Columbia City 3 Cinema
10205 Wincopin Circle,
Columbia,
MD
21044
10205 Wincopin Circle,
Columbia,
MD
21044
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp.
Architects: William C. Riseman
Firms: Marks & Cooke
Previous Names: Columbia City II
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Built in 1972 as two screens seating 1,000 (600 & 400), it was operated by General Cinemas - the Baltimore division manager was located there. The Columbia City II was opened May 23, 1973 with “Hitler:The Last Ten Days”. A third auditorium was added October 22, 1982 by dividing the larger auditorium. It finally closed as a 3-screen cinema in October 2000 and was demolished in fall of 2001.
Contributed by
dave-bronx
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
This needs to be listed under General Cinema, who operated it for its entire run…….
This was a General Cinema 3 screen when it closed around 2000. Demolished to make room for a senior citizen high rise complex.
Please..This theatre opened as a 2 screen twin theatre, and had the larger of the auditoriums split thus creating a 3 screen tri-plex, as it remained until it’s dying day in 2000. It never had 7 screens.
I was a manager for GCC in the Baltimore/Virginia division area when it opened, and during most of it’s lifetime (I retired at the end of 1998) and know the facts first hand.
Mr. Pipe – Mr. Bispeck, the DM in Baltimore, was previously the manager at the Parmatown Cinema in Cleveland, he left us in the summer of 1972. His first office there in Baltimore was at the Security Sq. Cinema, then shortly after moved over to Columbia City.
Dave-Bronx…Bernie Bispeck became the DM in 1972 following the resignation of Ed Dineen (who as we know eventually returned as a RVP). At that time, the division office was located at the Perring Plaza Cinema in Baltimore County. When the Columbia City Cinemas opened, he moved the division office there. He was removed as DM shortly afterwards, and was replace by the late Walter Miles. He was then assigned as manager of the Security Square Mall Cinemas (a twin at the time, located inside the mall). He never got over being removed, claiming he was returning to manager as “semi-retirement”! Eventually, he moved to Florida with GCC, with his first stop being Fashion Square, and ending at a slow twin theatre, I think was called Seminole.
With all due respect to your knowledge of GCC, the above is correct as I lived it first hand during my early years with GCC in Baltimore.
Hate to have worked in a theatre with the DM there.
Don’t know where Chuck is getting his info from, but it definitely was NEVER a seven screen cinema. If you’d ever been there, you know it was barely big enough for three screens.
In early 2000 the cinema tried one last attempt to stay alive by turning into an arthouse, playing smaller indie and foreign flicks. It didn’t last, and the Columbia Cinema closed shortly thereafter. The last movie I ever saw there was Kenneth Branagh’s LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST in the summer of 2000.
When it opened in the 1970s, the General Cinema was the only movie theater in Columbia. The Columbia Palace 9 opened in 1986, sucking away what little business the downtown theater was still doing. In 1997, the United Artists Snowden Square 14 siphoned off the business from both the Columbia III and Palace 9, with the original Columbia movie theater closing in 2000 and Palace 9 in 2001.
The architect was Marks & Cooke of Towson, Maryland. Combined seating was listed at 1,000.
This opened on May 23rd, 1973. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
3 screens on October 22nd, 1982. Grand opening ad in the photo section.