Cinema West 1 & 2

Cotton Bowl Cinema opened in 1971 as a one screen theater. It was twinned in the late 1970s and was renamed Cotton Bowl Twin Cinema. At some point, ownership changed and the cinema was renamed Cinema West 1 & 2. The cinema closed in 1993 and has been home to Victory Metropolitan Full Gospel Church since 1994. The conversion to a church has been very minimal. The concession stand, box office are still in the lobby. The building features two twin auditoriums both seating 300 a piece and has theater seats and movie screens in tact.

Cinema West 1 & 2 got to the finish line as a twin-screen venue before anyone else in Jackson. The $200,000 venue eschewed high visibility and major traffic to operate to its neighborhood base. It was initially programmed with a family-friendly film on Screen 1 at 99 cents admission and a more mature audience themed film on Screen 2 at a $1.50 price point. That mission lasted about two months when the kids films weren’t cutting it. Windsor Showcase Theatres operated the venue in its formative years. It closed on November 16, 1991 with “Boyz in the Hood.”

Joe Mitchell relit the venue on March 20, 1992 with “Juice” and “Freejack” as it programmed second-run, discount films with African American audiences in mind. It was one of the few African American owned and operated venues in the United States in the early 1990s / megaplex era. Mitchell paid close attention to security as that was a concern of patrons, undoubtedly.

Cinema West 2 appears to have closed December 19, 1993 with “Menace II Society” and “Hard Target.” Investment in Jackson seemed to be heading to North Jackson, Clinton, and other suburbs. Based on its mentions in the local police blotter, the end of Cinema West showed it in a moderate to above average crime zone which likely didn’t help attendance. In August of 1994, it had become a house of worship for 30 plus years.

BTW: It wasn’t called the Cotton Bowl Cinema but did operate across from the Cotton Bowl bowling lanes.