Pemberton Square Cinema 4, the only place to see a movie on a big screen in Vicksburg for the past 21 years, has closed, said mall manager Renee Williams.

The cinema was one of 10 in three states owned by Illinois-based Village Entertainment.

Its departure means Vicksburg residents who want to see a theatrical release over the holidays will be driving to Clinton, 30 miles east on Interstate 20.

It also means Vicksburg is without a motion picture theater for the first time in perhaps a century.

The mall has seen more than 10 businesses leave Pemberton Square and its nearby Pemberton Plaza property in the past two years. Most of the closings have been blamed on higher rents charged by the mall’s parent company, CBL & Associates Inc., based in Chattanooga, Tenn.

One source said failure to pay rent was the reason the Cinema 4 closed, although Williams did not provide a reason.

On Dec. 9, an argument over personal belongings between two former cinema employees culminated in a stabbing and an arrest. Hours later, a fight broke out in the middle of the mall, and four people were charged by Vicksburg police.

Five stores closed in August after a separate fight between patrons and two of the stores’ proprietors. That ended in the stores’ leases being canceled less than a week later.

Management at Pemberton Square and officials with CBL & Associates have not made any comments regarding the closings, but have said efforts are ongoing to attract more and better retailers.

Before the cinema’s closing, Williams had said renovations were in the works to upgrade its seating and sound system, but were delayed indefinitely in midsummer. She said Monday that the mall would be talking to other theater operators to fill the space adjacent to Dillard’s.

Twin Cinema, located immediately west of the former Battlefield Village mall, closed shortly before the opening of the Pemberton Square Cinema in 1985. Before that, the Rivoli Drive-In closed its operation on what is now Hope Street in the early 1970s. Another drive-in operated on U.S. 61 South.

During Hollywood’s heyday, most theaters – the Alamo, Palace, Joy and Strand – operated in downtown Vicksburg. One of them, the Saenger Theater, earned a place in history when its roof collapsed during a 1953 tornado.