Macon Minicinema
Riverside Parkway,
Macon,
GA
31210
Riverside Parkway,
Macon,
GA
31210
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp., Modular Cinemas of America, Weis Theatres
Nearby Theaters
Modular Cinemas of America built several small (for those days at least) theatres in the late-1960’s and early-1970’s all witrh the name Minicinema. With two exceptions, the Peachtree Battle Minicinema in Atlanta and the Franklin 3 in Marietta, they were all just storefront retail space that was either taken over and rebuilt, or built to order in new strip shopping centers.
To my knowledge there were only nine of these locations. They were the Brainerd in Chattanooga TN, the Alps in Athens, the Peachtree Battle, Ansley Mall, Sandy Springs, Doraville, and Candler Road Twin in Atlanta, the Franklin 3 in Marietta and the Macon.
The Macon Minicinema was opened in November 1970 and was almost an exact copy of the Doraville. It had a ticket desk as you walked in the front door. Behind it was a circular ladder going up to the booth. To the left was the snack bar and entrance to the theatre. To the right was the theatre exit. Seating was about 370 with a slightly curved screen. In my post on the Sandy Springs site I related how this was a nice company to work for and how they seemed to take a very laid back corporate attitude, especially when it came to paying the bills. When I first attended the Macon location it had already been sold in an odd transaction in which Weis and Georgia Theatre Company, the operators of all of the other screens in Macon each owned a share. They also seemed to alternate management of the location as sometimes it appeared in the Weis advertisements and at other times in the ones for GTC.
I first attended this theatre in the spring of 1973, where with my tin ear for romance, I took my date to a filler booking of “Dirty Harry” instead of “Paper Moon', which was playing down the street at the Riverside Twin. In the fall of 1974 I made my only other visit for a viewing of "The Tamarind Seed”.
Within a couple of years, GTC had bought out the Macon interests of the Weis company and assumed total control of the mini cinema. Since they now had a monopoly in Macon, there was apparently little interest in keeping this little place alive. I did not notice when it closed but I am pretty sure that is was gone by 1979. I do not recall the exact location but it was in a strip shopping center on the right hand side of Riverside Drive as you go north from town and just before you came to the Weis built Riverside Twin.
Contributed by
StanMalone
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Additional theaters in the Modular Cinemas of America chain included the Athens MiniCinema at Alps Road. The Franklin Road MiniCinema with three screens and about 1,000 seats total in Marietta (2 240 seats and one 480 seat,)and Rock Hill South Carolina. We also owned and operated the East Art Cinema (The old Madison Theater) for a while. Actually the Madison (East Art Cinema) was the first theater we owned and operated.
Cone Maddox
I would like to see more theatres on CT from Macon. We have managed to cover a good of theatre history in Atlanta and Augusta,Can’t believe there are not some old theatre Dawgs in the city of Little Richard.
I see we have a new member on C.T. Mike.
The October 19, 1970, issue of Boxoffice said that Atlanta-based Modular Cinemas of America was preparing to open its eighth Mini-Cinema location, which would debut in Macon about the middle of November. The chain had recently opened a house in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and so far also had four units in Atlanta and one each in Athens, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
As best I can recall the Macon Mini was in a K-Mart Shopping Center.
That is the best I can Recall. By the way, yesterday April 4 was the 50th anaversary of the first two theaters at Peachtree Battle and Ansley Mall. Cone Maddox
If the Mini-Cinema was in the Northpark Center, which is where the K-Mart madcone referred to is, it’s possible that the street name should be Riverside Parkway, not Riverside Drive. The K-Mart, like the Northpark Center itself, uses an address on Tom Hill Sr. Boulevard, but Riverside Parkway loops past the K-Mart on its way from Tom Hill Sr. Boulevard to Riverside Drive. There are several commercial buildings along Riverside Parkway, but I can’t tell which, if any of them, was once the Cinema.
This opened on September 23rd, 1970. Grand opening ad posted. It was in the K-Mart Plaza.