Tri-City Cinemas
1980 W. Main Street,
Mesa,
AZ
85201
1980 W. Main Street,
Mesa,
AZ
85201
No one has favorited this theater yet
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Harkins Theatres, Mann Theatres
Previous Names: Mann Tri-City Theatres, Mann 4 Tri-City Dollar Theatres, Harkins Tri-City 5
Nearby Theaters
The 4–screen Mann Tri-City Theatres was operated by Mann Theatres and opened May 22, 1987. On September 4, 1984 it became a discount house and was renamed Mann 4 Tri-City Dollar Theatres. It was taken over by Harkins Theatres on June 4, 1993 as a 5-screen theatre and was closed on February 16, 1998. The mall & its theatre were demolished in 1998.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
I went here a couple of times to see $1 movies in the spring of 1989. “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was showing in auditorium #4, so it was at least a 4-plex. This blog states that it had “six multiplex screens”:
http://arizona100.blogspot.com/2010/08/mesa-replaced-farms-with-charm-to.html
According to Wikipedia, when it opened in 1968, Tri-City Mall was the first enclosed shopping center in the East Valley region of the Phoenix metropolitan area. The mall closed in 1998 and was demolished to make way for a new strip mall shopping center, Tri-City Pavilions. The last standing Tri-City Mall store (the gutted remains of JCPenney) was demolished in April 2006 to make way for a light rail transit station.
A good aerial postcard shot of the mall can be seen here: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wS7qhfsw7LU/TFdwF7YWonI/AAAAAAAAAgo/CviD9vOppgs/s1600/Mesa_Tri-CityMall.jpg
See also: http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/2006/08/tri-city-mall.html
I went to a couple of movies here back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Nice theater. It was a dollar theater by then. Used to go to the restaurant in the parking lot there after we would watch a movie. Good times.
AMC Gateway Village 10, Blair Chandler Park 10 and Mann Tri-City 4 opened on the same day. Grand opening ad in photo section.
Tri-City Mall opened in 1968 theatre-lessly. The Mann 4 Theatres Tri-City Mall launched with “Crocodile Dundee,” “Some Kind of Wonderful,” “Tin Men” and “Burglar” on May 22, 1987. The Tri-City also added a food court in the 18-year old facility’s second expansion in three years. The theatre laid an egg and on September 4, 1987, its programming policy was changed to a sub-run, ultra-discount dollar house playing two features for a dollar and renamed as the Mann 4 Tri-City Dollar Theatres. Mann bolted the dying mall at the end of May of 1993 but not before changing its name to the Mann Tri-City Dollar Theatres (ending with five screens instead of four, it had dropped the numeral from the moniker).
Harkins took on the venue on June 4, 1993 as the Harkins Tri-City 5 $1.50 Theatre. It was the circuit’s 27th theater. The venue was closed for a brief period with Harkins reopening as the Harkins Tri-City 5 Theatres - hopefully without paying much in rent and still operating as a $1.50 discount house. Harkins took an opt out on February 16, 1998 as the Mall was in irreversible greyfield status - a term associated with a “dead mall.” Harkins ended the venue’s run shy of 11 years and JC Penney would not extend its 30-year lease basically ending the Tri-City Mall’s run. Your final Harkins' double features were “In & Out” with “Seven Years in Tibet,” “Rocketeer” with “Fairy Tale: A True Story,” “Kiss the Girls” with “The Jackal,” “Devil’s Advocate” with “Mad City,” and “Starship Troopers” with - of course - “Walt Disney’s The Little Mermaid.”
With just six stores remaining in the Mall post-Harkins and JC Penney departures, the wise decision was made to demolish the 30-year old Tri-City Mall in favor of the strip shopping center, Tri-City Pavillions. The Penney building did remain - though was demolished in 2008 ending the original Mall’s legacy 40 years after it had launched. (BTW: as you may have gathered, there was no period of the theater’s operation as the “Tri-City Cinemas” though it’s a really good name.)