University Plaza 1 & 2

Closed December 6th, 2000.

University Cinema 1 & 2 closing 07 Dec 2000, Thu Winston-Salem Journal (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) Newspapers.com

You are right, Mmandarano. The theater was where the pawn shop is now. The last movie that I saw there was the 2nd run showing of ‘Scream 3’ in the spring of 2000. There was a surprising number of low class families with their young children there, and they thought the death scenes were hilarious. One of the last movies to show here was the Mel Gibson starrer ‘The Patriot’.

By the time Carmike took over this theatre in the mid to late-1980’s the conditions this cinema was in was absolutely horrific. There were numerous reports of garbage between the seats with empty beer bottles,fried chicken boxes lying around and not to mention some of the seats were just filthy! Also did I mention condoms were between the seats,and the numerous report of gang fights that broke out during weekend screenings. By the mid-1990’s,this theatre converted from first-run films to showing second-run movies as a discount theatre in order to keep afloat. By 2000,this theatre was closed by Carmike Cinemas and from there were plans to reopen this theatre,but that didn’t help. A church was set to reopen it by showing kiddie matinees in order to stay open which at the time of the University Plaza 1 & 2’s closing had tough competition from a bigger and larger megaplex that was being built just up the street. By the time the church took over where the University Plaza Cinemas once stood,no one would have ever suspected that once upon a time this was a movie theatre located on the Northern section of the city.

Wild is an understatement for this theatre. A lot of hardcore flicks played here…from “Boyz In The Hood”,to “New Jack City”, “Friday”, “Menace II Society”,and “Set It Off”.