University City Cinema

It had to have been still open in 1991, as I saw Terminator 2 there. The theater still had a very 1960s lobby decor (big white ball lights, chrome and walnut veneer concession stand?) and the seats were upholstered in red, white and blue vinyl. As with many twinned theaters, projection was from an original porthole near a rear corner of the split auditorium, making for a suboptimal presentation.

I saw Madonna: Truth or Dare there. That would mean the theater was still open in May 1991.

Theater interior and exterior were functional and unremarkable, as previous commenters have observed.

The Applebee’s that currently occupies the site has a framed snapshot of the old theater hanging on the wall just inside the entrance.

As someone who’s lived in Columbus for a long time, I keep noticing that “Chuck” has a habit of listing closing years for theaters that are early by a year or two, yet he says it with such concise authority, like he’s certain of it. I also, like a poster above, saw Terminator 2 here, so it was still open at least into 1991.

My fondest memory of the theater is taking a break from the film project I was editing at OSU late one evening, walking down the hill to Ackerman Road, and catching “Return of the Living Dead”, which I didn’t really expect to be any good. Turned out I loved it, and was humming the closing song to myself while walking back past the gigantic cemetery which is on the north side of Dodridge. Appropriate.

Sorry, Chuck, didn’t mean that to come out as hostile as I now realize it sounded. I just thought it was kind of strange that every theater I was landing on had you giving a date, then someone else saying “it was open longer than that”. No problems. We’re all just trying to share what we know; sorry for sounding snotty.

Wow. I lived in University Village for several years and would have loved to have had easy access to a theater. I would eat at Applebees at least weekly. I had no idea that a theater was there and I lived there around 1999.