Legacy Theaters Staunton

90 Lee Jackson Highway,
Staunton, VA 24401

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dallasmovietheaters
dallasmovietheaters on February 16, 2023 at 7:06 am

The Staunton Shopping Center was announced in 1963 and built in 1967/8. The Plaza Cinema Theatre was announced as an original tenant during the 1967 construction stage with a scheduled opening in early 1968. That opening did occur, albeit 15 months later on July 18, 1969 with “Oliver!” In advertising “Theatre” was often truncated. In 1978, R/C Theatres took on the venue dropping “Cinema” in favor of the Plaza Theatre moniker.

In November of 1985, the plaza announced that it would have a grand opening as the Staunton Mall in Fall 1986 in an expansion. In November of 1988, the venue was renamed Mall Movies as it was readying a transition to a multiplex. The full transition occurred on December 16, 1986 with R/C’s Mall Movies launching with “Land Before Time,” “Scrooged,” “Ernest Saves Christmas,” “My Stepmother was an Alien,” “Twins” and “Working Girl.” Regal purchased the location from R/C with its nameplate leaving on May 30, 1996 and becoming the Regal Staunton Mall Cinemas 6 the next day.

In 2010, the Mall was purchased by a new owner and there was a mutual agreement that Regal would vacate the property in favor of mall ownership as the Staunton Mall 6. The mall operator identified a new operator as Nova Cinemas on December 17, 2010 operating. Nova ankled the location on March 27, 2011 likely dreading a digital conversion.

That conversion would take place after a six year hiatus when Robert Harrison on December 15, 2017 as Legacy Theatres on a discount, sub-run policy. In 2017 and 2018, the mall slid into greyfield status - a term akin to a “dead mall.” It was a quick descent with the entire mall closing and being demolished. The theatre hung on until the announcement late in 2020.

50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on October 12, 2022 at 6:07 am

According to research, this was first known as the “Plaza Cinema” dating back to the very beginning of the mall. The mall opened theater-less for almost a year in September of 1968. The Plaza Cinema opened in 1969 as a single-screener. It also went under an alternate name of “Staunton Plaza Cinema” and later “Staunton Mall Cinema”. It remained as a single-screener until converting into a 6-screen theater sometime in the late 1980s.

jeffpiatt
jeffpiatt on February 17, 2022 at 5:39 pm

dan Bell filmed a video at this mall and showed the Theater exterior. https://youtu.be/l5NsVylQBWM

BigScreen_com
BigScreen_com on May 24, 2021 at 4:21 pm

The theater closed in December 2020: Staunton, VA: Legacy Theaters - Staunton 6 Closed [Dec 4, 2020]

Mike Richardson
Mike Richardson on July 20, 2013 at 6:39 am

I don’t think this is open anymore.

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on May 20, 2012 at 6:27 am

An article about the cinema’s current status: View link