Brainerd Mini Cinema
5784 Brainerd Road,
Chattanooga,
TN
37411
5784 Brainerd Road,
Chattanooga,
TN
37411
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Contributed by
Jack Coursey
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
I do not know if this is the same theatre or not, but the Mini Cinema chain, which started in Atlanta, had one location in Chattanooga. It was submerged in a flood sometime in 1970 or 1971. I am not sure of the date because I was not working for them at the time and only heard the story after the fact.
I also heard that the location did not reopen and that the seats from it ended up in the Candler Road Mini Cinema in Decatur Ga. Again, someting I heard and have no first hand knowledge of.
This theatre was part of the MiniCinema chain of theatres franchised by Modular Cinemas. Modular Cinemas was out of Atlanta, and they pioneered the concept of the minicinema: very small theatres that could be fitted into already existing space in a shopping center. With small capacity auditoriums, automated projection, and a very small staff, minicinemas were popular in the early-1970s and elements of the format were incorporated into later multiplex theatres to refine that mode of theatre.
The Brainerd MiniCinema was in the Brainerd Village Shopping Center in Chattanooga and opened in March of 1969. It was the fifth minicinema opened by Modular, and it had a seating capacity of 400.
400 seats on both sides isn’t that bad.Any pictures anywhere of inside one of these MINI-CINEMAS? I bet Weis bought them out in Atlanta.Right Stan?
http://www.boxoffice.com/the_vault/issue_page?issue_id=1969-3-24&page_no=39#page_start
This link has an article in Boxoffice about the opening of this theatre. Really nothing about the theatre that Christofer did not relate, but it does give some information about the history of Modular Cinemas.
Yes Mike, Weis did buy out the remaining Minis in Atlanta during the summer of 1974. The first two, Peachtree Battle and Ansley Mall had already been sold, so Weis got Sandy Springs, Doraville, Candler Road, and the under construction site that became the Franklin Road, later renamed Cinema 75.