Greenwood Ciné

The Greenwood Mall was conceptualized in 1965 and finally opened theatre-less in 1969. But in that era, Toledo and other cities saw a sharp increase of automated cinemas and the Greenwood Mall got a twin screen automated theatre called the Ciné-Mini 1 & 2. One auditorium was ready on opening day so it launched with its single-screen on February 12, 1971 with “Paint Your Wagon”. Its sister cinema had opened just about four miles to the East two months prior called the Ciné North.

The Ciné-Mini - like the Greenwood Mall - tried hard to find its audience and identity. On the same bill, the Ciné-Mini tried both a G and an X-rated film. It played cult films at midnight sponsored by rock station WTTO-AM including titles such as “Werewolves on Wheels”. But the cinema was getting outflanked by newer, larger theatres with more screens. So the operators simply rebranded as the SuperCiné 1 & 2 conjuring up more grandeur. The sister cinema changed to the Super Ciné North. The moves didn’t seem to lead to any more success.

Any hopes of real traction were dashed when the Greenwood Mall and its cinema were outflanked by the North Towne Square Mall opening in 1980 and its AMC North Towne opening a year later. The Super Ciné North had tried to operate as an adult theatre before closing in 1981. As the renamed Greenwood Ciné 1 & 2, the cinema became a second-run, discount house. In the video era, it played low-budget exploitation comedies and horror films carving out a niche with a very small audience of locals.

When AMC’s North Towne cut its admission to under $2 per ticket in 1987 as both it and that mall began its first sign of economic downturn, the Greenwood struggles got even worse. The cinema - which went by names including Greenwood Cinés, Greenwood Cinema 1 & 2 - was called the Greenwood Ciné at its closing on July 5, 1987 with discount subruns of “Earnest Goes to Camp” and “Secrets of My Success” splitting with “The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland”.

The cinema’s space was retrofitted for other retail. The Greenwood Mall, still trying to find its identify, rebranded as the Alexis Park Shopping Center and removed the roof area to become an outdoor strip center. In a bright spot for the former Greenwood Mall/Alexis Park Shopping Center, Northtowne Mall went into a free-fall reaching grey field status with the AMC Theatre closing in November of 2000 and the entire mall complex was ultimately demolished in 2013. Alexis Park still had business operating in the 21st Century although now theatre-less.

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