Milan’s Ritz Cinema was built in 1941 at a time when the arsenal was going full time around the clock due to the war.  When the Ritz was built, it only had one large screen. 

At this time there were 2 movie theaters in Milan.  The original theater, the Milan Theater, was across the street and south of the Ritz. Both theaters showed movies until the war was over and the arsenal cut back.  

One older gentleman recalled working for the Ritz when he was in his early teens.  He said he had to stand outside in the street with a cart popping the popcorn.   In the picture above you can see where the popcorn cart is out front in the snow.  The picture below shows a parking place that has been blocked off to save room for the popcorn cart.

The first advertisement in the Milan Exchange was on June 19, 1941.  “Time out for Rhythm” played on Mon and Tues; Jackie Cooper and Jane Withers in “Her First Beau” played Wednesday and Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in “Penny Serenade” rounded out opening weekend for “West TN’s newest and most beautiful theater”.  Ticket prices were $0.25. 

In the 1980’s, while the Barksdale’s owned the Ritz, downtown Milan was flooded.  When the Ritz was being repaired, the theater was divided to have 3 different screens.  The Barksdale’s retired in December of 2008 and sold the theater to the current owners, Mark and Sherry Crooks. 

The current plans for the theater is to keep it a safe, clean, family oriented place where you can bring your children to see a show without having to break the bank.  Currently, we do not show R rated movies so parents don’t have to worry about young children sneaking into an inappropriate show. 

We are making upgrades to the theater, like the doors that were added to the downstairs theaters to help hold down noise when other shows were over.  Cup holders were also added to all the seats in January 2009.  We have plans to redecorate the lobby and redo the concessions area so we can add hotdogs.  We are making upgrades slowly so we will be able to keep our prices down as low as possible.

So stop by sometime and trade Mr. Mark a high five for a Tootsie Roll.  Then get an awesome deal on some of the best popcorn around.  Sit back and enjoy a show at Milan’s Ritz 3 Cinema, “Where everyone is charged children’s prices”.