Plaza Cinema

dallasmovietheaters on February 5, 2025 at 10:50 am

The K-Mart Plaza launched on April 12, 1976 and Gulf States decided that was the place to be creating Pascagoula’s final cinema - a twin. Gulf launched the nondescript cinema at 3331 Denny Avenue / U.S. 90 at Chico Road on April 1, 1977 with “Silver Streak” and “Network”. At launch, it had identical 250-seat auditoriums bathed in a mid-1970s color palette of rust, orange, red and ivory. Nailed it! A highlight came when Cinema Twin Manager Nona Gaston welcomed Evil Knievel who made a personal appearance on June 2, 1977 to promote “Viva Knievel!”

The venue became the UA Gulf States Cinema Twin when United Artists acquired the circuit in December of 1986. It then became the UA Twin Cinemas when the Gulf States moniker was eliminated. With UA moving further into the multiplex business environment of the time, it decided to concentrate its efforts on the Singing River Mall nine-screens (a four and five plex) less than nine miles away in Gautier. The Twin Cinema’s closure - one of many twins and tris closed by the chain in a five-year period by what was then United Artists Communications - ended a streak of 82 consecutive years for Pascagoula and Pas-Point moviegoers. It occurred on November 26, 1989 with “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” and “Do the Right Thing” at 99 cents a person. The facility had, by all reports, been allowed to degrade to the point that the theater’s presentation was quite substandard.

The theater sat vacant in the Kmart Plaza for a brief period before becoming a short-lived restaurant. Then the improbable happened when Morgan Corp. of Alabama reopened the twin screener as the Plaza Cinema on May 26, 1995. The policy was returned to first run films and nothing above a PG-13 rating was booked. The former Twin Cinema gave Pascagoula another theater making it 85 years of cinematic magic out of 91 years. But the magic was still gone in that location and move exhibition ended with folks having to go to nearby multiplexes for their movie enjoyment. The Twin Cinema / Plaza Cinema closed and was later demolished.