Danville Stadium Cinemas floor staff member Allison Turner cleans the concessions area on Thursday, the first day the theater had been open since mid-March. 

A Danville Stadium Cinemas staff member makes changes to the marquee sign on Thursday afternoon. 

Thursday afternoon at Danville Stadium Cinemas didn’t bring large crowds, but socially distanced signs are ready in the concessions area for when customers return. 

The lobby at Danville Stadium Cinemas features movie posters for upcoming releases alongside signs promoting health tips while at the theater. 

Masks are required for all guests when visiting Danville Stadium Cinemas. 

The Danville Stadium Cinemas marquee sign on Riverside Drive shows the theater’s reopening date. 

Danville Stadium Cinemas — the city’s 12-auditorium movie theater — reopened to moviegoers on Thursday following a five-month closure brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The big screen’s return didn’t bring back large crowds, but some patrons did come from far away to take in a matinee.

“Since all the theaters were closed in North Carolina this was the closest we could actually attend,” said Jose Dominguez, 21, of Burlington, who saw director Christopher Nolan’s new film “Tenet” with his younger brother and two other friends. “We had no idea this was the first opening.”

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to announce on Sept. 11 whether the state will enter Phase 3 of reopening, which would allow movie theaters to welcome guests again.

“But that’s a maybe,” said Guillermo Dominguez, 18. “We didn’t take any chances, so we just drove here.”

Hunter Dickerson, 24, of Reidsville, North Carolina, drove north with his fiancee, Brittney Coe, to see “The New Mutants,” a movie based on the Marvel comic book series. From a drive through Danville earlier in the week, they learned ahead of time that the theater would be opening again.

“We saw they were opening up Thursday so we thought we’d come here and watch a movie,” Dickerson said.

Face masks are required for entry to the theater, and social distancing is enforced in the lobby’s concessions line and in the theater. On the first day, though, social distancing wasn’t much of an issue. Dickerson and the Dominguez brothers said their respective groups were the only ones in their midday screenings.