Tacoma Mall Twin Theatre
4302 Tacoma Mall Boulevard,
Tacoma,
WA
98409
4302 Tacoma Mall Boulevard,
Tacoma,
WA
98409
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Once operated by Cineplex Odeon after the SRO chain was sold to Cineplex in December 1986.
Marcus Theatres was schedule to build a multiplex at the mall as part of its 2020 redevelopment plan, but with the onset of COVID, the addition never came to pass. The site was to include the largest indoor screen in the state.
05/16/68 opened with Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. 11/19/69 2001: a space odyssey - twelve weeks 04/22/70 Ice Station Zebra - two weeks 05/20/70 Krakatoa, East of Java - one week 06/11/71 Song of Norway - four weeks
None of the movies were promoted as “in Cinerama”
ad:
Tacoma Mall Theatre 1 14 May 1968, Tue The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington) Newspapers.com
and
Tacoma Mall Theatre 2 14 May 1968, Tue The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington) Newspapers.com
Two screens on November 27th, 1974.
This was opened by United Theatres (Pacific Theatres) on May 16th, 1968 with the same design as the Pacific Lakewood Center near Long Beach, California. Grand opening ads posted.
Sterling Recreation Organization bought the Tacoma Mall Theatre in July, 1972. Boxoffice of December 2, 1974 reported that SRO had held the grand opening of the remodeled Tacoma Mall Twin on November 27.
What were the playdates of the Tacoma Mall’s run of “Song of Norway”?
This site has many, many newspapers online:wwwfultonhistory/fultonhtml.org
Does anyone know a Tacoma resident who can look up old newspaper records to see what the ads said?
patryan6019: Were the Tacoma Mall engagements of the “last 4 ‘Cinerama’ pictures” advertised/promoted as being “in Cinerama”? Even Song of Norway?
Ralph Daniel…MSC77…polyparkie…The opening was on the date cited in the overview…with Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? 2001 played a year and half later (for 12 weeks) followed by Zebra, Java and in 71, Norway…the last 4 “Cinerama” pictures ever.
According to http://incinerama.com/tacoma.htm Tacoma Mall was planned and built as a Cinerama theatre but no known Cinerama films were shown.
2001 opened at the Seattle Cinerama on 5/28/1968 and played for 77 weeks.
polyparkie… I don’t know what this theater’s debut booking was, but I very highly doubt it was Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” I suspect Seattle would’ve had clearance over much of the state of Washington for a roadshow booking and “2001” hadn’t even opened yet in Seattle as of mid-May ‘68 (if that is in fact when the Tacoma Mall Theater opened).
The mall replaced the theater with a Krispy Kreme donuts shop. The donut store is mostly deserted every time I drive by it.
If I remember correctly, the film showing on opening night in 1968 was “2001, A Space odyssey”, A Stanley Kubrick film…
a full view of the original theatre interior is now at http://incinerama.com/tacoma.htm
Just uploaded some old newspaper ads
I remember attending services held by Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God at the Tacoma Mall Theater during 1975-1976. This ministry, based in Pasadena, started on radio in 1934 and expanded to television in the 1950’s. They put out the free magazine called The Plain Truth. The were Sabbath keepers so services were held on Saturdays. They rented the theater in the morning. I recall the pastor of the congregation was a former airline pilot named Richard Atkins. I recall it was a beautiful facility.
The chandeliers have been in The Showbox in downtown Seattle since 2001.
Very nice. I wish there were photos out there of the auditoriums after the split. That would bring back memories.
For a full view of the original theatre interior, see
http://www.cineramahistory.com/tacoma.htm
Nice Twin Theatre,but it should have stayed with one screen.
Mark: I haven’t found any references to a third theater built on the model of the Lakewood and Tacoma projects, but if one was built it would probably have been built for one of the Forman companies; Forman United Theatres or Pacific Theatres. I’ll keep an eye out for evidence of such a project.