriums, as well as new concession equipment.
Destination Theater in Hopewell
The theater also got an aesthetic transformation. The curtains and carpeting are new, the seats have been refurbished, and, perhaps most important, they now have cup-holders.
Destination Theater is the second campus for Destination Church; its primary location is rented space in the Southpark Regal Theater in Colonial Heights. Having Destination Theater function as both a business and a place of worship was always the plan. Korkos says that Destination Church is “loosely affiliated with Assemblies of God,” but that this connection is not emphasized. She describes the congregation as diverse and says that its motto is “no perfect people allowed, everybody else is welcome.”
Despite the religious affiliation, Korkos says Destination Theater will not impose a ban on R-rated movies. She says that “our aim is to have at least one family-friendly movie every weekend, but we’re not opposed to playing a rated-R movie — it’s all at the discretion of the lead pastor, who is also the CEO of the theater.” Korkos adds that the theater is currently considering the World War II-set Fury and that Briggs is going to look into exactly why it earned its R rating before making a decision. Destination will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Movie listings and show times for can be found on facebook.com/destinationtheater or by calling 415-4000.
