General Cinema Galleria Five
13350 Dallas Parkway,
Dallas,
TX
75240
13350 Dallas Parkway,
Dallas,
TX
75240
3 people
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This theater was a five screen General Cinema theater that opened with the Dallas Galleria in 1982. It was built into the mall at the ice rink level and you could very easily miss it if you didn’t know it was there.
Despite not living near the mall, would come to see shows there as didn’t have a lot of alternatives for those living in far north Dallas, Farmers Branch and Carrollton at the time (now we have more theaters then we know what to do with). I remember that it was an unusual design as the box office was a four side desk smiliar to a mall security or information desk stuck way out between the lobby and the ice rink. The lobby itself was down several steps, no elevator here and definately not handicap accessable by today’s standards. The auditoriums were traditional box like auditoriums, very small and lined with perforated metal. Often wondered if anyone would ever find us alive if something bad happened as I would occasionally think about how the entire mall was on top of these little auditoriums.
I wasn’t there for the closing in 2000. Remember it was a very hole in the wall type establishement as far as location (very nice though), so it had a really hard time being successful and then the megaplexs started to come online. Simple GC decor for the mid-1980’s.
It was boarded up for years, only fans knew it was there. Then when the Galleria expanded and renovated years earlier, it was finally gutted and turned into concession and resturant space.
Remember if you made the last show, if you didn’t come in through the Westin hotel, you could come in to the Alpha Road entrance and they’d leave a door open with a bypass that took you around whatever store was there at the time and into the mall common area as everything was already closed. Then after the show there never was any security to force you out, so you’d have the run of the mall until/unless you caused trouble. Embarrassed to say I saw “Waterwold” there….
Contributed by
k blanco
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
K Blanco, according to Wikipedia, this mall opened in 1982 and Waterworld is an mid 1990’s movie. I think it closed in 2000
This was actually a five-plex, not four. It opened with the mall in Fall 1982 and closed in 2000, as soon as GCC’s bankruptcy filing was approved. Dallas-area moviegoers (and the newspaper film critics) were disappointed in this theatre upon it’s opening. They expected something special from GC for such a high-profile location (a la NorthPark), but instead the place turned out to be another uninspired, standard-issue GCC row of crackerbox auditoriums.
One other notable feature of this place….the restrooms were located off the lobby, accessible only via a small flight of stairs. Very strange design, and very wheelchair-unfriendly.