Northwood IV

dallasmovietheaters on February 10, 2015 at 11:19 am

The AMC Northwood Hills 4 was the second DFW AMC theater opening in 1970 with a 10-year lease at Coit and Spring Valley Road serving as a first-run theater and a renewed second 10-year lease in which the theater was a second-run dollar house. The theater was excised from the shopping center after shuttering at the start of 1990 and would be replaced by a new retail store.

In 1950, Richardson had doubled its growth post-War but to just 1,300 residents. The suburb just to the north of Dallas grew throughout the 1960s hitting 50,000 residents by year’s end. Interstate Circuit had predicted this trend building its single screen Westwood at Spring Valley and Coit Road opening in 1966. Downtown’s Ritz Theater would go out of business shortly thereafter and Interstate was sitting pretty. But upstart to the DFW area, AMC theaters had other exhibition ideas. Opening its hugely successful Northtown 6 about eight miles away in 1969, the AMC theater showed six first-run films while the suburban Westwood could show just one.

The theater chain decided to build three additional multiplexes in Dallas. The Northwood Hills neighborhood of Dallas would get one theater. N-H was created in the late 1950s bounded by Belt Line Rd. on the north, Coit Rd. on the east, Alpha Rd. on the south and White Rock Creek on the west. The Northwood Hills 4 would open in the backyard of the Westwood signing a lease at Coit and Spring Valley in January of 1970 less than a mile away from the Interstate operation.

Interstate countered by hastily creating a second auditorium called the Promenade reflecting the new name of the shopping center that housed the theater and the later name of that operation. Meanwhile, AMC had its four-screener NH-4 ready to go July 1, 1970 with its first auditorium of 350 seats opening with “Paint Your Wagon,” its second screen of 250 seats with “Which Way to the Front?” the third screen and fourth screen with 225 seats with “The Reivers” and “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.” For AMC, it was game on as the company expanded in the next calendar year to the Forum 303 Mall 6 in Grand Prairie, the Preston Center 2 in Dallas, and two disastrous entries into Oak Cliff with the short-lived Golden Triangle 4 and the open-then-closed Western Park Village Center 4.

The cinematic money was heading to the west about four miles away as in May of 1980 the AMC Prestonwood launched near the General Cinema Prestonwood and near the forthcoming UA Prestonwood that same year. With the Prestonwood area becoming Dallas' second most lucrative theatrical zone, in July of 1980, a pricing policy change downgraded the Northwood Hills 4 to a dollar house. The same occurred at the rival Promenade Twin. For the next ten years, the property would age quickly showing second-run fare as AMC grinded out what it could from the aging property. The theater closed as its 20 years of lease cycles concluded on January 1, 1990.

The final films were “Dead Poets’ Society,” “Parenthood,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “Immediate Family,” and “Let It Ride.” Interstate now under Plitt operation decided to up the ante for the dollar house fare and turned its Westwood into a six-screen facility in 1984 that lasted for its final ten-year stretch. AMC’s plan proved to be the winner, however, vanquishing the Interstate/Plitt Circuit as Plitt just wasn’t aggressive in the multiplex era. Well played AMC and the Northwood Hills 4 played a role in moving Dallas to the multiplex era.

samacull on October 11, 2011 at 11:18 pm

I was a manager at this theatre in 1985, 1986. Fun times.

jamestv on June 7, 2010 at 7:13 pm

I worked as a projectionist off and on in 1974 at this theatre. While the shopping center is still going, the theatres were remodeled out of existence to accomodate more retail—they were in the center of the shoping center.

pacsboy on May 5, 2009 at 5:05 pm

Grew up in the Richardson area and frequented the Northwood Hills 4. Saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at least 8 times in 2 weeks here. Remember being scared when my dad took us to see Colors here in ‘88. I would hang out at Bill’s Records next door until my movie started. Wow, the memories!