Pine Ridge Cinema
5990 Foster Road,
Paradise,
CA
95969
5990 Foster Road,
Paradise,
CA
95969
1 person
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The former Harrison’s and Stratton’s Grocery store had served the area for 30 years from 1946 when it was built to 1976. Stratton’s left at the termination of the lease and Jim and John Harrison decided to convert the retail venue into a new, first-run 262-seat movie theater. The independently run and locally-owned theater launched October 14, 1977 with Henry Fonda in “Rollercoaster".
The Harrisons then added the Pine Ridge Twin Cinemas in 1979 (It has its own page on Cinema Treasures). The Pine Ridge Theater was twinned and called the Pine Ridge Cinema operating as a twin along with the Pine Ridge Twin Cinemas also operating as a twin by the same operator. A bit confusing for patrons.
The two theatre complexes proved plucky but the addition of the Paradise 7 Cinema with stadium seating in 1999 led to the Harrisons to drop the prices to $3 at the Park Ridge single-screener that summer. When the smaller price point failed to bring about the desired audience levels, the Harrisons closed the single-screen theatre on January 30, 2000. Its bookings were moved to the Pine Ridge Twin Cinema on Clark Road. The Pine Ridge Twin Cinemas closed just two months later on March 26, 2000. The Pine Ridge Cinema became a church and it later became retail use as a feed store.
Contributed by
dallasmovietheaters
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
The house on Foster Road is already listed as the Pine Ridge Theatre, though my description of it is not as thorough as the one above. One thing puzzles me, though. I have no memory of the Foster Road Pine Ridge returning to single-screen status before closing. Since I never went to either theater I don’t know firsthand, but it seems to me that both Pine Ridge houses remained twins to the end, based on my (admittedly vague) memory of the theater ads in the local newspaper.
I had no idea that the Strattons had operated another store in town before I moved there in 1986. Their market on Sawmill Road on the east side of town remained open as Stratton’s until it was destroyed by the 2018 fire, though the family had sold it to another owner several years earlier.
This comment by msetty on the Pine Ridge Theatre page says that the auditorium was un-twinned by the church that moved in after the theater closed, so the house did operate as a twin until closing.