General Cinema Washington Square Cinema I & II

The Washington Square Mall was the third Edward D. DeBartolo center in Indianapolis behind the Lafayette Square and Castleton Square. All three would have General Cinema Corporation (GCC) movie theaters. GCC was at the opening of the Washington Square Mall with an open house on October 17, 1974 coinciding nicely with the Washinton Square’s Grand Opening that same day. Folks coming back the next day could see its opening films of “The Gambler” and “Journey Back to Oz”.

The tight twin screen venue had two identical auditoriums seating 200 each. Competition was a challenge for the Washinton Square Twin in the multiplex era of cinema exhibition. Loews opened a 6-plex in 1981 called the Cherry Tree just blocks away. General Cinema also had the Eastgate Mall property - less than four miles away - moving it from a twin screen to a 6-plex in 1988. Not long after the Eastgate 6 came online, GCC downgraded the Washington Square Twin to a sub-run, discount house. When Cinemark opened its new discount house outside of the Mall on Labor Day weekend 1989, GCC simply lowered the discount price even further hoping to wring out every dollar from its inner mall location.

On November 1, 1991, one screen of the Washington Square was moved to full-price art films and classics with screen two remaining discount to play out its clearances. On November 15, 1991, the venue was full-time art until July 1, 1993 with the art films moving to the GCC’s Castleton 4-6. The venue then scheduled in one week of $1 movies from July 2, 1993 before closing permanently on July 8, 1993 with “The Sandlot”, “Dragon” and “Indian Summer”. They appear to have given up just prior to the expiry of their 20-year leasing agreement.

As for Washington Square, the 30-year leasing point for original retailers took a major toll. The good news was that in January of 2004, Washington Square had vanquished the Eastgate Consumer Mall. That saw the GCC turned AMC Eastgate 6 shutter. At that same time, Karasotes announced a 12-screen megaplex to be built on the backside of Washington Square with a nearly $400,000 tax break opening in 2005. But the mall regressed quickly to greyscale status - a term akin to a “dead mall”.

The inner Washington Square theater venue simply remained vacant for a very long period of time until reopening briefly as the Indy Apollo, a live event center, on February 5, 2010. That appears to have lasted 11 months. It then became a house of worship called the Movie Theater Church in 2011. They quickly moved their operations to the Cinemark discount house two blocks away first in the off-hours and then full-time when Cinemark left at the opt out period after 15 years in 2014. They had to find new digs when that exterior theatre was bulldozed. It is assumed that the former General Cinema location is intact and awaiting whatever grim future is ahead for the rest of the Washington Square Mall.

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