Movies at Cranberry

dallasmovietheaters on January 11, 2023 at 4:55 am

The refurbished Movies at Cranberry partially opened with three screens on one side of the Mall on April 13, 2007 and the other two theatres across the way on May 13, 2007. The 5-screen, 720-seat Movies at Cranberry replaced the previous theatre located in the same spot called Mall Cinemas at Cranberry Mall operated by various entitles including Cinemette Theatres (1981-1987 which expanded across the thoroughfare to five screens), Cinema World (December 19, 1987-May 22, 1994 when Cinema World bought Cinemette) and Carmike Theatres (May 23, 1994-May 28, 2006 when Carmike bought Cinema World as the Movies at Mall Cinema). Carmike left by mutual agreement after a 25-year lease expiry in 2006 and the theaters spaces were drastically upgraded within the Mall.

The Cranberry Mall housing the interior cinemas had opened in 1981 with cinemas a part of the venue. The Mall reached greyfield status losing its main anchors and then the theatre closed temporarily on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theatre returned to business June 19, 2020 but with the Mall in freefall and movie attendance down, the Movies at Cranberry struggled mightily.

The Cranberry Mall was offered for sale constantly and finally was auctioned off in November of 2022 though continuing operations. Attendance nosedived and, likely taking the opt-out clause of a 15-year lease, the theater - according to its Facebook feed - announced both that it was losing money and closing permanently on January 15, 2023 with “Avatar 2,” “Puss in Boots,” “M3gan,” and “The Old Way.”