Mission Valley Cinemas
2109 Avent Ferry Road,
Raleigh,
NC
27606
2109 Avent Ferry Road,
Raleigh,
NC
27606
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A chronology of Raleigh’s 70mm presentation history has recently been published. Mission Valley is mentioned numerous times.
Grand opening ad:
Mission Valley Cinemas opening Fri, Mar 2, 1973 – 28 · The News and Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina) · Newspapers.com
Willem Dafoe wasn’t in The Keep.
TOP GUN was the only 70mm Dolby Stereo presentation in the Carolinas upon it’s general release at Raleigh’s Mission Valley Cinema on May 16,1986. Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem were absent from the 70mm presentations of TOP GUN.
King of Film: Mission Valley had a 70mm print of RETURN OF THE JEDI but was absent from the 70mm, 6 track Dolby Stereo presentations in the Raleigh area. Only Charlotte and Winston-Salem were the only theaters that presented JEDI in 70mm, 6 track Dolby Stereo…..
See the website digitalbits for further information:
www.digitalbits.com/columns/history-legacy—showmanship/remembering-return-of-the-jedi-30th
The 70mm,6 track DOBLY STEREO presentations of JEDI:
Charlotte: Park Terrace
Winston-Salem: Thruway
I saw RETURN OF THE JEDI in pure awesome 70mm, 6 track Dolby here in June of 1983. One of the more memorable movie going experiences of my child hood.
Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry in SUDDEN IMPACT eventually played on two screens for one week.
December 16,1983…playing at MISSION VALLEY 5
Screen 1: William Hurt and Lee Marvin in GORKY PARK
Screen 2: Barbra Streisand in YENTL-DOBLY STEREO
Screen 3: Clint Eastwood(Dirty Harry)in SUDDEN IMPACT
Screen 4: Mel Brooks in TO BE OR NOT TO BE
Screen 5: William Dafoe in THE KEEP
December 9,1983…..THE MISSION VALLEY CINEMA 5
The grand reopening of the Mission Valley Cinemas
SCREEN 1: Natalie Wood in BRAINSTORM
SCREEN 2: Barbra Streisand in YENTL-DOLBY STEREO
SCREENS 3 AND 5: Clint Eastwood in SUDDEN IMPACT
SCREEN 4: The Oscar winning WW2 adventure DAS BOOT
THE COMING CHRISTMAS ATTRACTIONS:
William Hurt and Lee Marvin in GORKY PARK
Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft TO BE OR NOT TO BE
William Dafoe in THE KEEP
I have the original ads for the Mission Valley 5 grand opening from December 9,1983.
Raleigh’s Mission Valley Cinema held the World Premiere of BRAINSTORM on October 6,1983. The movie was basically on location in North Carolina with locations in the greater Durham-Raleigh area as well as Research Triangle Park, Chapel Hill, Kitty Hawk, Wilmington, and a few other North Carolina locates.
The Christopher Walken-Natalie Wood science fiction thriller was one of the 70mm-6 Track Dolby Stereo presentations that got the North Carolina engagements in October,1983…Those theatres are…….
Charlotte: (Plitt)-Park Terrace III-[70mm Dolby Stereo]
Raleigh: (Litchfield)-Mission Valley 1 & 2-[70mm Dolby Stereo]
Other cities within the state of North Carolina got the general release showings in November,1983. Only cities of Raleigh and Charlotte were the engagements.
The largest auditorium seats 500.
Mission Valley held the world premier of Brainstorm on 06 October. The film was made in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Kitty Hawk, and a few other NC locales.
NOW SHOWING AT THE MISSION VALLEY CINEMA I & II For June 4,1982
CINEMA I-“STAR TREK II:THE WRATH OF KAHN”-Dolby Stereo
CINEMA II-Albert Finney and Carol Burnett in “ANNIE”
I saw “Charlie’s Angels” (the first film) here in 2000 – the concession stand sold “BladderBuster” sodas the size of a popcorn bucket (do they still sell those?). Ambassador was running the theater then (as they still do); “Charlie’s Angels” at the Mission Valley was a better experience than at the Carolina East 4 (by then a Carmike DUMP) in Greenville a couple of months later: second-run film (previously shown in Greenville at Carmike 12) in a decaying theater at first-run prices ($6 when they should have charged $1.50 tops). Karma comes around: Mission Valley is still in business while most of those old Carmike shoeboxes disappeared in bankruptcy.
Chuck1231 I am from Canada. but spent lots of time in Raleigh/Durham North Carolina.
I visited this theatre many times when United Artists was operating it. Lovely COMFORTABLE auditoriums, extremely clean floors (tiles) under the seats — far nicer than any Carmike dump!
For further information go to this site: http://www.in70mm.com/news/2008/jedi
Further proof that cities like Raleigh,Greensboro and Fayetteville were absent from the 70mm presentations of this film.
To: Mike Rogers and Michael Coate
I have the original newspaper ad from the Raleigh News and Observer that indicated upon it’s May 25,1983 general release that the movie RETURN OF THE JEDI did played here,but it was NOT mentioned anywhere in the ad that the film was in 70mm…NOR anywhere in the ad that film was mentioned in DOBLY STEREO. As Michael Coate quoted in on this site that the MISSION VALLEY and the CARDINAL were absent from the 70mm presentations. At the time the film opened MISSION VALLEY was a twin theater and the film played in it’s largest auditorium with a seating capacity of 515.
ONLY two cities in the state had RETURN OF THE JEDI presented in full 70mm-6 Track Dobly Stereo upon it’s May 25,1983 release:
Charlotte: Park Terrace
Winston-Salem: Thruway
The largest auditorium at the MISSION VALLEY had a seating capacity of 500 that was equipped with a full 180-degree widescreen projection that was equipped to show bigger presentations in the 70MM format.
The theatre opened on March 2,1973 as a twin cinema under Litchfeld Theatres and by 1983 expanded to five screens under United Artists Theatres and also Ambassador Entertainment Group.
This was also the same person who disrupted crowds during a screening of the James Bond “Skyfall” movie that also played at the Mission Valley Cinema that same night.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/11/27/2510253/raleigh-man-charged-with-disrupting.html.
Disruption at local movie theater results in charges…. From the November 28, 2012 edition of the Raleigh News and Observer….during a screening of the new “Twilight” movie at Raleigh’s Mission Valley Cinema……
More details on this are located at this website…..
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/11/27/2510253/raleigh-man-charged-with-disrupting.html
Chuck 1231: I have the original ads from March 2, 1973 grand opening of the Mission Valley Cinemas in Raleigh,aka The Mission Valley Cinema I & II. Source: Raleigh News and Observer.
Speaking of the 25th Anniversary of the 1986 blockbuster hit TOP GUN, The Mission Valley Cinemas in Raleigh was the only theatre in the Carolinas that was given the showing in 70MM and 6 Track Dobly Stereo. It opened in general release on May 16, 1986.
**Source: The Friday May 16, 1986 edition of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Did you know that a local television station is right next door to Mission Valley facing the intersections of Western Boulevard and Avent Ferry Roads?
WRAL-TV,Channel 5 of Raleigh is right next door to Mission Valley.
I remember taking one of the marquee.I assume you live in that area. It’s funny how people will live in a place and never think to snap a picture. Got a CT guy from ATlanta on and found out he never got around to snapping a picture of NORTHEAST EXPRESS DRIVE-IN in Atlanta.Driving home to Augusta I stopped off 1-85 and took several pictures Cliff never thought to do it,but I was able to mail him copies. I will try and locate the picture,I have hundreds of pictures,mainly in the South.
That theater was once the Varsity. I think it operated as Studio I for a brief time before it closed. Soon after it closed Studio I & II opened just down the street at 2526 Hillsborough in the Electric Company Mall. That theater closed in October of 2000. It was a very unique and very small theater. Screen 1 had just under 50 seats and screen 2 just over 50. The old Varsity sat empty for a long time after McDonalds closed and it is now a textbook store. Do you have pictures of the McDonalds? I would love to see them!