Delk Road 10
2854 Delk Road,
Marietta,
GA
30067
2854 Delk Road,
Marietta,
GA
30067
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I saw the re-release of the Star Wars trilogy here back in 1997.
This opened on November 20th, 1992 and closed in 2005. Owners were Storey and Regal from 1996 until it closed. Ad in photo section.
2854 Delk Rd
November 10, 1992-2005
Owners:
1992 Storey Theatres
1998 Regal Cinemas
Here a aerial view.
View link
I think he managed several different theatres in Atlanta,his stories are so true to the business.
I do not know Stan, but I have corresponded with him some here on CT. He seems to have visited a wide range of theatres in Georgia over the years.
Thanks Tim.Do you Stan in Atlanta he is on CT and knows so much about Atlanta theatres.
No, it was not a promotion. The balloon was from the local Cherry Blossom Festival. I believe it had gotten off course and was attempting to land in our parking lot out of necessity. I was not working the day it happened, but I did see the pictures. The manager decided to submit the incident to BoxOffice, and they printed it. I did a quick search at the BoxOffice web site, but I was unable to find it.
I am glad i saved a bunch of my BOxoffice magazines they have got to be a great source for so many people on CT.I love those Theatre Stories.There was Disney movie I think about a hot air balloon were you guys promoting that film?
Nice find Mike. I don’t remember the year/month, but we once had a small write-up about Riverside Cinemas appear in BoxOffice Magazine. It was about a hot air balloon that got caught on one of the light poles in the parking lot.
Marietta Film Fanatic. A nice write up on Delk Road 10 theatres in Boxoffice.May 1993 issue.Picture of Concession.Story of the theatre.
Very good points,MariettaFilmfanatic. I am not from Atlanta,but always heard Cobb County was one of the better counties in metro Atlanta.What happened to the Delk 10 is commom place in an industry that puts money way above giving moviegoers a good show, You could have a staff,Find it hard to believe the whole staff did not show up,more likely the theatre chain told the manager,the poor manager to all those tasks.I saw it coming when I was At GCC.My last year there they were talking about the managers cutting off the projectors after our highly trained UNION projectionists would start the last show.I was dead set against that and luckly that never happened in Augusta.Good parts of Town become rotten,Case in point,South Augusta.GCC puts a triple in the mall and because of high crime rate in that section of town people with money quit going to Regency Mall.GCC built a 8-plex outside the mall,It might have stayed open 10-15 years.I am amazed that today even in the good parts of Augusta area theatres have to pay cops to keep order.I my day I Threw them out,never heard of hiring cops.Glad i got out in 1983.
I grew up down the road from Delk 10. It was the grandest theater in all of Cobb County, that’s for sure, and it wasn’t until the early 2000s that it started to go downhill.
I’ll be blunt in saying there are two reasons this theater went out of business, and everyone who lives around here knows it. The first was competition and the lacking quality in comparison. Places like Parkway Pointe, Barrett Commons, and Regal Town Center were built and stole away most of its business. Delk had no stadium seating, which was probably its biggest downfall, in addition to soon-outdated decor and smaller theater sizes than the competition.
Secondly, the management and the clientele drove most of its fan base away. This may not be politically correct, but just because we don’t like the truth doesn’t make it any less relevant. The management was absolutely terrible in keeping up the quality of the theater and catering to their customers. I actually applied for a job here during high school and had never seen such a shotty organization. The day I applied only one person – the manager – was taking tickets, starting the films, and serving concessions, all because his entire staff had just not shown up that day and there was no one to fill in.
But the management also represented was what soon becoming their larger clientele. The middle and upper-class residents of Marietta/East Cobb stopped wanting to go to the theater because it was now “ghetto” and there were always individuals standing around outside that made you feel like you were going to get mugged. The Delk management did nothing to thwart this; they embraced themselves as a low-tier, third-rate theater and forced away the people who would actually contribute financially to the theater instead of sneaking in and stealing concessions. (Like I said, I went here all the time growing up – I’m not exaggerating).
In the end, Delk led to their own demise. They could’ve easily saved themselves by: 1) installing stadium seating, 2) renovating the entire building, and 3) hiring a police presence (like Barrett Commons does on the weekends) to make it an enjoyable experience.
Back in 1998 I was working at a theatre in Macon, GA (also run by Regal Cinemas) as a projectionist. The district manager had my manager send me to the Delk Road 10 for several days because their projectionists had all either quit or were let go. I never heard the story behind that, but my job was to help run the projection room until others could get up to speed.
I haven’t been back since, but I did see online where the Delk theatre closed. The building is now used as an entertainment complex (as mentioned in previous comments) called “Jimmy’s Mad Mad Whirled.” Here is a link to the web site for the center: http://www.funzoneatlanta.com/
Note the photo of the building’s facade at the top of the home page.
It’s been converted to the amusement/paintball/laser tag place. Delk Road was a beautiful theatre, and it always seemed busy. If I remember correctly, after Regal took over from Storey they stopped operating the screen curtains.
During a visit to the area was in April 2005, the Delk was was still in operation. I did a check on the Regal site this evening and noticed that the Delk is no longer included in their listing. I recall that Kings attempted to build a complex near Dave & Busters back in the 1980s, but the project went bust a short time after the frames of the building went up. Is this chain still around and what theatres did/do they run?
Unless I have the wrong theatre in mind, I believe that the Delk has closed. The story I heard was that they had already advance sold tickets to the opening midnight showing of Star Wars 3 when the decision was made to close the location at the close of business May 19th 2005. Needless to say, they did not get a Star Wars print for just one day so it fell to the manager, as all dirty jobs do, to go out and inform the ticketholders that they had missed their chance to see the last Star Wars film on its opening 12:01AM premiere showing. Just another fine example of the concern and consideration that big chain movie theatre owners and executives have for the people who work for them.
As I said, I may have the wrong theatre in mind and even if I am right this location might have reopened by now. At the end, the location was managed by Regal following its takeover of the locally owned Storey. The location is still a viable one but it is getting to the point that 10 screens are not worth the trouble to these big chains. Just as an aside, this location was started by the owners of the Kings Cinemas chain which was itself a decendant of the old Septum chain. The site was sold to Storey before construction was complete.