Fox Ventura Theatre
390 S. Mills Road,
Ventura,
CA
93003
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Mann Theatres, National General Theatres
Architects: L. Perry Pearson, Paul Wuesthoff
Firms: Pearson & Wuesthoff
Functions: Retail
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Opened as a 918-seat single screen theatre October 2, 1968 by National General Theatres. The opening movie was Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate”. It was twinned December 10, 1982. The Fox Ventura Theatre operated until under the occasional Mann banner, showing films across the street from the city’s biggest shopping mall until 1987 or slightly after that (I saw “Spaceballs” there). It’s now a Good Guys store.
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
The old Mann Theatre was called the “FOX”. I know I worked there in 1984-1985. In December of 1982 the movie theatre became a “Twin Theatre” and renamed the Mann Ventura Twin . Its opening movies (when it reopened) were Screen #1 “THE TOY” and Screen #2 was “Airplane II”. The last movie it played as a single screen was “An Officer and a Gentelmen”. This closed in the spring of 1998.
Since I worked there I also know the church next door were not nice neighbors. The “YOUTH GROUP KIDS” of that church use to make mess in the churches parking lot but they would blame our customers! So they always got a free “clean up on us”
Now that CompUSA is closing all GoodGuys stores in California, this building is soon to be vacant.
Thanks for the posts, Stan & MagicLantern! I went to this theater a lot when I was a child and this brought back fond memories. My fondest movie memory there was watching “One Crazy Summer” with John Cusack, Demi Moore, and Bobcat Goldthwait (go figure!). As for the church behind it, I attend that church and I’m sorry to hear about your experiences with the kids there. Our members are actually quite friendly, caring, and considerate so I’m going to use your comments as a lesson to the current youth group that their actions now can have long lasting effects.
Still vacant with a for lease sign in the window.
I saw the Chris Reeve ‘Superman’ there when it was still a single screen. It was huge! It seemed that when the curtain opened it just kept going and going and going… It was thrilling. Except for the Cinerama Dome, there just aren’t really huge screens like that anymore. I was quite bereft when they split the Fox into 2 screens. It just wasn’t the same.
This opened on October 2nd, 1968
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and the grand opening ad for the Ventura Twin on December 10th, 1982 is at
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Grand opening article: Mann Ventura Twin reopening 10 Dec 1982, Fri Ventura County Star (Ventura, California) Newspapers.com