Cinemark Tinseltown USA-Six Flags Mall

ridethectrain on August 24, 2024 at 8:15 pm

Please rename it Cinemark Tinseltown USA-Six Flags Mall

rivest266 on June 28, 2018 at 1:34 pm

Grand opening ad in the photo section.

dallasmovietheaters on April 1, 2017 at 4:03 pm

Closed on March 31, 2017

dallasmovietheaters on April 22, 2015 at 12:33 pm

For twenty years, the Six Flags Mall had an external twin-screen turned five-screen General Cinema Theater that competed with the nearby AMC Forum 6 at the same-era Forum 303 Mall. As Arlington grew, theaters sprouted up everywhere: Loews opened the Lincoln Square to the North, UA launched the Bowen to the southwest, AMC built its Green Oaks 8 to the southwest, and General Cinema would open an eight screener to the southwest. As the 1980s concluded, Six Flags Mall was being challenged by the new Parks Mall in Arlington just to the Southwest and had to take action.

The economic tides were turning as Interstate 20 was helping to create a retail nexus in south Arlington entering the 1990s. Six Flags had a major expansion and remodel in 1990 to compete against the Parks. Unfortunately, the veteran General Cinema Six Flags left as the remodel was happening, As more theaters came online including two in Grand Prairie to the southeast, Cinemark stepped in and announced a theater in 1996 which would open in March 28, 1997. The 45,000-square-foot addition to the shopping center would be christened as the Cinemark Tinseltown USA Six Flags Mall 9.

Opening with Selena, Jerry Maguire; Return of the Jedi; Liar, Liar; Jungle 2 Jungle; Donnie Brasco; and The English Patient, the theater boosted optimism for the twenty year old mall. In terms of moviegoing, AMC would leave the Forum which was a shot in the arm to the Tinseltown. When AMC announced a megaplex to be added to the interior of the Parks Mall, Six Flags Mall countered with a $25 million expansion plan including skating rink, free-standing restaurants and expansion of Six Flags’ Cinemark from 9 to 14 screens with an additional 18,639 square fee added.

But Six Flags Mall would go into a nosedive along with the neighboring former Forum turned Festival Mall. Six Flags shedded stores then anchors heading toward greyfield status – a term akin to a dead mall. Tinseltown’s expansion from 9 to 14 screens was featured on the mall directory but never became reality nor did the other promised changes. Penney’s, Foley’s, Sears, and Dillards – the primary four anchors – all left with Dillards returning with a low-priced outlet store. The Festival would be closed in May of 2005 which may have prolonged the agony facing the Six Flags Mall. Attempts to revive the Penney’s anchor met with failure and the mall flailed. Yet, despite Six Flags obvious-to-all forthcoming demise, Cinemark just kept drawing huge crowds in the ghost town mall.

As the 2010s opened, Six Flags Mall was toast. The air conditioning failed and all of the stores in the middle were closed and access was only allowed to the food court, cinema, and Dillards anchor. In December of 2012, Six Flags Mall was sold to Noble Crest which renamed the mall, “Plaza Central,” a lackluster effort to convert the space to a vibrant Hispanic mall. As of the mid-2010s, the mall had reopened but was a surreal shopping experience in which anyone could walk through the closed stores and make a deal to launch a store at a bargain leasing rate. Using low-cost first-run pricing, Cinemark shrugged off the disaster that was the Six Flags Mall / Plaza Central in its infancy and continued to pack in crowds. An odd success in a wildly unsuccessful shopping center. And as of 2015, the circuit still hadn’t acknowledged the Six Flags Mall name change to Plaza Central as the new mall owners struggled mightily to create an inviting shopping experience.

Broan on January 28, 2005 at 8:49 pm

http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=4660 This is one of the most hideous, garish theaters i’ve ever had the displeasure to see photos of.