Northland Cinema 5

dallasmovietheaters on July 20, 2025 at 12:12 am

The concept for Northland Mall dated back to the Worthington City Council’s approval for the infrastructure needed for a major shopping center and suburban growth. The architectural plans were eventually shown in 1973 by Bureau Investment calling for a twin-screen theater as part of a hybrid strip center and mall with Kmart signed on as the primary anchor along with a 100-unit motel. The cinema would be a straight up replacement for the downtown State Theatre facility.

The Northland Mall opened in 1977 with the cinema going online on October 5, 1977 (its opening ad as the Northland Twin Cinema - an interior mall venue – is in photos). Located between Bostwick’s and Checkmate’s, the twin had identical 235-seat auditoriums. A third refresh at the center enclosed the old shopping center unifying the space as an interior, fully-enclosed mall. At that time, the cinema took over Checkmate to add a 180-seat theater transitioning to the Northland Cinema 3 (aka Northland Cinema 1, 2 & 3) with 685-seats on June 29, 1984. Dolby Digital sound and improved seating were features.

Excellence Theatres took on the venue in 1988. In late 1995, Lakes & Rivers Cinemas Circuit took on the venue with architectural plans for a never-built, 1,000 seat modern five-plex external to the Mall. Instead, Lakes & Rivers took over the JoAnn’s Fabric Store to expand one final time adding two screens with those screens launching of the Northland Cinema 5 on May 15, 1997 as the only two ready screens showing “Liar, Liar” and “Father’s Day.” And just a few days later, on July 25 (1997), the other three screens were opened. The final seat count reached 990 seats for the five-plex.

Lakes and Rivers appears to have left the venue in 2006 and was replaced by Evergreen Entertainment. The theater reached the end of its 20-year leasing but Evergreen’s parent TCMCI was in bankruptcy so there was no extension by mall owner Diversified Developers Reality (DDR) with the theater closing under TCMCI/Evergreen on October 28, 2007.

DDR signed a month to month agreement with West Mall Theatres circuit while it worked on details for a longer term lease in December of 2007. They figured how the ownership of the theater’s seating and projection worked by the signing of a 10-year leasing agreement in June of 2008 with West Mall Theatres having the opt out clause at the five year mark. Northland Mall went into descent while undergoing several ownership changes. The KMart anchor was long gone as was a Hy-Vee grocery store.

By 2014, the Northland roof had gone south. Mold issues were obviously right behind that. But the cinema chugged along making a digital conversion to remain commercially viable. Some days, you had to play a form of “Frogger” to reach the auditorium of choice. The cinema and the Venetian Steakhouse faced very challenging situations continuing operations into 2016 when they were told to scram as the “Shops” were going to be demolished in favor of something else. The Steakhouse closed September 20, 2016 and the Cinema on September 27, 2016. And the whole thing was gone via demolition in 2017.

Trolleyguy on May 13, 2016 at 12:24 am

Website is not showing any film times and the Facebook page indicates that this theatre is closed. Status should be closed.

JodarMovieFan on January 4, 2008 at 12:19 am

Its a dead link.