Forest Park Mall Cinema
7600 Roosevelt Road,
Forest Park,
IL
60130
7600 Roosevelt Road,
Forest Park,
IL
60130
1 person
favorited this theater
The Forest Park Mall Cinemas opened in 1982 by Essaness Theaters. In 1986 Plitt theaters took over the theater, and soon after Cineplex Odeon took it over. The theatre began to show second run movies in 1991.
The theater closed after only ten years of being in use in 1992.
The theater was finally demolished in 2001, and is now the site of a church.
Contributed by
Aaron S. Wood, jimpiscitelli
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
I wish I could see a photo of this place. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Forest Park Mall Cinema. What was the big auditorium like?
To CinemarkFan: Theater #1 was a big auditorium. Theaters #2 and #3 were small (per Life’s too short’s comment).
My only vivid memory of this place was seeing Transformers the movie there. I also remember it being shuttered around thetime I started high school and staying vacant for almost 10 years. A ministry purchased the theater space finally and eventually the entire mall. Funny thing is I work as a program screener for one of the stations in town and one of the religous programs we run (Bill Winston) is the very one who bought the theater and the mall. They show the outside of the theater structure at the beginning (it has been radically remodeled inside and out) and though I don’t remember how the theater was laid out, I bet they made all 3 auditoriums into one big one where they hold services. Obviously, it was redecorated inside and all new seating was put in. Anyone wondering how the theater looked on the inside, the closest you can come is by checking out Bill Winston’s show!
This was a very nice theatre. The first movie I saw there was “Nightmare on Elm Street”. It had a big auditorum for showing the more popular “hit” movie, and two smaller screens for less popular films. It was a “cozy” place. When it went into “second runs”, and the rest of the mall started to shutter, I knew the end was coming. I tried “ripping off” the logo on one of the interior walls (it was aluminum, and it contained silouttes of 4 trees, no detail, just eliptical looking trees with trunks). I liked it, but I broke it, and cut up my fingers in the process. Today, a church uses the space, and although the entire building wasn’t completely torn down, the vast majority of it was taken down, and rebuilt. It’s a real nice looking church, I must say. This was my favourite cineplex during the time it was around (1983-1993). Today, in addition to the church, the mall has an A.J. Wright, a K-Mart, and an Old Country Buffet. It’s doing pretty good.
Oops! I stand corrected. Aaron S. is correct. It opened in ‘82, and closed in '92, not '83 & '93, as I had saud in my previous post.
A boxoffice item of February, 1983, gave the seating capacity of the Forest Park Theatres 1-2-3 (apparently the name when it opened) as 1,800, with two auditoriums of 500 seats and one of 800. All three were equipped for 70mm projection.
Besides “Cocoon” what other movies were shown in 70MM at the Forest Park?
Jimpiscitelli,
Before “Cocoon”, “Return of the Jedi” was probably their first 70mm presentation. It may even be their most memorable.
I wish their was pictures of the theater around. My guess is that the entrance was similar to Chicago Ridge, another Essaness theater that opened a year earlier.
Don’t quote me on this yet, but “The Right Stuff” may have been shown here in 70mm.
The theater closed after there was a huge fight in the lobby. I believe when the movie “Colors” was played. Candy counters were smashed and there was one teenager that died. After that, business went down and they didn’t stay open much longer. Courtesy and Venture closed not too long after and the mall became pretty desolate. I started working at a clothing store that used to be in the mall and it was kind of errie because the theater was closed but we had access to that and the food court and everything was the same, just empty.