Jackson Mall Cinema
350 West Woodrow Wilson Avenue,
Jackson,
MS
39213
350 West Woodrow Wilson Avenue,
Jackson,
MS
39213
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The Jackson Mall Cinema was opened June 11, 1970. Owned by Ogden-Perry Theatres, Inc.
Briefly became a live performance theatre, before eventually being shuttered permanently on March 11, 1983.
Was an outparcel of the first enclosed mall in Mississippi. The cinema was hurt when the Metro Center Cinemas opened in 1978 and the impending Northpark Cinemas in 1984.
The mall also closed in 1985. A new good use has been found for it. It is now the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center.
Contributed by
Chief Bob Jensen
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The theater entrance faces westward on the north end of what is now the Jackson Medical Mall. Last time I was there a few years back the theater was fully intact, large curved Cinemascope screen and all. It was being leased and operated by the University of Mississippi Medical Center as a large meeting/conference space. No movies being shown there and the manager thought it highly unlikely there ever would be unless the film somehow was related to the educational and healthcare mission of UMMC.
This opened on June 11th, 1970. Its grand opening ad can be found in the photo section for this cinema.
Closed on March 1, 1983.
Jackson Mall Cinema in North Jackson was a suburban luxury era venue that took advantage of its shopping mall’s huge, free parking lot to drive a new breed of moviegoer seeking luxury seating, high technology including ultra widescreen projection, and other amenities. Evans M. Terry was cinema’s architect.
The Jackson Mall construction kickoff happened on March 27, 1969 and would have 39 stores anchored by a Woolco, a JCPenney and a Gayfer’s store along with its own mall cinema. The Jackson Mall celebrated its grand opening on July 16, 1970… but many of the stores had opened months earlier. The Jackson Mall Cinema opened Jun 11, 1970 with “Paint Your Wagon.” But the Mall was a bust once the Metrocenter and Northpark siphoned away its customers.
The little mall that couldn’t lost all three anchors: Woolco to bankruptcy, Penney’s to exiting on November 2, 1985. and Gayfer’s in November of 1986. This gave all the interior folks the opportunity to break leases or take opt outs 15-years in. And boy did they. Ogden Perry had already left the greyscale mall - a term akin to a dead mall with more than half of the center vacant - on May 1, 1983 with Bruce Li in “Dynamo.”
The venue hosted sporadic events until landing “Star Attractions” which reopened there on September 6, 1985 with a double feature of “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Vicious Black Dragon Killer” for $2. The money wasn’t pouring in because “Star Attractions” then closed on September 22, 1985 with a double feature of “Evil Dead” and “Alone in the Dark.” On March 7, 1986 the shuttered cinema was reopened for a one day, force sheriff sale to recoup overdue property taxes from the Jackson Mall for that year… and 1985… and 1984… and 1983.
For reasons that aren’t particular clear, an operation called United Cinemas of America reopened the venue as the Discount Cinemas at Jackson Mall. It reopened as a discount, sub-run dollar house on February 7, 1987 with “Soul Man” and “Three Amigos.” In the Summer, youths - a number of whom were in gangs - were coming to the venue but not really for the films. Obviously, the Mall wasn’t in a position to provide full-time security as it was all but broke so the cinema did what any normal cinema would do. They hired a security firm who walked a trained doberman up and down the aisles to scare the patrons to silence. And that made the national news for all of the wrong reasons. How United made it in the dead mall for an unfathomable six months is fairly astonishing. Thankfully, it was all over - closing August 2, 1987 with “The Witches of Eastwick.”
Except, yes, someone else decided to give it a go. The venue was renamed the Repertory Theatre in July of 1989 with vintage films beginning with “West Side Story” and worked in live plays. They lasted until April 28, 1991 and some sporadic live events in 1993 and 1994 as the Jackson Mall Cinema. In 1995, the entire mall was converted into a medical facility.