Holcomb Woods 6 Cinema
1572 Holcomb Bridge Road,
Roswell,
GA
30076
1572 Holcomb Bridge Road,
Roswell,
GA
30076
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Septum Cinemas was built on the back of Jerry Lewis Cinema locations that were looking for new managerial help once Network Cinemas and Lewis ceased operations. The Holcomb Woods' June 14, 1985 grand opening ad is in photos. The new build venue was Septum’s most ambitious project along with the Memorial Drive Cinema 5 and both featured a 70mm auditorium. In March of 1986, Cineplex Odeon’s then-subsidiary Plitt Theatres bought Septum’s 48 screens for $11 million. The theater continued as the Septum Holcomb Woods 6 for two years.
In March of 1988, the venue became the Cineplex Odeon Holcomb Woods 6 Cinema. Cineplex closed here at a 10-year opt-out point of a lease on June 21, 1995. On October 27, 1995, it became the Carmike Cinemas Holcomb Woods 6. on a discount sub-run policy with all seats $1. Carmike would change the venue to a first-run policy before closing in August of 2000 at the opt out of its leasing contract now at 15 years.
The fledgling Entertainment Film Works (EFW) Circuit took on the venue one last time beginning on March 2, 2001 taking over many multiplexes closed due to flux in the exhibition industry not limited to General Cinemas departure and rampant bankruptcy protection by chains including Carmike, Edwards, Landmark and Regal/UA all in 2000. The last ad for the EFW Holcomb Woods 6 appears on October 7, 2001 - likely the venue’s swan song.
Yes, EFW had a brief run here. Parts of their leadership seem to have touched just about every closed theater in the area at some point.
Closed in 2000 and reopened for a short time starting on March 2nd, 2001. Grand opening ad in photo section.
This opened on June 21st, 1985. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
For a time, this theatre was one of the best grossing theaters in the metro Atlanta area. But eventually North Point Mall opened in nearby Alpharetta bringing serious competition from both AMC and General Cinema.
Yes, Cineplex bought out Septum a few years after this opened. Was in a horrible location, lower level backside of the shopping center along a very heavy traffic area. Operated by Carmike for a short time after they took over Cineplex’s assets in Atlanta.
These summer movies were playing at the Holcomb Woods 6.
“SUMMER CATCH”
“TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME”
“JAY and SILENT BOB”
“Capt. CORELLI’s MANDOLIN”
“JEEPERS CREEPERS”
I think the above movie theater is opening in that little shopping center across from the Pike Nursery, next to TJ’s Sports Bar and Grill. I think I drove by the other day and saw some signage for it.
I went here the other day and made a video of it. Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHKZ6toaQek
I think the former Rio Bravo space is now occupied by another restaurant – this one is called Londzell’s Martini Restaurant & Lounge. The former Holcomb Woods theater underneath is still a church, but I don’t think it is Hope Chapel anymore, it has some new name. I actually drove by it today, but I couldn’t read the whole name of the place because I was going too fast. It was something like “City Church” or something.
One thing no one really mentioned so far was that this place had some arcade games in it. Not many, though. They probably had 7 or 8 machines lined up against that wall on the right side when you walk in. I also remember there were a couple machines at the end of the hall right outside the theaters on the back right.
I seemed to remember the popcorn at Holcomb Woods being terrific. Of all my theater options in Roswell/Alpharetta at that time, I think I actually preferred going to Holcomb Woods because of the good popcorn. Does anyone else remember the popcorn?
Actually, I think I may have taken a girl there on a date in late 2001 (like October/November-ish), but again, that’s the last time I can remember going there.
Does anyone know if Hope Chapel took over both the theater AND the former Rio Bravo space? Since the theater closed, I have never been back to snoop around. Also, to the people who used to work at the theater, was Rio Bravo always there? If not, what used to sit on top of the theater before Rio Bravo?
I remember seeing a number of movies here as a kid:
Andre (1994)
The Man in the Iron Mask
Deep Impact
Face/Off
A Bug’s Life (1998)
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)
Screwed (2000)
Frequency (2000)
I remember that towards the end of its life (from approx. 1998 to 2002), the theater changed hands like 2 or 3 times, sometimes closing for months at a time. For a while, I thought the theater had beed closed for good, but nope, they would re-open like 2 months later.
The last time I can prove I went was to see “A.I.” in 2001, but I honestly think that was my last time at the Holcomb Woods. I seem to remember the last few times I went to the theater it was really depressing. I could tell that people were losing interest in the place and it wasn’t getting the same business that it used to. I think it finally closed for good sometime in 2001 or 2002. A couple years later, it became “Hope Chapel” (a church) and has remained so ever since.
The shopping center that it’s located in has suffered a lot over the last 10 years or so with the losses of both Wal-Mart and Rio Bravo. Has anyone been down there lately? I wonder what it’s like now.
I just found this site by accident. Love the comments. Thanks for making my day.
-evan busman-
I was the first assistant manager there with Reed, and it was a great place to work. It was by far the nicest theater in the area for years. We were so busy that we often ran movies in “Sync” to house the crowds. In order to do that, we had to run the films through the offices and halls on many rollers with hundreds of feet between projectors. It was quite a site to see. The 70 mm projector was a monster Century water cooled projector with a 3000 watt xenon bulb. We did not get many large format prints, but it was still a great projector and shook the ground when you started it up. By the way, there was always a projectionist on staff. It was the best job in the place.
I worked as a projectionist and assistant manager at Holcomb Woods from its opening off and on for the next four or so years. As MSH commented, Reed didn’t generally handle projection duties, but he certainly could and would thread them up when he needed to. When it came to the 70MM prints, only he or the most senior projectionists were allowed to thread them. We only had a handful of them in my time at the theater – the re-released Fantasia and Amadeus come to mind. I can’t remember who was involved with the problem with Cocoon, but no huge ramifications came about because of it.
HW6 was a great place to work. The Grand Opening was a black tie and champagne affair. The AJC newspaper touted the theater as one of the most luxurious in Atlanta, and it really was for a while. During the day in the summer it was a fairly unique place to work because the Septum offices were upstairs and as a projectionist you had to dodge around people making copies and such in order to get to the movie you needed to thread.
I started working at HW6 after the “Cocoon fiasco”. However, there was always someone on the schedule for projection work only. Projectionist were manager trained. The manager (for years was Reed Rickborn) did not run projection.
Tried and did not succeed in that I have too little information as to where it was located. The only locating information I have to date is that it was located somewhere on Canton Highway.
Here are photos from July 2007 of the former Holcomb Woods Cinema: 1, 2
The Rio Bravo restaurant that once sat on top of the Holcomb Woods has closed its doors, and last time I drove by the theater itself had been turned into a church.
About 2 years ago it was still there but vacant. I don’t recall what else was in the same shopping center but there has been a bunch of moving around in that area over the last few years. Walmart abandoned a location and moved and I think Home Depot did too. At one point Roswell was doing a study on revitalizing the area because there was so much vacant commercial space, but since I’ve moved away from the area I’ve not heard anything more.
What has become of the theatre? Is it still there or has it been razed?
Carmike ran this location for a short time after they took over from Cineplex Odeon. Later operated by EFW, who also ran the Parkside 8 for a while, but it didn’t last long. Was a nice theater but had an odd location, around back and below the shopping center with no road exposure (like the Parkside, only worse!). A friends of mine’s father was with Carmike at the takeover and this place was bleeding money, just like just about every location that CO had at that point.