Chakeres Theatres Upper Valley Mall Cinema 5

Closed February 20th, 2017 per: Upper Valley Mall cinemas closing 22 Feb 2017, Wed Springfield News-Sun (Springfield, Ohio) Newspapers.com

The Upper Valley cinemas became part of the Chakeres chain on May 25th, 1988. Chakeres takes over the Upper Valley Mall Cinemas 25 May 1988, Wed Springfield News-Sun (Springfield, Ohio) Newspapers.com

Grand opening ad posted.

The info above under the Google street view is incorrect and SRCputt’s info is accurate. The Upper Valley Mall Cinemas was originally opened by General Cinema Corp in 1971 and there were two auditoriums, not one. Cinema 2 was later split in two and then in the early 1980’s the Chakeres family took over and cut the two smaller theatres in half going the other direction to make a total of five theatres. Those smaller theatres are incredibly small. The original Cinema 1 is still in its original configuration, Shadow Box screen and all, though they did paint the area around the screen. This and the Chakeres 10 are the only indoor theatres in Springfield running first run films, and that’s a shame. While Cinema 1 still has its charms, the other theatres here, as well as at the Cinema 10, are typical 1980’s-style multiplex shoeboxes. No showmanship, no thought for presentation. Sad.

establish/renew link

I went through some old Springfield News-Suns today for details on the opening of the Upper Valley Mall. The mall itself opened August 1, 1971. The new theater had an open house on August 1 and 2, showing short subjects to show off the place. The grand opening of the theater was Wednesday, August 4, 1971. The complex had two screens and the opening night features were Plaza Suite and Summer of ‘42.
According to an August 1 article in the News-Sun, the capacity of the complex was 1145. Since both theaters were the same size, that would mean capacity for each theater would be about 575. The article stated the designer of the theaters was William Riseman.
In the original design, when entering the theater the consession stand is stright ahead. When facing the stand, screen 1 was to the right and screen two to the left.
Screen 1 remains almost identical to what it was like when it originally opened. Screen 2 has now been subdivided into four houses, each seating about 100 to 150.
General Cinemas were the original owners of the theater. On September 6, 1977, the second screen was closed to split it in two. The last feature to play on the screen before being subdivided was Bad News Bears in Breaking Training. General Cinemas kept it as a 3 screen complex until it was sold to Chakeres. I will do further research and report at a later date.