AMC North Dekalb 16

Someone has finally come up with a redevelopment plan that meets with county and community approval. Plans call for the two anchor buildings, the theater as well as the closed Rich’s store to remain to be incorporated into the new development. The rest of the mall will be demolished and replaced by green space, retail, office, apartments, condos, and, of course, parking decks. Apparently the theater will remain open throughout the construction which is scheduled to be completed by 2028 and will get an exterior entrance.

The original Storey North DeKalb Theater was entered directly from the parking lot; there was no mall access although a mall entrance was just a few feet from the theater’s front door. Twinned in the mid 70’s, it was demolished in the mid 80’s when the mall was rebuilt. Cineplex opened a four screen theater inside the mall in this current location which was acquired by AMC and massively expanded to 8 and eventually the current 16 screens.

At the moment, the theater is among the very few businesses in operation, and the only one without an outside entrance. Since all of the mall entrances are sealed the only access is through the adjoining Marshall’s department store which has an outside entrance, or when it is closed, from the parking lot via an old freight / maintenance hallway that leads to the theater lobby entrance. If you try to leave the theater and enter the mall commons area you are blocked by a steel gate. In the photo section I have posted a picture showing the current arrangement.

Over the years I have worked at theaters that stayed open during twinning, Loews 12 Oaks, mall expansion and relocation of the entrance from parking lot to mall, Lenox Square (twice), major remodeling of the lobby, GCC Northlake and Akers Mill, and refurbishment of the auditoriums, Akers Mill and Greens Corner. I am certainly glad that I am not the poor manager that is going to have to run this place during five years of construction chaos. Good luck keeping the construction workers out of your bathrooms or finding an empty dumpster to put your trash in.

Seating capacities at this theater (via Fandango’s reserved seating service):

• Theater 1 – 153 seats

• Theaters 2, 3, 7, 8 & 9 – 142 seats

• Theater 4 – 264 seats

• Theaters 5 & 6 – 241 seats

• Theater 10 – 129 seats

• Theater 11 – 102 seats

• Theater 12 – 133 seats

• Theater 13 – 294 seats

• Theater 14 – 295 seats

• Theater 15 – 130 seats

• Theater 16 – 177 seats

Article in today’s paper reports that the mall owners have decided that the days of enclosed malls are over and that they are going to tear this place, Atlanta’s first enclosed mall, down. In its place will be built yet another “Town” concept development. It will have eating, retail, offices, apartments, and a Costco. It also said that the AMC Theater will remain but did not specify if the current theater would be incorporated into the center or if it would be rebuilt in another part of the development.

If this comes about it means that the original mall (and Storey Theater) lasted 21 years, and the Market Place rebuild with its Cineplex-Odeon 4 / AMC 8 / AMC 16 about 34 more.

Since those are pretty standard AMC designs of the time, I assume that AMC remodeled to match the additions just without stadium.

Maybe it was first expanded to from 4 screens to six, then the other section with 10 screens were built. My local AMC Classic (formally Carmike) has a similar set up. There are four screens in a row in one hallway that was built along when the mall was built in 1980, and around 1990 another section was built with 4 theatres on each side of a new separate hallway.

Picking up on various comments made on various North Dekalb pages here on CT, I visited the AMC 16 earlier this year and do strongly believe that the Market Square 4 is part of this 16-plex. This theatre after entering the lobby, to the right side of the snack bar are four slope-seating theatres. To the left of the snack bar is a long hallway that connects to what is essentially a 12-plex stadium style theatre. Pics soon to be up at Cinematour.com

I CAN’T stand AMC. Why wasn’t I snapping pictures of the original NORTH DEKALB MALL theatre when it was a single theatre and the entry way was from outside. That was a beautiful theatre. Saw many wonderful movies there starting with OLIVER! and then WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.

Who was it that said, “growing up in Atlanta is like watching your past hauled away in a dump truck”??

No appreciation for nostalgia.

Americans bitch and complain about job loss and the economy, but they did it to themselves by funding and pouring their money into corporations rather than privately owned sectors. Horrible stores like WALMART and Costco.

View link

All theaters on the same site?

1st Theater, North Dekalb, 1966-1985, Storey Theaters, twined in the early 1980’s became the North Dekalb Twin?

2nd Theater, Cineplex Odeon Market Square 4, 1990-1995 a “jewel box” theater?

Present Theater, 1996, AMC?

Anyone have more info or photos?