Midway Theatre

dallasmovietheaters on September 29, 2022 at 5:08 am

Located in the Midway Mall, the Midway Theatre had a 16-year run and was ostensibly replaced by a multiplex when the Mall was rebranded in 1987. The Midway Mall project was announced at the end of 1966 and would be designed by architect Donald Reiff with some drawings by Carlos Roman (Roman’s sketch in photos). The sensibilities of the Midway Mall may have had some commonalities with the Lauderhill Mall as both malls were by the same developers and had two anchors in common as well as the movie theater on the backside.

The Midway Mall inked three anchors in 1967 with Woolworth’s big box Woolco and Richard’s Department Store (also in the Lauderhill) and J.B. Hunter’s. It would also scoop up 70 interior retailers including a movie theater. The theatre was built during the latter stages of the luxury suburban cinema movement in film exhibition. Like most suburban theaters that were locatd in or near retail strips or malls, the Midway Theatre would offer a large screen (this one offered “Dimension depth”), comfy seats,“ acres of free parking,” an art gallery, and quality sound (here they had the non-patented, “Ultra-fidelity”).The groundbreaking ceremony for the Midway Mall took place on March 13, 1969.

The Mall opened unevenly beginning with Woolco in September of 1970. That was followed by the Richard’s and Hunters on October 14, 1970. One week later, on October 21, 1970, Holiday Theatres launched the Midway Theatre with a sub-run George C. Scott in “Patton” for a buck (ad in photos). The theatre operated at its mall address of 7793 West Flagler. And the opening date and address furnished in the entry above are certainly close enough. The Midway Mall’s official grand opening took place on February 3, 1971 and in the mall grand opening ad, the Midway Theatre was on top.

Even prior to the 20-year leases coming due, it was clear that the Mall’s concept didn’t match the trajectory of the population shift within the area. The theatre also had arrived as the twins and triple cinema was more in vogue. By the time the third operator came into the flagging cinema, the Mall’s fortunes were fading. Midway Mall had reached “greyscale status” – a term akin to a dead mall in which vacancies outpace functional retailers. The Midway Theatre operator tried to connect with the Latin and Hispanic audiences with heavier programming of Spanish language films. However, the theater closed permanently on November 2, 1986 with the Argenitanian film “la historia oficial” starring Norma Aleandro.

The mall would be repositioned as the Mall of the Americas in 1987. Now film exhibition was a multiplex world and a single-screener just wouldn’t cut it. MOA added an eight-screen venue for AMC Theatres in 1988 that then expanded to 14 screens in 1992 just as the megaplex era was about to open. The AMC closed in 2015. The original mall theatre space appears to have been demolished in one of the remodeling efforts and the AMC theatre was demolished in 2018. With the Mall of Americas concept reaching its 25th year and the departure of those lessees, the Mall was again rebranded. This time it was named the Midway Crossings. That 2022 refresh came with exterior entries afforded to more retailers for easier access and closer parking for individual stores. It was the first of the three iterations of the mall not to have a movie theater.

rivest266 on August 24, 2008 at 7:46 am

This was owned by Holiday Theatres.