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'Hope Springs' is summer's smash in Flat Rock

Howard Molton and son Brice look at an online site that tracks ticket sales.

FLAT ROCK — A recent run of movies has sold out the Flat Rock Cinemas, helping the small bistro theater smash box office records this summer.

"I was looking at the numbers yesterday and out of 87 theaters in our district we're the smallest and we're ranked 17th" in box office receipts, he said.
"Hope Springs" has been a big box office boom, selling out three shows daily Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carrell, the movie about a couple in their 60s trying to rekindle their marriage opened in 2,200 theaters nationally — a relatively small number. "But because of our demographics they gave it us," Molton said. "We out-grossed theaters our size that opened 'Bourne Legacy' yesterday."
The cinema, which seats 75, also drew big audiences for "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" and "Moonrise Kingdom."
He pointed to a movie poster for "Arbitrage," starring Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon. "This thing here is opening at 100 theaters and we're getting that," he said.
Flat Rock Cinemas, which moved to Flat Rock six years ago from the old Skyland Hotel space, received a low-interest loan for $55,000 to convert to digital projection. The change has sharply increased the visual and audio quality of the movies there, Molton said.