Crossville’s last movie theater up for sale, plans to turn it into church in place

CROSSVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Rocky Top 10 is the last place for people in Crossville to watch a movie at the theater without driving more than half an hour away out of the city.

The one remaining theatre is up for sale, and Revolution Church just down the road is looking to buy the building and move its growing congregation to the bigger space.

“We think we’ll probably be able to double in size,” said pastor Josh Cardwell.

Revolution Church has roots at Rocky Top 10 because it’s the very place the church started back in 2014, where at the time they shared the space with the theater.

Cardwell has signed a 60-day due diligence contract with the theater’s owners with full intent to buy the building. While this would expand the church, there’s a chance it would also take away the city’s last remaining movie theater.

“I would hate to see it go because of our young people. They need another place to go besides the streets and drugs,” said one longtime customer of the theater.

Details of exactly how the church would operate are still being decided, but there is a possibility that movies are still able to be shown at the theater before or after church services. As for the building itself, that’s something Cardwell said will remain the same throughout the potential transition process.

“As far as it looking like a movie theatre, we still think it’ll look like a movie theatre, and we’re pretty excited about that,” said Cardwell.

The sale is not final yet, so details on when this possible change will take place have not been released yet.

Movies are still being shown at Rocky Top 10 until further notice.

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