Eastland Mall Cinemas

General Cinema closed here on March 21, 1996 with “Hellraiser IV,” “Homeward Bound II,” “Muppet T.I.” and “City Hall.” A new operator came in and wanted to reduce seats. It had a seat give-away and would become a short-lived franchise under Cinema Grill Systems Circuit of Atlanta in 1999 and closed.

It was reopened here on April 28, 2000 as Cinema Grill Eastland once again. It was more successful than the previous incarnation - by a hair - closing after just one year after the first location lasted just months. It then reopened as El Cine Eastland on August 30, 2002 screening Hispanic and subtitled American films.

Another try as a Spanish-language cinema opening on August 30th, 2002. Otro intento como estreno de cine en español el 30 de agosto de 2002

Charlotte’s first Spanish cinema, El Cine Sat, Aug 31, 2002 – 15 · The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina) · Newspapers.com

This reopened as the Cinema Grill on May 12th, 2000 after it was closed by General Cinema in 1996. Another grand opening ad posted.

The history is a bit off for GCC. I’ll also try to add a little more about the theatre’s end. The General Cinema Corporation owned & operated two (not three as implied in the history) theatres in Charlotte when Eastland opened, the Charlottetown Cinemas and the Southpark Cinemas. GCC would not operate a 4th theatre in the Charlotte area until Tower Place opened in Pineville in 1986. The Eastland Mall theatre was last used as a church, Renovatus, in 2009-10 (church left that space in June 2010). GCC closed the Eastland Theatre in 1996 (per Charlotte Observer, June 27, 2010, p8A of 1A article, “Why Eastland went from bustling to bust”, also the source for when the church left the theatre space).

I have the original ads from its 1975 grand opening.

What is the current status of this theatre?

Hello – surprised not to see this already posted here but Eastland Mall is now being demolished (started about a month ago maybe?). They said it would take about six months to level it.

I am working on a project on “Lost” Charlotte Movie Theaters for UNC-Charlotte where i am a faculty member. Would love to get in touch with anyone who as insight into this theater (stories, pics, whatever). You can send me an email at and hopefully we can talk about your interest or info on the lost theaters of Charlotte. – Thanks

Thanks for posting the links PatriciaNC.

I went to Renovatus for a few weeks before car problems caused me to not have a way.

Being a native of East Charlotte I remember seeing movies at Eastland when I was a kid in the late 80’s and early 90’s, the mall fell on some pretty tough times later on and never really recovered from it.

I started going to Renovatus in January of 2010 and hung out with one of the members of their staff there sometimes, as far as I know they never got the screens operating again. Their plan for the mall was, honestly, very noble and I wish they could’ve pulled it off. They’d envisioned turning Screen “A” into the sanctuary, Screen “B” into a nursury and using Screen “C” to show G-rated movies either for free or at an extremely reduced cost. That plan never came to be due to a number of things, not least a frozen pipe bursting and flooding the place. Eventually they moved in with another Church in west Charlotte when the mall was closed.

It was still in good shape while I was there, they’d converted the lobby into a kind of coffee house/chill out place. The bathrooms were still operable as well.

PatriciaNC: Good research and thank you.

I just read a recent article about the theatre at Eastland Mall being a church now.

PatriciaNC: Is this theatre still at the Eastland Mall?