Northgate 1 & 2

9350 Dyer Street,
El Paso, TX 79924

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dallasmovietheaters
dallasmovietheaters on March 23, 2021 at 9:45 am

Northgate Shopping Center was announced in 1959. Nesmith and Lane were the architects of the Center which launched on May 1, 1960 and called Northgate Mall. Expansion in 1965 led to Interstate getting a prime spot for a new theater also architected by Nesmith and Lane. It also brought the Northgate Popular Department Store. Ground was broken on February 23, 1966. The $325,000 suburban theatre opened June 24, 1966 with “Doctor Zhivago”. It was on an outparcel strip making parking easy with 500 spots. It was just across the way from the Northgate - later turned NorthPark Mall.

Interstate became part of ABC Interstate and then, simply, ABC Theatres causing some slight tweaks to the theater’s official name. It was twinned in 1978 and became the Plitt Northgate Twin 1 & 2 in September of 1979 when Plitt took over ABC Theatres. In 1983, it became the Commonwealth Northgate Twin when Commonwealth Amusements . UA took on Commonwealth officially becoming the UA Northgate 2 in 1989. Boomerangs opened across the lot in the NorthPark Mall beginning as a four-plex and extending to six screens.

UA began to shed older twins and quadplexes in its portfolio in favor of 6- and 8-screen multiplexes. It had threatened to close the Northgate in 1990 at the end of a 25-year lease. A new four-screen theater, the Northeast (later NorthPark 4) opened inside the NorthPark Mall in 1990 in anticipation of the closure. However, an additional leasing period of ten years was arranged likely at exceedingly favorable terms to UA and its Northgate. A slight oddity was that - though having two theaters in a mall area was common - it was rather unusual for both to be discount houses. But citing few customers, UA closed the Northgate as a $1 discount, subrun house on September 24, 1994 with “Wagons East” and “Speed.”

But Take One Cinemas took on the lease and it was the interior Boomerangs theatre that closed in 1996. A rumored 10-screen replacement to the Boomerangs fun center and cinema was advertised but never was completed. Take One eventually closed this location on February 28, 1999 (technically as the Take One Cinema - though nobody likely new that since the Northgate signage remained until closure. It did so maintaining discount status and running summer “camps” for kids. The retail strip was later demolished followed by the entire NorthPark Mall in 2011 after being purchased by the City of El Paso.

rivest266
rivest266 on July 1, 2018 at 7:57 pm

2 screens on June 2nd, 1978. Ad in photo section.

Alphawoolf
Alphawoolf on April 11, 2016 at 9:01 am

I worked at the Northgate from 1992-1995, when it was just a $1 theatre. My best memory was climbing up on the roof and watching the fires on the Franklin Mountains.

raysson
raysson on October 29, 2015 at 10:42 am

There was also another Northgate Theatre in Durham, North Carolina as well that is also listed on the Cinema Treasures site,but it is listed as the Northgate Twin Theatres. That theater opened on Christmas Day 1962 with Doris Day and Stephen Boyd in “Jumbo” that had a seating capacity of 750. It was twinned on June 17, 1975 and closed in 1986. I do have the opening ads for the Northgate Theatre’s grand opening in Durham from Christmas Day 1962. Contact me at

pnelson
pnelson on October 27, 2015 at 6:56 pm

There was another Northgate Theatre in Seattle. Also located at the end of the first mall in the country they say. Art moderne/deco. Large and high end in appearance. Neon accents in the ceiling like circles and a working curtain. Waterfall if I remember. A huge lobby and a huge marquee that stretched across the front of the building. Also deco. Should have been saved. Gone many years now. Mall is more active than ever however. The very booming Seattle you know!

Don Lewis
Don Lewis on October 27, 2015 at 5:28 pm

Hey simbared “contrary” to what I suspect maybe even you can click on this link Northgate Theatre Photo and see why our description says “possibly” the end of a strip mall.

diapason
diapason on October 24, 2009 at 11:14 am

Let’s give the Northgate its due — it was a very nice high-class first-run place when it opened. It may have looked a little spartan compared to the razzle-dazzle design of older venues, but that just refelects the architectural style of its day. It fell on hard times when its neighborhood declined and the shopping center gradually went downhill and finally closed.

The Northgate not only had a great location on the parking lot of the largest shopping center in that entire end of El Paso, but it was also close to Irvin High School and right next door to a branch library. Early on, kids were known to tell their parents they would be studying at the library after school, when they really planned to hit the Northgate in a big group. Sometimes they’d swarm the box office and then surround the ticket-taker, confusing everybody while many of them slipped in without paying.

Coate
Coate on August 31, 2009 at 8:46 pm

Doesn’t anyone read the older comment postings??? I cited the correct 1966 opening date in my post of March 31, 2009.

simbared
simbared on August 31, 2009 at 8:36 pm

The Grand Opening ad is a great find. I was 13 years old, and we rode our bikes over to the theater when we saw the searchlight (the old carbon arc version). There were reporters interviewing people on the red carpet. It was a big deal for an otherwise boring part of town. The date had to be June 1966, though. The movie wasn’t released until December 1965.

simbared
simbared on May 31, 2009 at 8:45 pm

Contrary to the description above, the Northgate Theatre was/is a free-standing building, not part of a strip mall. The building included a few small retail spaces to the left of the theatre entrance. The theatre was built near the Southwest corner of Northgate Shopping Center, a large and popular mall in the 1960’s. Patrons parked in the shopping center parking lot. It was the only walk-in theatre in Northeast El Paso for decades, and offered first-run movies as well as 50-cent Saturday matinees for kids. Sonny and Cher actually made an appearance there when their movie “Good Times” made its El Paso debut in 1967. It was originally a single-screen theatre, and later divied into two screens.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on April 7, 2009 at 5:28 pm

Boxoffice Magazine published an article about the opening of the Northgate in its issue of July 11, 1966. An invitational preview party was held on June 23, the night before the house opened to the public, and included a screening of “The Glass Bottom Boat.”

The Northgate was designed by Nesmith-Lane & Associates. I’ve searched the Internet and can’t find anything else designed by this firm other than the shopping center in which the theater was located and an El Paso warehouse for a Coca-Cola bottler. It’s likely that this was the only theater they designed.

Coate
Coate on April 7, 2009 at 2:48 pm

I need to correct a detail I mentioned a few posts ago.

The Northgate was not the first theater in Texas to get Dolby Stereo as originally claimed. That distinction, I believe, belongs to the Medallion in Dallas. Nor was Northgate the first in El Paso to get Dolby. That distinction belongs to a place called American Star (which I don’t think has a page here on Cinema Treasures).

Northgate did eventually install Dolby (a CP50) in autumn 1977 for their engagement of “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.”

Coate
Coate on April 7, 2009 at 2:41 pm

Thanks, moderators, for updating the theater name. Why not also update the address and seat count? I provided both details in my second of two March 31 postings.

Coate
Coate on March 31, 2009 at 12:09 pm

What’s your point, raysson? Do a “Northgate” search here and you’ll find eleven theaters with that name. Do the same search on CinemaTour.com and you’ll get a hit of over twenty.

raysson
raysson on March 31, 2009 at 12:01 pm

FYI: There is also a Northgate Theatre listed in Durham,North Carolina as well. Listed in Cinema Treasures as the Northgate Twin Theatres.

Silicon Sam
Silicon Sam on March 31, 2009 at 8:40 am

I vaguely remember that place. I grew up in El Paso, and every time we went to the movies, it was either a drive-in or on Fort Bliss post. Cheap movies that way. My father had a friend that was the ticket taker, and well you can guess we never paid to get in.

Coate
Coate on March 31, 2009 at 7:20 am

Some background details…

The Northgate opened on June 24, 1966. The debut attraction was a roadshow presentation of “Doctor Zhivago,” which would go on to run for 14 weeks.

The venue was located in the Northgate Center. Newspaper advertising generally listed its location as Dyer at Diana, though I believe the actual street address was 9350 Dyer.

Grand-opening newspaper promotion boasted:
The ultimate in…
– Restful seating with plenty of leg room
– Giant screen with distortion-free images
– Full-range stereophonic sound
– Year-round air conditioning
– Acres of free parking

An El Paso Herald-Post columnist cited the seat-count as 826.

The original operator was Interstate Theatres. In 1971, the company became known as ABC Interstate.

According to the records of Dolby Labs (circa 1977), Northgate was the first cinema in Texas to order a Dolby Stereo sound system.

Coate
Coate on March 31, 2009 at 7:09 am

The photo in the link from the post above illustrates the Northgate was a theatRE, not a theatER.

I hate to nit-pick over that detail, but the Cinema Treasures posting guidelines encourage members to make the distinction.