Southpark Mall Cinemas
4400 Sharon Road,
Charlotte,
NC
28211
4400 Sharon Road,
Charlotte,
NC
28211
1 person
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The Southpark Mall Cinemas was located on the back section of the Southpark Mall Shopping Center’s strip mall, that was behind Sears department store and next to several retail shops, anchored by a Colonial Stores grocery chain (which would later become a Big Star and soon afterwards a Harris Teeter).
The Southpark Mall Cinemas was General Cinemas second theatre in the greater Charlotte area, and it opened to great fanfare on August 21, 1970 as General Cinemas second twin theatre following the opening of the Charlottetown Mall Cinemas I & II that opened in 1963. The opening attractions at the Southpark Mall Cinemas was Jack Lemmon in “The Out of Towners” and Joan Collins in “Up in the Cellar”. The theatre offered plenty of free parking. It had luxurious pushback seating, a smoking loge, and a first for any cinema; its own art gallery. At the time of its opening, the Southpark Mall Cinemas was Charlotte’s premiere showplace, and it was the place to go and see some of Hollywood’s best, at one of the most exclusive indoor shopping centers in the Southeast.
By the mid-1970’s, a third auditorium had been added, and it remained that way until the late-1990’s when it closed due to the expansion of the mall.
Contributed by
raymond
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
Other photos of General Cinema Theatres in North Carolina.
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I wonder if Patricia Poland is related to Dave Poland our District Manager with GCC in the 80’s?
Absolutely!
In fact, the photos of GCC Theatres at my flickr site belong to David.
Wow, It is a small world.I worked at GCC in Augusta and Athens as an Assistant and enjoyed my times with the late Craig Zacker as my manager. I had been in the business probably longer than Zacker having worked at ABC and Plitt theatres.They wanted me to go to Columbia to help out there at the Mall theatre,but didn’t care about it and stayed in Augusta. Of all my Disrict Managers David and Mr.Biggs with ABC/PLitt were the nicest men to serve under,even as an assistant I felt welcomed when he came to town.Hope Mr.Poland is doing okay.
Mike, Thanks for nice comment about David.
I married my box office girl my four kids are by-products of GCC.LOL.
looking at old movies ads at the Southpark,“BATMAN and ROBIN” are playing on Screen one and two,says it in the paper, Screen three has “SPEED 2”. SUMMER MOVIE CAMP starting up again.I remember those days.LOL.
I have the original ads for the grand opening of this theatre that was in the Charlotte Observer on August 21,1970.
THE SOUTHPARK MALL CINEMAS or CINEMA I & II Under General Cinema Corporation opened on August 21,1970 with a seating capacity of 800(400 seats each in both auditoriums)as a twin cinema. The second auditorium was split down the middle to add a third auditorium later on during the mid-1970’s that had a seating capacity of 300. It closed in 1999.