George L. Baker launched the Baker City Opera House on January 18, 1901 and shortened to the Baker Opera House. It used the name Baker Theatre from 1906 to 1925 at which time it was closed for a major refresh by the Heilner Brothers and the Burks. It became the Clarick Theatre on November 9, 1925 launching Wirth “Blossom Time.”
The Orpheum Theatre launched on September 6, 1909 with live vaudeville and short films. A later article said it was built on the site of a retail store that had burned down. The Orpheum closed briefly and had a second grand opening as the Orpheum Theatre on January 24, 1910. After a refresh by Haisch & Cutter in the Summer of 1916, the venue had third grand opening as the New Orpheum relaunching on September 20, 1916 with “Poor Little Peppina.” It soon lost “New” to be just the Orpheum Theatre.
The Orpheum added sound to remain viable. It closed on September 18, 1935 and was enlarged and modernized in a three-month project that subsumed the neighboring Pollman Building to the plans of architect J.W. DeYoung of Portland. On December 21, 1935, the new streamline moderne New Orpheum opened with its fourth grand opening with the film, “Collegiate.” (There’s no record of a fire closing the theater in 1936.)
It became just the Orpheum dropping “New” in 1938 before suffering a fire on September 15, 1943 that gutted the theater. Its basement was used surreptitiously by the “Panther Club,” a juvenile delinquent group through 1947. It finally relaunched five years later as the New Baker Theatre on December 2, 1948 with “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.” It appears to have closed January 27, 1957 with “The Queen of Babylon” and “Bigger Than Life.”
Appears to have opened on September 29, 1950 with “Trail of the Lonesome Pine.” Its second season was cut short when it was destroyed by fire on August 20, 1951. It was reopened the following April. In its final season, the concession building was destroyed by fire on August 18, 1976 but they completed the year with a temporary building closing October 31, 1976 with “Jaws.”
The former Aloha became the Empire Theatre on May 22, 1912. It closed on October 29, 1950 with “Singapore” and “Pirates of Monterey” supported by the cartoon, “Little Cut Up” and Chapter 2 of the “Batman and Robin” serial. became a revival center in 1951. It was next turned into a retail venue.
AMC closed here permanently on March 23, 2025. The property would be repurposed as a fitness center / gym. The venue opened as the Rave Lee Branch 15 on June 30, 2004, its third Birmingham location. On October 1, 2012, the Rave Circuit was purchased by Carmike Theatre becoming the Carmike Lee Branch 15.
In March of 2016, AMC purchased Carmike Theatres obtaining the Lee Branch. AMC rebranded a large portion of the inherited theaters as AMC Classic generally operating such theaters to end of lease closures with improvements ranging from none to modest. The AMC Classic Lee Branch 15 closed with the rest of the locations due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 16, 2020. AMC Classic Lee Branch 15 reopened on August 27, 2020.
One of the last films on March 23, 2025 was Anthony Hopkins in “Locked.”
Florida State Theatre Circuit launched the 1,150 “jet lounger” seat Plaza Rocking Chair Theatre architected by Robert C. Broward in December 1967 with 70mm and Cinerama film projection capability. The $500,000 theater with its 22' by 55' screen wowed patrons.“ Over 100,000 folks saw “Star Wars” here in 1977. Plitt Theatres, which took on the venue in 1978, closed here as the Plaza Theatre January 19, 1984 with “Terms of Endearment” and “D.C. Cab.”
If you have gift cards, you might consider using them in the next few days… no Asian films and no showtimes past Wednesday, March 26, 2025 combined with the deep financial issues of the parent company and the removal of the Facebook page doesn’t bode well. Buena Park location already listed as “temporarily closed” after the end of February 2025.
The CGV Buena Vista is listed as “temporarily closed.” I’m guessing that will turn out to be permanent with the parent company’s financial issues and because they’ve taken down their Facebook page.
Formerly operated by Nova Cinemas, the fledgling circuit’s second to last theater before its departure. Final operator, Newstar LLC closed here September 3, 2015. Two years later, the venue became a dine-in theater called Touchstar Cinemas Sabal Palms Luxury 6 opening August 11, 2017. Seating was reduced from 1,000 to 450. The venue is still operating in 2025.
The regional Jamestown Mall opened theatre-lessly October 10, 1973. General Cinema announced its Jamestown Cinema I & II not long thereafter. The twin-screen venue had two 350-seat auditoriums for a 700 patron capacity. Gene F. Thoebes was in charge on opening day, July 12, 1974 likely on a 20-year leasing agreement. It was General Cinema’s eighth area theater but the first St. Louis area mall theater with its own entrance easily allowing the mall to be closed with the theater open and parking just outside the venue.
By the 1980s, GCC was dropping 6- and 8-screen theaters in the multiplex theater era of film exhibition. With the Jamestown theatre facility landlocked preventing expansion, GCC took an opt-out in the 15th year of leasing closing permanently with “The Fabulous Baker Boys” and the Cannon film, “River of Death” on October 29, 1989. After being vacant for a little over a year, Wehrenberg took on the venue beginning on December 14, 1990 undoubtedly with very favorable leasing terms.
Under the name of the Jamestown Mall Ciné 2 - the proper name for this entry - it opened with “Marked for Death” and “Sibling Rivalry” All shows were served up on a discount, sub-run policy for $1.50. Wehrenberg was a quick read of the Jamestown clientele and quickly lowered pricing to $1 for all shows. Wehrenberg completed the leasing period closing on January 2, 1994 with “The Three Musketeers” and “We’re Back.” The latter film title proved prescient as Wehrenberg exited the Mall only to be enticed back.
The original cinema space became part of the Jamestown Mall Food Court in October of 1994 following a remodel. In 1996, during the megaplex-era of movie exhibition, an ambitious mall expansion was announced that would provide space at the opposite end of Jamestown Mall for a 14-screen movie theater. Trade publication, Variety, warned exhibition companies to avoid second-rate aging malls as they would be mired in financial servitude after being locked into long-term leases in malls with questionable upside. Jamestown Mall fit that bill and, yet, Wehernberg signed a long-term agreement for its Jamestown 14 Ciné opening in in late Fall 1998. It didn’t go Jamestown Mall’s way or Wehrenberg as they fled well before their lease expiry. That theater has its own entry.
Status: formerly 700 seats and now demolished; fun fact: the six line, two-feature announcer that served as the attractor for the original twin just outside of the mall theater’s original location was used as the 14-screen announcer, despite being on the wrong end of the Mall - and well short of the pre-requisite 14 lines needed to display all of the playing films - until the cinema’s closure in 2013. The sign was removed in 2020 and the former Food Court/Theater in 2024.
The Regal UA Circle Centre was a destination location for the circuit amazingly able to serve out its 30-year lease in a dying downtown mall. The theatre was built as the futuristic United Artists Circle Centre Theatre 9 with Starport: A Virtual Theme Park. It debuted during the megaplex era of cinema exhibition blasting off September 8, 1995 in its intragalaxy mission whose operation never left Marion County. The venue was a prototype for the United Artists Theatre Circuit and served as a precursor of Family Destination Entertainment Centers (FEC) that would take root 20 years later in the exhibition industry. The circuit’s existing trademarked welcome of “Experience the Magic” greeted movie customers.
But this project was too costly and a bit before its time as that era’s VR gaming and motion simulator rides proved to be of fleeting interest in the 1990s. After a handful of UA Starport projects on the books were launched, UATC downgraded other planned locations to more traditional theaters with smaller non-branded Starport arcades. Some of those venues that were built had cavernous lobbies and other underused floor space with the footprints of the VR facilities removed abruptly from the final buildouts. UATC and ACT III Theatres were bought out just three years later by Regal Cinemas. They, in turn would declare bankruptcy in 2001 ensuring the Starport concept was permanently docked and the branding discontinued.
As it was reaching its 25th Anniversary, the venue - which had renamed as the Regal UA Circle Centre 9 in October 2008 - was closed on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Circle Centre Mall had already plummeted to greyfield status, a term associated with a “dead mall.” The venue reopened on August 21, 2020 with UA/Regal parent Cineworld in its own bankruptcy, only to close again on October 8, 2020. The RUACC shockingly reopened on April 2, 2021, but the magic had faded. The theatre closed in film exhibition’s final stage within the streaming era on October 31, 2024 at the expiry of its lease. The entire mall was purchased with a dream of recreating it as on open-air courtyard operation that might open by the 2030s. The former Regal UA (née Starport) Circle Centre’s next destination was a hyperspace transportation to be ignited by explosives or with a more traditional wrecking ball.
The entry should be the Regal UA Circle Centre. Its history should obviously mention the pandemic - as should all of the theaters in this database IMHO - as that’s what forever altered the path of so many movie theaters of that era including the many that never reopened at all.
It looks like Wehrenberg dropped the venue on January 7, 2010 likely able to escape its lease through a performance clause as the Jamestown Mall had reached greyfield status, a term akin to a “dead mall” with less than 50 percent occupancy. The cinema carried on as an independent beginning on January 19, 2010 and under Nova Cinemas while the interior Mall itself was sold for a mere $1.5 million, a fraction of its value just ten years prior. Absolutely no need to change the entry title but - according to interior signage - it closed as the New Jamestown Mall 14 Family Theatre to match the final operator of the mall, New Jamestown Holding, LLC, a New York-based entity which purchased the interior of the Mall for a fire sale price of just $660,000 in December of 2012. The latter hoped that a flea market and essentially giving folks month-to-month leasing terms for little to no cost would attract customers as the “New” Jamestown Mall, a name that it didn’t have the wherewithal to market or the chutzpah to even seriously say aloud.
The plan failed quickly as only a few businesses operated in the Mall’s interior along with a cobbled-together flea market and two anchors. As was the case in dying St. Louis area malls, the cinemas carried on in almost impossible environments. Nova Cinemas closed the New Jamestown Mall Family Theatre on June 23, 2013 with its final, two post 10p showings of “The Purge” and “This is the End.” Prophetic - and, yet wondering who would want to be in the “New” Jamestown Mall circa 2013 at the film’s midnight end times?
In sum, the Jamestown Mall narrowly missed its 40th anniversary of movie magic. Normally, with a 1998 open and 2013 closure that might have been the sign of the 15-year leasing opt out, which was indeed coming due. But it was the film exhibition industry’s transformation that more likely ended the Jamestown location. With film distributors switching to digital DCP files, the theater was unable to even consider making a digital transformation making programming for 14 auditoriums hard to find in the Summer of 2013. Aging mall cinemas nationwide dwindled in the 2013/4 period and Jamestown was one such example.
The old analog, New Jamestown Mall 14 Family Theatre didn’t miss much through its Summer 2013 exit. The entire interior Mall was first closed on Thanksgiving Eve of 2013 due to lack of heat with its two remaining anchors allowed to continue operations with going out of business sales. Heading into what would be the Mall’s final holiday shopping season, it was not cool for Jamestown’s handful of operators, other than the actual temperature of their operations. The interior mall managed to reopen as the final leaseholders and the remaining lessee retails were allowed to continue operations to the anchor-less Mall’s official closing date of June 30, 2014.
What happened next was a fiasco as - like many malls - there were five mall property holders - all of whom fled the area. Four of those owners - the main anchor tenants -were long gone while the out of state interior mall operator couldn’t be found ending any hope for a comeback. It also ended mall security and uprooted the local police department which had a Jamestown Mall storefront. A combination of well-intentioned urban explorers documented the interior of the mall to show what was transpiring inside the moribund space. And the transgressions within would have been seen as shocking to previous generations as scores of folks, likely with chemically-clouded mental functionality, entered the mall facility. They crashed glass, tagged everywhere with spray paint, set fires, broke functioning water pipes and worse - likely not caring what their actions would bring about.
Fast, or better yet, slow forward to 2023 when the demolition finally began… only to stop temporarily due to a labor issue. When the last of four (!) fires was set in the complex injuring two firefighters in 2023, the local fire team made the smartest move on the last fire set: let it burn. After all, the water lines, interior fire suppression and hydrants had all run dry. The Mall Cinema was the very first demolished part of the venue followed by the rest of the facility. A mercy razing if ever there were such a thing.
M&R Theatres launched the River Run Theatres 8 here July 29, 1988 with 70mm projection. Just two months later, M&R was sold to Loews and the venue became the M&R Loews River Run Theatres 8 briefly until the M&R logo was removed. The venue closed with Loews in financial trouble in May of 2001.
Lansing Theatre Management took on the venue with a major refresh to the plans of Edwin H. Lugowski and AIA Architects. It reopened on November 19, 2004. The building’s facade had the curiously redundant name of Cinema 8 Cinema although its official name was the Lansing Cinema 8. Digital Cinema Destinations Corp. managed the theatre for years. Carmike acquired the venue in its May 2014 purchase of Digital Cinema Destinations. When AMC bought Carmike in 2016, it had to divest itself of the Lansing Cinema for competitive reasons. New Visions came in to become the Lansing Cinema 8 Cinema’s final operator.
When New Visions' Cinema 8 Cinema closed on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, operator New Visions went out of business months later. In September of 2020, AMC reclaimed 10 New Visions theaters - 6 divested from the Carmike Circuit to New Visions and 4 others… but not the Lansing which sat month after month and year after year waiting for new life. All 3,500 seats in the 8-screen venue went unused as the facility remained in a time vacuum for more than four years.
In Fall of 2024, new buyers came in with plans to gut the building and found that everything was shockingly still in place including four year old concessions, gaming equipment, soda machines full of syrup, exterior and interior posters all in place, and auditoriums labeled with the New Vision’s last showings of films including “The Way Back,” “I Still Believe” and “Onward.“ Had it not been for the mold and the film’s DCP playdate expiries, I still believe they could have started the venue up one more time to see if that was the way back. Sadly, they decided to move onward.
As reflected in the opening ads, the Holiday Cinema was built by Bob Word’s Word Theatre & Vending Corporation. Because Word Theatres wasn’t bought out by United Amusement Corp. until June 5, 1981, the entry is inaccurate regarding the theater’s origin.
The General Cinema Columbia Mall Cinema I-II-III-IV opened July 14, 1978. It closed on February 4, 1990 for a major renovation. It opened as the General Cinema Columbia Mall Cinemas 8 on June 22, 1990. General Cinema left its Columbia Mall 8 behind on October 18, 2000 in free fall collapse in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closing all but 72 theaters nationwide.
Phoenix Theatres took on the venue November 16, 2001 as the Columbia Mall Cinema 8 to match the Mall’s rebranding, the venue became the Columbia Place Cinema 8 in early September of 2002. The theatre had a phenomenal run comparatively speaking remaining under Phoenix until closure on January 7, 2007.
Brian Cline and Columbia Entertainment Group took on the venue with the Mall scuffling reopening with stadium seating as the Columbia Place Stadium Cinemas 8 on November 9, 2007. It closed on October 20, 2011. A final operator took on the venue - likely with little to no leasing expenses - on June 29, 2012. That arrangement lasted over two months ending on September 16, 2012. The theatre stood vacant for 13 years awaiting demolition as the interior Mall went from greyfield status to ghost town - though still unlocked for mall walkers and a few stores in 2025.
Though perhaps unnecessary, the proper names here were the General Cinema Columbia Mall Cinema I-II-III-IV, General Cinema Columbia Mall Cinemas 8, (Phoenix) Columbia Mall Cinema 8, (Phoenix) Columbia Place Cinema 8, and the Columbia Place Stadium Cinemas 8 (technically, this entry’s proper name). BTW: Regal was never an operator here.
George L. Baker launched the Baker City Opera House on January 18, 1901 and shortened to the Baker Opera House. It used the name Baker Theatre from 1906 to 1925 at which time it was closed for a major refresh by the Heilner Brothers and the Burks. It became the Clarick Theatre on November 9, 1925 launching Wirth “Blossom Time.”
The Orpheum Theatre launched on September 6, 1909 with live vaudeville and short films. A later article said it was built on the site of a retail store that had burned down. The Orpheum closed briefly and had a second grand opening as the Orpheum Theatre on January 24, 1910. After a refresh by Haisch & Cutter in the Summer of 1916, the venue had third grand opening as the New Orpheum relaunching on September 20, 1916 with “Poor Little Peppina.” It soon lost “New” to be just the Orpheum Theatre.
The Orpheum added sound to remain viable. It closed on September 18, 1935 and was enlarged and modernized in a three-month project that subsumed the neighboring Pollman Building to the plans of architect J.W. DeYoung of Portland. On December 21, 1935, the new streamline moderne New Orpheum opened with its fourth grand opening with the film, “Collegiate.” (There’s no record of a fire closing the theater in 1936.)
It became just the Orpheum dropping “New” in 1938 before suffering a fire on September 15, 1943 that gutted the theater. Its basement was used surreptitiously by the “Panther Club,” a juvenile delinquent group through 1947. It finally relaunched five years later as the New Baker Theatre on December 2, 1948 with “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.” It appears to have closed January 27, 1957 with “The Queen of Babylon” and “Bigger Than Life.”
Appears to have opened on September 29, 1950 with “Trail of the Lonesome Pine.” Its second season was cut short when it was destroyed by fire on August 20, 1951. It was reopened the following April. In its final season, the concession building was destroyed by fire on August 18, 1976 but they completed the year with a temporary building closing October 31, 1976 with “Jaws.”
The former Aloha became the Empire Theatre on May 22, 1912. It closed on October 29, 1950 with “Singapore” and “Pirates of Monterey” supported by the cartoon, “Little Cut Up” and Chapter 2 of the “Batman and Robin” serial. became a revival center in 1951. It was next turned into a retail venue.
Architect Day W. Hilborn drew the plans for the streamline moderne $70,000 Eltrym which opened on June 27, 1940 with “The Ghost Breakers.”
Reopened November 22, 2024 as Film Alley Longview.
AMC closed here permanently on March 23, 2025. The property would be repurposed as a fitness center / gym. The venue opened as the Rave Lee Branch 15 on June 30, 2004, its third Birmingham location. On October 1, 2012, the Rave Circuit was purchased by Carmike Theatre becoming the Carmike Lee Branch 15.
In March of 2016, AMC purchased Carmike Theatres obtaining the Lee Branch. AMC rebranded a large portion of the inherited theaters as AMC Classic generally operating such theaters to end of lease closures with improvements ranging from none to modest. The AMC Classic Lee Branch 15 closed with the rest of the locations due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 16, 2020. AMC Classic Lee Branch 15 reopened on August 27, 2020.
One of the last films on March 23, 2025 was Anthony Hopkins in “Locked.”
Florida State Theatre Circuit launched the 1,150 “jet lounger” seat Plaza Rocking Chair Theatre architected by Robert C. Broward in December 1967 with 70mm and Cinerama film projection capability. The $500,000 theater with its 22' by 55' screen wowed patrons.“ Over 100,000 folks saw “Star Wars” here in 1977. Plitt Theatres, which took on the venue in 1978, closed here as the Plaza Theatre January 19, 1984 with “Terms of Endearment” and “D.C. Cab.”
Twinned April 14, 1972 as the Vine Twin Cinemas (previously known as)
As the Dublin Cinema Center 3 in 1972
Closed October 1, 1978 with “Hooper” and “Greased Lightning.” Demolition took place in November of 1978.
Formerly operated by Nova Cinemas as the Nova Cinemas Peoria; it closed as Landmark Cinemas at Landmark Recreation Center on August 1, 2023.
Previously operated by Nova Cinemas and was the circuit’s final operating theatre before the exited the industry
If you have gift cards, you might consider using them in the next few days… no Asian films and no showtimes past Wednesday, March 26, 2025 combined with the deep financial issues of the parent company and the removal of the Facebook page doesn’t bode well. Buena Park location already listed as “temporarily closed” after the end of February 2025.
The CGV Buena Vista is listed as “temporarily closed.” I’m guessing that will turn out to be permanent with the parent company’s financial issues and because they’ve taken down their Facebook page.
Nothing yet…. But there’s room for a 450-plex if anyone’s wanting to draw up some plans.
Going to have to put her as “down for the count” with demolition completed for the theater in March of 2025.
Formerly operated by Nova Cinemas, the fledgling circuit’s second to last theater before its departure. Final operator, Newstar LLC closed here September 3, 2015. Two years later, the venue became a dine-in theater called Touchstar Cinemas Sabal Palms Luxury 6 opening August 11, 2017. Seating was reduced from 1,000 to 450. The venue is still operating in 2025.
The regional Jamestown Mall opened theatre-lessly October 10, 1973. General Cinema announced its Jamestown Cinema I & II not long thereafter. The twin-screen venue had two 350-seat auditoriums for a 700 patron capacity. Gene F. Thoebes was in charge on opening day, July 12, 1974 likely on a 20-year leasing agreement. It was General Cinema’s eighth area theater but the first St. Louis area mall theater with its own entrance easily allowing the mall to be closed with the theater open and parking just outside the venue.
By the 1980s, GCC was dropping 6- and 8-screen theaters in the multiplex theater era of film exhibition. With the Jamestown theatre facility landlocked preventing expansion, GCC took an opt-out in the 15th year of leasing closing permanently with “The Fabulous Baker Boys” and the Cannon film, “River of Death” on October 29, 1989. After being vacant for a little over a year, Wehrenberg took on the venue beginning on December 14, 1990 undoubtedly with very favorable leasing terms.
Under the name of the Jamestown Mall Ciné 2 - the proper name for this entry - it opened with “Marked for Death” and “Sibling Rivalry” All shows were served up on a discount, sub-run policy for $1.50. Wehrenberg was a quick read of the Jamestown clientele and quickly lowered pricing to $1 for all shows. Wehrenberg completed the leasing period closing on January 2, 1994 with “The Three Musketeers” and “We’re Back.” The latter film title proved prescient as Wehrenberg exited the Mall only to be enticed back.
The original cinema space became part of the Jamestown Mall Food Court in October of 1994 following a remodel. In 1996, during the megaplex-era of movie exhibition, an ambitious mall expansion was announced that would provide space at the opposite end of Jamestown Mall for a 14-screen movie theater. Trade publication, Variety, warned exhibition companies to avoid second-rate aging malls as they would be mired in financial servitude after being locked into long-term leases in malls with questionable upside. Jamestown Mall fit that bill and, yet, Wehernberg signed a long-term agreement for its Jamestown 14 Ciné opening in in late Fall 1998. It didn’t go Jamestown Mall’s way or Wehrenberg as they fled well before their lease expiry. That theater has its own entry.
Status: formerly 700 seats and now demolished; fun fact: the six line, two-feature announcer that served as the attractor for the original twin just outside of the mall theater’s original location was used as the 14-screen announcer, despite being on the wrong end of the Mall - and well short of the pre-requisite 14 lines needed to display all of the playing films - until the cinema’s closure in 2013. The sign was removed in 2020 and the former Food Court/Theater in 2024.
The Regal UA Circle Centre was a destination location for the circuit amazingly able to serve out its 30-year lease in a dying downtown mall. The theatre was built as the futuristic United Artists Circle Centre Theatre 9 with Starport: A Virtual Theme Park. It debuted during the megaplex era of cinema exhibition blasting off September 8, 1995 in its intragalaxy mission whose operation never left Marion County. The venue was a prototype for the United Artists Theatre Circuit and served as a precursor of Family Destination Entertainment Centers (FEC) that would take root 20 years later in the exhibition industry. The circuit’s existing trademarked welcome of “Experience the Magic” greeted movie customers.
But this project was too costly and a bit before its time as that era’s VR gaming and motion simulator rides proved to be of fleeting interest in the 1990s. After a handful of UA Starport projects on the books were launched, UATC downgraded other planned locations to more traditional theaters with smaller non-branded Starport arcades. Some of those venues that were built had cavernous lobbies and other underused floor space with the footprints of the VR facilities removed abruptly from the final buildouts. UATC and ACT III Theatres were bought out just three years later by Regal Cinemas. They, in turn would declare bankruptcy in 2001 ensuring the Starport concept was permanently docked and the branding discontinued.
As it was reaching its 25th Anniversary, the venue - which had renamed as the Regal UA Circle Centre 9 in October 2008 - was closed on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Circle Centre Mall had already plummeted to greyfield status, a term associated with a “dead mall.” The venue reopened on August 21, 2020 with UA/Regal parent Cineworld in its own bankruptcy, only to close again on October 8, 2020. The RUACC shockingly reopened on April 2, 2021, but the magic had faded. The theatre closed in film exhibition’s final stage within the streaming era on October 31, 2024 at the expiry of its lease. The entire mall was purchased with a dream of recreating it as on open-air courtyard operation that might open by the 2030s. The former Regal UA (née Starport) Circle Centre’s next destination was a hyperspace transportation to be ignited by explosives or with a more traditional wrecking ball.
The entry should be the Regal UA Circle Centre. Its history should obviously mention the pandemic - as should all of the theaters in this database IMHO - as that’s what forever altered the path of so many movie theaters of that era including the many that never reopened at all.
Last shows were on Sep. 23, 1984 with Bolero and Last American Virgin. Demolition came in 1986 with the retail shopping area replacing the ozoner
It looks like Wehrenberg dropped the venue on January 7, 2010 likely able to escape its lease through a performance clause as the Jamestown Mall had reached greyfield status, a term akin to a “dead mall” with less than 50 percent occupancy. The cinema carried on as an independent beginning on January 19, 2010 and under Nova Cinemas while the interior Mall itself was sold for a mere $1.5 million, a fraction of its value just ten years prior. Absolutely no need to change the entry title but - according to interior signage - it closed as the New Jamestown Mall 14 Family Theatre to match the final operator of the mall, New Jamestown Holding, LLC, a New York-based entity which purchased the interior of the Mall for a fire sale price of just $660,000 in December of 2012. The latter hoped that a flea market and essentially giving folks month-to-month leasing terms for little to no cost would attract customers as the “New” Jamestown Mall, a name that it didn’t have the wherewithal to market or the chutzpah to even seriously say aloud.
The plan failed quickly as only a few businesses operated in the Mall’s interior along with a cobbled-together flea market and two anchors. As was the case in dying St. Louis area malls, the cinemas carried on in almost impossible environments. Nova Cinemas closed the New Jamestown Mall Family Theatre on June 23, 2013 with its final, two post 10p showings of “The Purge” and “This is the End.” Prophetic - and, yet wondering who would want to be in the “New” Jamestown Mall circa 2013 at the film’s midnight end times?
In sum, the Jamestown Mall narrowly missed its 40th anniversary of movie magic. Normally, with a 1998 open and 2013 closure that might have been the sign of the 15-year leasing opt out, which was indeed coming due. But it was the film exhibition industry’s transformation that more likely ended the Jamestown location. With film distributors switching to digital DCP files, the theater was unable to even consider making a digital transformation making programming for 14 auditoriums hard to find in the Summer of 2013. Aging mall cinemas nationwide dwindled in the 2013/4 period and Jamestown was one such example.
The old analog, New Jamestown Mall 14 Family Theatre didn’t miss much through its Summer 2013 exit. The entire interior Mall was first closed on Thanksgiving Eve of 2013 due to lack of heat with its two remaining anchors allowed to continue operations with going out of business sales. Heading into what would be the Mall’s final holiday shopping season, it was not cool for Jamestown’s handful of operators, other than the actual temperature of their operations. The interior mall managed to reopen as the final leaseholders and the remaining lessee retails were allowed to continue operations to the anchor-less Mall’s official closing date of June 30, 2014.
What happened next was a fiasco as - like many malls - there were five mall property holders - all of whom fled the area. Four of those owners - the main anchor tenants -were long gone while the out of state interior mall operator couldn’t be found ending any hope for a comeback. It also ended mall security and uprooted the local police department which had a Jamestown Mall storefront. A combination of well-intentioned urban explorers documented the interior of the mall to show what was transpiring inside the moribund space. And the transgressions within would have been seen as shocking to previous generations as scores of folks, likely with chemically-clouded mental functionality, entered the mall facility. They crashed glass, tagged everywhere with spray paint, set fires, broke functioning water pipes and worse - likely not caring what their actions would bring about.
Fast, or better yet, slow forward to 2023 when the demolition finally began… only to stop temporarily due to a labor issue. When the last of four (!) fires was set in the complex injuring two firefighters in 2023, the local fire team made the smartest move on the last fire set: let it burn. After all, the water lines, interior fire suppression and hydrants had all run dry. The Mall Cinema was the very first demolished part of the venue followed by the rest of the facility. A mercy razing if ever there were such a thing.
M&R Theatres launched the River Run Theatres 8 here July 29, 1988 with 70mm projection. Just two months later, M&R was sold to Loews and the venue became the M&R Loews River Run Theatres 8 briefly until the M&R logo was removed. The venue closed with Loews in financial trouble in May of 2001.
Lansing Theatre Management took on the venue with a major refresh to the plans of Edwin H. Lugowski and AIA Architects. It reopened on November 19, 2004. The building’s facade had the curiously redundant name of Cinema 8 Cinema although its official name was the Lansing Cinema 8. Digital Cinema Destinations Corp. managed the theatre for years. Carmike acquired the venue in its May 2014 purchase of Digital Cinema Destinations. When AMC bought Carmike in 2016, it had to divest itself of the Lansing Cinema for competitive reasons. New Visions came in to become the Lansing Cinema 8 Cinema’s final operator.
When New Visions' Cinema 8 Cinema closed on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, operator New Visions went out of business months later. In September of 2020, AMC reclaimed 10 New Visions theaters - 6 divested from the Carmike Circuit to New Visions and 4 others… but not the Lansing which sat month after month and year after year waiting for new life. All 3,500 seats in the 8-screen venue went unused as the facility remained in a time vacuum for more than four years.
In Fall of 2024, new buyers came in with plans to gut the building and found that everything was shockingly still in place including four year old concessions, gaming equipment, soda machines full of syrup, exterior and interior posters all in place, and auditoriums labeled with the New Vision’s last showings of films including “The Way Back,” “I Still Believe” and “Onward.“ Had it not been for the mold and the film’s DCP playdate expiries, I still believe they could have started the venue up one more time to see if that was the way back. Sadly, they decided to move onward.
As reflected in the opening ads, the Holiday Cinema was built by Bob Word’s Word Theatre & Vending Corporation. Because Word Theatres wasn’t bought out by United Amusement Corp. until June 5, 1981, the entry is inaccurate regarding the theater’s origin.
The General Cinema Columbia Mall Cinema I-II-III-IV opened July 14, 1978. It closed on February 4, 1990 for a major renovation. It opened as the General Cinema Columbia Mall Cinemas 8 on June 22, 1990. General Cinema left its Columbia Mall 8 behind on October 18, 2000 in free fall collapse in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closing all but 72 theaters nationwide.
Phoenix Theatres took on the venue November 16, 2001 as the Columbia Mall Cinema 8 to match the Mall’s rebranding, the venue became the Columbia Place Cinema 8 in early September of 2002. The theatre had a phenomenal run comparatively speaking remaining under Phoenix until closure on January 7, 2007.
Brian Cline and Columbia Entertainment Group took on the venue with the Mall scuffling reopening with stadium seating as the Columbia Place Stadium Cinemas 8 on November 9, 2007. It closed on October 20, 2011. A final operator took on the venue - likely with little to no leasing expenses - on June 29, 2012. That arrangement lasted over two months ending on September 16, 2012. The theatre stood vacant for 13 years awaiting demolition as the interior Mall went from greyfield status to ghost town - though still unlocked for mall walkers and a few stores in 2025.
Though perhaps unnecessary, the proper names here were the General Cinema Columbia Mall Cinema I-II-III-IV, General Cinema Columbia Mall Cinemas 8, (Phoenix) Columbia Mall Cinema 8, (Phoenix) Columbia Place Cinema 8, and the Columbia Place Stadium Cinemas 8 (technically, this entry’s proper name). BTW: Regal was never an operator here.