Mt. Vernon Multiplex Cinemas
7940 Richmond Highway,
Alexandria,
VA
22306
7940 Richmond Highway,
Alexandria,
VA
22306
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 7 comments
Video of demolition.
The contents are being auctioned off and it now appears that that the theater will probably be demolished and a Costco built on the site:. This article also has some pictures: View link
Since I was in the neighborhood, I drove by this place and it is boarded up. There were teens and the usual riff raff hanging around the building doing who knows what. The marquee that used to list showtimes and titles had a thank you note for the years of patronage and encouraged moviegoers to visit their sister plexes.
Being that there is a Walmart next door, this location could easily be converted to a Sams Club, if not a movie theater or church.
I remember when this place opened up in 1986. It had state-of-the art presentation, THX certified theaters with 70mm capability and was a favorite destination point for me, my friends and relatives, who would drive across the bridge from MD.
It just happened that I found out today that the place had closed even though I drove by this place last week! Its sad. Yes, the place even back in the 80s seemed a little rowdy but I never felt unsafe and did enjoy coming here up through the early 90s.
NA could have put in some extra money to revitalize the place to make it more viable to Hoffmann, but Hoffman is quite a place and they have much larger and more engulfing screens, which the older venues such as this one; Reston and Arlington all lacked.
A drive-in comeback. I doubt it. Perhaps a second-run house with all those screens would be a better alternative, plus you’ve got all those screens and stereo sound in each auditorium.
Yeah, the crime in that area is a problem, especially directly south. That said, crime there was pretty bad in the late 1990’s, and the place was doing very well then. I would often go there because I wanted to avoid heading into Springfield Mall, which was closer to me, and the place was packed every Friday and Saturday night. I don’t know, I just saw an immediate hit when the Hoffman Center opened and people just seemed to make a habit of avoiding the place after that. Perhaps the shady area led some people who live back towards Mt. Vernon/Ft. Hunt etc. to just trek to Eisenhower Ave. instead when that option opened up. However, one would think with the Walmart that is pretty much always packed being basically in the same parking lot (save for a fence), and the revamped Mt. Vernon Crossroads a couple of blocks away, always packed, the area still generates more than enough traffic, crime or not, to support a multiplex under the right circumstances.
I used to live up the road from this theatre. In fact when it was a drive in I could see the screen from my backyard. The Hoffman and Kingstowne theatres may have played a small part in this theatre’s demise, but those theatres were at least 5 miles away. They did nothing to serve the southern end of the Route 1 corridor toward Woodlawn and Ft. Belvoir. Knowing the neighborhood the way I do, I can say with a strong bit of confidence that the Mt. Vernon Multiplex was a victim of the local crime rate. In it’s day it was a GREAT drive in. However it was never more than an average indoor theatre stuck in a crime ridden neighborhood. I’m sure it’s unlikely that another chain will want to step in a buy this theatre.
So does anybody know what is going to happen to this place? I didn’t hear anything about it closing until it just happened out of the blue. The attendance obviously suffered from Hoffman Center and Kingstowne opening, so I’m sure that played a role. That said, a lot of money has gone in to revitalizing that area, so I’d expect a multiplex to end up somewhere around there if this one doesn’t change ownership. Just wondering if anybody has any insight?