AUBURN – Coming attractions: a new owner for Northeast Cinema 10 in the Auburn Plaza and an updated look.

New England Retail Properties, which handles the leases for the Auburn Plaza, said Flagship Cinema signed an agreement Tuesday to move into the space now occupied by Northeast Cinema 10.

The lease stipulates that Flagship will invest in the exterior of the building, which currently has no marquee displaying movies. It also plans to upgrade the sound and camera systems, according to Matt Halprin, broker for the plaza.

“One of the criteria for the new lease was to make the exterior more inviting,” said Halprin. “Inside, it was clean and inviting, but the exterior wasn’t doing anything to bring people to the plaza.”

Halprin said he was positive the cinema will remain open, despite having another Flagship cinema about four miles away in Lewiston.

“It’s absolutely not closing,” said Halprin, who added it was a priority of the plaza owners to keep a cinema in the mix. “We would have found another cinema if Flagship wasn’t interested.”

Flagship President John Crowley said in a release that the only changes moviegoers will notice will be positive.

“We love the Lewiston and Auburn area and will not be making any changes to the theater,” he said. “We will continue to offer quality entertainment with first-run movies for the exact same price that they are today. The only change we will make to the theater will be to upgrade and improve its physical appearance.”

Workers at the Auburn cinema weren’t sure what specific changes would await them. They were waiting for instructions from Northeast Cinema, which is moving its corporate offices from Connecticut to Massachusetts. Officials were unavailable for comment. The cinema employs about 20 people.

The cinemas on both sides of the river have 10 screens each. According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, the U.S. average is 8,221 people per screen. Lewiston and Auburn have a combined population of about 60,000, with about 104,000 for the entire county. Twenty screens could serve a population of about 164,000 people.

Jim Kozak, director of communications for the association, said theater ownership took off between 1995 and 2000, but has remained essentially flat since then, having reached a saturation point with 6,060 sites and a total of 35,774 screens.

But the moviegoing public remains strong. In 2002, 1.64 billion tickets were sold and 1.57 billion in 2003.

“In terms of butts in seats, those are the biggest years since 1957 and the dawn of the age of television,” said Kozak.