CLEMSON — The Astro III movie theatre, a longtime hit among Clemson University students and families due, in recent years, to its discount ticket cost, will end a nearly 40-year run on College Avenue following Thursday’s showings.

Dale Hurst, director of marketing for Carmike Cinemas, the Astro III’s parent company since the mid-1980s and based in Columbus, Ga., confirmed Monday afternoon that he received the official word regarding the triple screen theatre earlier in the day.

“I just hate this happened,” Hurst said.

Hurst attributed the decision to a combination of factors.

“With us trying to operate that theatre as a discount theatre and the fact that we have had some competition open up around us, that has made it difficult to maintain attendance and keep it a profitable business,” he said.

Though the decision came Monday, Hurst said it had been under discussion for “probably the last six months or so.”

“It’s never a knee jerk reaction,” Hurst said, adding, “But we needed to operate this theatre with the dignity and respect that the people of Clemson have come to know and to operate it any differently would have been a disservice.”

The Astro III was the last of three movie theatres that once stood in downtown Clemson — along with the Clemson Theatre, across from Judge Keller’s, and which closed in 1984, and the YMCA Theatre (now the present day Holtzendorf Hall). Although the theatre initially featured a single screen upon its 1971 opening, two more screens and more modern sound capabilities were added in the late 1980s.

On Mar. 14, 1974, the theatre held a red carpet ceremony to mark the premier of The Midnight Man, a murder mystery starring Burt Lancaster that was filmed in Clemson and Pickens and Anderson counties.

When the Seneca Cinemas opened in the early 1990s, the Astro III began showing first and second run movies at a discount rate — first for $1 and, presently, its $2 admission price.

With the exception of the manager, nearly all of the Astro III employees will also have to seek other job opportunities as a result of the closing.

“We’ll always offer the manager of the theatre an opportunity to relocate,” Hurst said.

Though Thursday marks the end of an era in Clemson moviegoing, Hurst said no fanfare is planned for theatre patrons on the final day. While the Astro III itself will end, Hurst is hopeful that Carmike Cinemas will eventually return to Clemson.

“I would hate to think that we would leave Clemson altogether,” he said.