With three less screens, Kerasotes, which owns all area movie theaters in Carbondale and Marion, will find it difficult to provide superb independent and artsy feature films like Quills or Requiem For a Dream to Carbondale’s college audience.

The closing of the Fox leaves only the University Place 8 and Varsity theaters remaining in Carbondale.

Within the last decade, Kerasotes has closed down several theaters in Southern Illinois, including theaters in Carbondale, Marion and Murphysboro.

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There remains a possibility that the theater chain will open a new Showplace 8 in Carbondale around Christmas 2002, but Kerasotes officials claim those talks are still tentative and stress that no contract has been signed.

An agreement between Carbondale’s University Mall and Kerasotes that would have plugged in a few more screens in Carbondale was recently scuttled. Considering that failure, the possibility of Kerasotes constructing more theaters here in the future seems shaky.

Carbondale is no vast metropolis, but it is a college town. Cities that yearly host large amounts of college students need more screens to show more films. With such a diverse crowd of moviegoers, the big-budget blockbusters alone are hardly enough to satisfy everyone Kerasotes has canned the Saluki movie theater and now the Fox. They have made a habit of buying out and closing down all competition in the area. We believe they could and should do a better job of giving to Carbondale, instead of just taking away.