Griffith Park Cinema I-II
236 West Ridge Road,
Griffith,
IN
236 West Ridge Road,
Griffith,
IN
2 people
favorited this theater
General Cinema opened this theater, the last twin to open in Nortwest Indiana in 1979. It’s premiere attractions were “Butch and Sundance:The Early Days” and “Rocky 2”. It was located in a strip mall in the very southeast corner which made it hard to see from either Ridge Road or Cline Avenue. This strip mall was the site of the Ridge Road Drive-In which had closed two years ealier.
Unlike the other GCC twins in the area, Griffith Park’s auditoriums were longer in length and smaller in width. The theater did well since it normally played movies exclusively. In the mid 90’s the theater began to fall on hard times due to competing multiplexes and General Cinema finally closed its doors in 1998. The giant read Cinema I-II sign on the building still sits there though the lobby is virtually empty save for the skeleton of the concession stand.
Contributed by
John
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
The address for the Griffith Park Cinema I & II is 236 West Ridge Road, Griffith, Indiana.
Actually, the theaters were tucked in the northeast corner of the shopping center between a handful of smaller shops which faced the west, and a landscape supply/nursery that faced south. But the theater was very hard to see from either Ridge Rd. or Cline Ave., and the signage was never that good to begin with.
The first movie I ever saw here was called “Nightwing” that was a very bad horror movie about bats. This was a unique theater as, unlike the other area GCC’s, the two auditoriums were deep and not wide. The building is still there and the skeleton of the concession stand is still in the lobby.
I am looking into reopening this cinema as a Brew and View (A cinema that serves Beer and Wine)
Good luck.B.E. Guess you haven’t yet since nothing has been posted about,Save that GCC theatre!
For some reason I can’t get this place out of my head. I stopped by it a year ago and took some photos. For being closed for so long the inside seemed to be in great condition. It was a great place to go see movies. Easy parking, never over-run, clean and ran movies for the longest of times. The best part about it is that after or before the movie the mall was a place to just hang. Venture store or other other joint on the south east corner (can’t remember the name) were cool places to shop. In the 90’s the mall was all but vacant but now it has “some” life in it with K-mart next door. It would be nice if someone did re-open (like a Brew and View) here. Again, great parking, easy to get too (being 3 minutes from the expressway).
Well the condition of this theater was in pretty bad shape. The amount of work that it needed would not have been worth what they wanted to charge for leasing it. I think there is a new leasing company in charge of it that I am going to try to contact.
To behfilm, how fares the work on reopening?