HOULTON – Movie buffs who may have been crestfallen over missing such summer blockbusters as “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” because the town’s only movie theater closed now have a reason to smile.

The Temple Theatre is going to reopen sometime in September. Owner Mike Hurley of Belfast promised Friday that the movie screens would immediately be flooded with some of the flicks that audiences missed since the cinema shut down in April.

The 86-year-old movie house has been for sale ever since its closure. Hurley, who owns the complex with his wife, Therese Bagnardi, let the marquee go dark, saying they believed the theater would be a viable locally owned business.

The couple signed a deal to lease the facility in June 2002 and completely renovated the Temple before it was reopened five months later. Before they took over, the cinema had been closed since December 2001 for lack of business.

Hurley lives and works in Belfast, where he is the mayor, and he and Bagnardi also own that city’s three-screen Colonial Theatre.

Hurley stressed Friday that the theater is still on the market, and noted that they have received a lot of interest in the property.

“Steady interest in the property remains ongoing,” he acknowledged. “From April until now, there has never been a time when we haven’t been dealing with parties interested in the property.”

The decision to reopen the complex has Hurley working to hire staff and preparing to catch up with movie fans.

“We are immediately going to go back over the lists and show some movies that are not yet out on video,” he said, listing such blockbusters as the final chapter of “Star Wars” and the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie film “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”

“We’ll start showing them as soon as we can,” he acknowledged. “There are a lot of good movies out there now.”