Regal Fox 12 Cinemas
900 Skyland Boulevard E.,
Tuscaloosa,
AL
35405
900 Skyland Boulevard E.,
Tuscaloosa,
AL
35405
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Ah the old Fox 12! Located in the mostly defunct McFarland Mall. I lived and attended college in Tuscaloosa from 1997-2003. When I should’ve been studying, or meeting new people, I pined away many an evening and many dollars seeing good and bad movies. When I first moved to Tuscaloosa, Cobb Cinemas chain ran this theater. In late 1997, the Cobb Chain was purchased and integrated into the Regal Cinemas brand and the Cobb name ceased to exist. Regal retained management of this theater up until its closure in 2004, after I had moved far away. During my time in Tuscaloosa, locals dispassionately spoke of both Fox 12 and the nearby Carmike Bama 6, due to the sparkling new Carmike (now AMC) Summit 16 way up in Birmingham that offered the then latest cinema-going amenities. During its entire lifetime, the Fox 12 never installed stadium seating or digital projection. By the time I lived in Tuscaloosa, the Fox 12 had clearly been expanded several times, having read the comments above, from a smaller venue into its final 12 screen configuration. As previously described, the theater’s management had constructed the theater’s screening rooms in hodgepodge fashion however they could fit them into the overall McFarland Mall structure space. On most occasions, Fox 12 ran the latest movies in the auditoriums (most of which had more seats) on the East side (pictured above), whilst older or less-engaging fare were relegated to the west side. The concession stand was seldom operating on the west side. The East side audiotorium featured 6 screens with varying sizes including two large capacity auditoriums (probably sat upwards of 200+) that were constructed during an earlier expansion adjacent to the main mall building. These two screens also sported DTS sound. One unique auditorium on the east side required a foot journey down a very long, descending passageway into a small screen room with high ceiling. A professor of mine anecdotally described this as “descent into hell” on a particular occasion he attended a movie. From comments above, this auditorium may have been an altered design that resulted from the expansion to 12 screens. The West side (pity no photo), meanwhile contained about 6 screens of varying size and ceiling height. The West side had is own restrooms and concession stand (seldom used). At the entrance to West Side, was a sloping ramp that led from the mall corridor to the auditoriums. None of the West side auditoriums were large, only seating about 100 people or less. In the end, the Fox 12, along with the nearby Bama 6 (which closed in the same time period) was shuttered in late 2004 when the newly reconstituted Cobb Cinemas constructed a fancy new standalone 16 screen movie theater a few miles away. From some google maps images, the Fox 12 along with much of the struggling McFarland Mall around it has been razed piecemeal, undoubtedly a relic of leisure unable to survive in modern shopping and entertainment options.
The theater expanded to Fox 10 in the summer of 1990. When this happened, the box office was moved from the wall on the east side (right, in the picture) to the chamber in the mall’s hallway. The floor of the entrance to the new side ramped upward, to then ramp downward in the theaters. It then expanded to Fox 12 in 1994, with the two new theaters taking over the space of the popular Cinnamon Shoppe on the “new side” where the other four screens had been added. It would be interesting to see these theaters now in a time when we have become spoiled with the modern stadium seating and sound. Several of them were relatively small and seemed tucked away with varying seating arrangements. Looking at overhead images of McFarland Mall, the roofs of only two theaters can really be outlined. I would really like to see the floor plans because it is hard to imagine so many theaters in that space. During the time of the expansion, McFarland Mall was renovated.
When McFarland Mall opened on February 12, 1969, this theatre opened as the Fox Twin 1 & 2. and were owned by NGC theaters. Somewhere along the line Cobb theatres purchased it, and in the late 70s (also around the time Bama 6 opened) the theatres were subdivided and it became the “Fox 4”.
Almost immediately after the subdividing, they were looking into expanding, so two more screens were added within a couple years, and it became the “Fox 6”. The theater expanded yet again by adding 4 more screens across the hallway, in what was the former Vieux Carre & Pasquale’s Pizza. This made it the “Fox 10”, 6 screens on the original side and 4 on the new side. Each side had it’s own concession stand, but they shared the box office in the center, as they were right across from each other.
I don’t know when it became Fox 12, or which side the 2 new screens were added onto, but Regal purchased the old Cobb Theatres chain and it became “Regal Fox 12”. The Fox theaters closed in September 2004, just before the new Cobb Hollywood (owned by the new Cobb theatres chain) opened in November of that year. One source claims that Cobb bought the Regal Fox 12 simply so they could shutter it and be the only game in town. Stan Pate (McFarland Mall’s new owner) is also the landlord for the Cobb Hollywood, and does not feel it’s viable to have the Fox reopened.