Holcomb Woods 6 Cinema

Carmike ran this location for a short time after they took over from Cineplex Odeon. Later operated by EFW, who also ran the Parkside 8 for a while, but it didn't last long. Was a nice theater but had an odd location, around back and below the shopping center with no road exposure (like the Parkside, only worse!). A friends of mine's father was with Carmike at the takeover and this place was bleeding money, just like just about every location that CO had at that point.

What has become of the theatre? Is it still there or has it been razed?

About 2 years ago it was still there but vacant. I don't recall what else was in the same shopping center but there has been a bunch of moving around in that area over the last few years. Walmart abandoned a location and moved and I think Home Depot did too. At one point Roswell was doing a study on revitalizing the area because there was so much vacant commercial space, but since I've moved away from the area I've not heard anything more.

The Rio Bravo restaurant that once sat on top of the Holcomb Woods has closed its doors, and last time I drove by the theater itself had been turned into a church.

Here are photos from July 2007 of the former Holcomb Woods Cinema: 1, 2

When this place was built in the mid 80's, 6 screens was considered a big operation, so the addition of this venue to the Atlanta theatre scene was an event of some note. I have never visited this site, but I do have one story from it as related to me by an employee of Benton Brothers, the shipping company which handled all film transport in those days:

Soon after it opened, the HW6 scored a real coup by getting a 70MM print for their run of Cocoon. During the Saturday night of the second weekend of the run, an employee who was obviously unfamiliar with the 70 operation was sent to the booth to thread up the next show. That show ran OK. When the following show hit the screen there was a nice twin set of little pinpricks of light running exactly 35MM apart down the center of the picture. What had happened was that the previous film threader had threaded up the print using the 70MM sprockets correctly, but had let the film rest against the last 35MM sprocket. Since all of the sprockets in these 35/70 machines ran all of the time regardless of which type of print was in use, the 35 sprocket in question ran merrily along for the entire show tacking little holes in the nice new 70 print.

All Septums were by this time manager operated and as is usually the case, when the theatre was busy the manager sent whichever employee could be spared to start up the next set of shows while the manager was busy actually managing the theatre. While he or she can be faulted for sending an inexperienced employee up to thread up a 70MM print, you have to wonder how familiar anyone was with this rarely used format. I have always enjoyed running projection booths, but have always considered managing theatres a thankless, aggravating, stressful job. In my managing days I refused to go to a theatre that did not have its own projectionist, union or non. Occasionally, in an emergency, I have done both, but other than the single screen locations like the mini cinemas, I have always felt that in manager operated multiplexes neither job gets done right.

As for Benton Brothers, they would not only deliver the weeks film prints to small town theatres throughout the southeast, but concession supplies from Wil-Kin and Blevins as well. Another firm known as Theatre Service Company would provide this service as well. The site of the old Benton Brothers warehouse at Techwood and Baker now sits within the boundary of Centennial Olympic Park. The company, now known as ETS moved out to Fulton Industrial Blvd, and later on to the Southwoods Industrial Park in Hapeville. A few managers still drive in to get their prints just as most of us Atlanta area managers did in the old days, but in this day of the megaplex, most of that type of work is done by professional delivery companies.

Just one more example of the way this business has changed over the 35 years I have been working in it.

Jack, when you were in Roswell recently, did you try to find the site of the old Roswell Theatre which was on the square? You and I are the only ones who have ever made any mention of that theatre on this site.

Tried and did not succeed in that I have too little information as to where it was located. The only locating information I have to date is that it was located somewhere on Canton Highway.

I started working at HW6 after the "Cocoon fiasco". However, there was always someone on the schedule for projection work only. Projectionist were manager trained. The manager (for years was Reed Rickborn) did not run projection.

I worked as a projectionist and assistant manager at Holcomb Woods from its opening off and on for the next four or so years. As MSH commented, Reed didn't generally handle projection duties, but he certainly could and would thread them up when he needed to. When it came to the 70MM prints, only he or the most senior projectionists were allowed to thread them. We only had a handful of them in my time at the theater - the re-released Fantasia and Amadeus come to mind. I can't remember who was involved with the problem with Cocoon, but no huge ramifications came about because of it.

HW6 was a great place to work. The Grand Opening was a black tie and champagne affair. The AJC newspaper touted the theater as one of the most luxurious in Atlanta, and it really was for a while. During the day in the summer it was a fairly unique place to work because the Septum offices were upstairs and as a projectionist you had to dodge around people making copies and such in order to get to the movie you needed to thread.

I was the first assistant manager there with Reed, and it was a great place to work. It was by far the nicest theater in the area for years. We were so busy that we often ran movies in "Sync" to house the crowds. In order to do that, we had to run the films through the offices and halls on many rollers with hundreds of feet between projectors. It was quite a site to see. The 70 mm projector was a monster Century water cooled projector with a 3000 watt xenon bulb. We did not get many large format prints, but it was still a great projector and shook the ground when you started it up. By the way, there was always a projectionist on staff. It was the best job in the place.

I just found this site by accident. Love the comments. Thanks for making my day.

-evan busman-

I remember seeing a number of movies here as a kid:

Andre (1994)
The Man in the Iron Mask
Deep Impact
Face/Off
A Bug's Life (1998)
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)
Screwed (2000)
Frequency (2000)

I remember that towards the end of its life (from approx. 1998 to 2002), the theater changed hands like 2 or 3 times, sometimes closing for months at a time. For a while, I thought the theater had beed closed for good, but nope, they would re-open like 2 months later.

The last time I can prove I went was to see "A.I." in 2001, but I honestly think that was my last time at the Holcomb Woods. I seem to remember the last few times I went to the theater it was really depressing. I could tell that people were losing interest in the place and it wasn't getting the same business that it used to. I think it finally closed for good sometime in 2001 or 2002. A couple years later, it became "Hope Chapel" (a church) and has remained so ever since.

The shopping center that it's located in has suffered a lot over the last 10 years or so with the losses of both Wal-Mart and Rio Bravo. Has anyone been down there lately? I wonder what it's like now.

Actually, I think I may have taken a girl there on a date in late 2001 (like October/November-ish), but again, that's the last time I can remember going there.

Does anyone know if Hope Chapel took over both the theater AND the former Rio Bravo space? Since the theater closed, I have never been back to snoop around. Also, to the people who used to work at the theater, was Rio Bravo always there? If not, what used to sit on top of the theater before Rio Bravo?

One thing no one really mentioned so far was that this place had some arcade games in it. Not many, though. They probably had 7 or 8 machines lined up against that wall on the right side when you walk in. I also remember there were a couple machines at the end of the hall right outside the theaters on the back right.

I seemed to remember the popcorn at Holcomb Woods being terrific. Of all my theater options in Roswell/Alpharetta at that time, I think I actually preferred going to Holcomb Woods because of the good popcorn. Does anyone else remember the popcorn?

I think the former Rio Bravo space is now occupied by another restaurant - this one is called Londzell's Martini Restaurant & Lounge. The former Holcomb Woods theater underneath is still a church, but I don't think it is Hope Chapel anymore, it has some new name. I actually drove by it today, but I couldn't read the whole name of the place because I was going too fast. It was something like "City Church" or something.

I went here the other day and made a video of it. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHKZ6toaQek