Village
3915 S. University Avenue,
Little Rock,
AR
72204
3915 S. University Avenue,
Little Rock,
AR
72204
4 people
favorited this theater
The former UA Cinema 150 opened with an enormous dome roof and a 120 degree curved screen. In addition to standard 35mm, the theater also showed 70mm and D-150 formats. When this happened, a large BLUE curvulon is used.
After years of service, the UA Cinema 150 closed in May 2003. This was the last operating Dimension 150 theater in the country and represents another loss to that era of widescreen cinema.
The theater reopened as a concert venue in 2006.
Contributed by
Richard Peterson, Cinema Treasures
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Recent comments (view all 40 comments)
I was one of the many who came from out-of-state (Texas and Louisiana) to see 70MM features here (Alien, The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Young Sherlock Holmes, Willow). In August of ‘92, came to see Unforgiven (not in 70 unfortunately) after the theatre had been remodeled. Much to my dismay, it seems that the screen had been slightly shrunk; the widesceen didn’t seem so wide! Never made it back after that.
Also, the former Ho-Jo (later The University Inn) was torn down in the early 2000’s to make way for a gas/convenience store/McDonald’s. The University Inn had been deteriorating during the 90’s and was probably ready for the wrecking ball. At one time, visiting teams in the old Texas League stayed here when they came to town to play the Travelers. I believe the Asher DI closed in the late 80’s due to the decline of the drive-in and expansion plans from either the Coleman dairy on one side and the shopping center on the other-neither came to be.
Very intersting looking building, too bad they close up all the good ones.
I was in Little Rock once in the 1980s and saw the last Dirty Harry movie at this theater. I loved how big the screen was. One funny note was before the feature and after the previews, you saw a warning on the screen that switching auditoriums was prohibited.
Quite funny in a single screen theater.
You saw “THE DEAD POOL” J.B. for the record.
Words cannot describe how special this theater was. Saturdays, my family would make a day trip out of coming from Hot Springs to see a film. The experience ranked up there with going to see the Razorbacks play just up the road at War Memorial. For a couple of night games I was lucky enough to see a matinee before heading up to the stadium. The cinema had two entrances on opposite sides of the lobby and there was always a race between the kids to get a seat directly under the domes center because it almost had a 3D effect.
I thought about listing all the films I saw there as way to explain how great the experience was but a list just doesn’t describe what an awesome experience truly was. After some time I finally came up with an idea that might explain how special the 150 truly was. I saw Waterworld there and it was one of the best films ever made! I wish I could have seen Heaven’s Gate or Ishtar there, that would have been awesome! Can someone explain to me how Elizabeth Berkley didn’t win an Oscar for Showgirls? Ok, that last won was a reach, but hopefully I made my point.
I am from Tennessee, but was on a family vacation when we saw “Starman” here in 1984. The venue made a huge impression on me! I am glad to find reference to it here.
There are some interior images at this site.
I remember going to this theatre when I was in college in 1968. Saw SOUTH PACIFIC reissue there and I am pretty sure it was a 70MM print.
I worked at the old UA Four, near the Southwest Mall, for about a year, in ‘72/'73, and any UA employee was allowed to see free movies at any other UA theater in Little Rock. My first wife was an employee at The Cinema 150 (That’s what we all knew it as), and we saw quite a few movies there. But… Well before that, I saw 'Ben-Hur’ at The Cinema, in 1969, for it’s 10th anniversary re-release. The chariot race, on that huge, curved screen, was absolutely AWESOME!!