Phoenix 2 Theatres

The Phoenix Theatres 2 provided some 32 years of cinematic fun at Fort Smith’s Phoenix Village Mall. Designed in the luxury suburban era of movie theatres, the venue took advantage of massive amounts of free parking to escape the aging, parking-challenged downtown cinemas. And its formative years were operated by a major luxury suburban circuit in American Multi-Cinemas (AMC) which operated here first on Christmas Day 1970.

The Phoenix Village Mall in Fort Smith is widely recognized as the first center designed as an enclosed mall in the State of Arkansas. The University Mall in Little Rock was actually the State’s first mall opening in 1967 but was a conversion of an open air shopping center. And the Indian Mall in Jonesboro was originally designed as a Shopping Center opening in 1967 so maybe it wasn’t first. Truth be told, the origins of the Phoenix Village Mall were the 1961-opened Phoenix Valley Shopping Centered anchored by a Piggly Wiggly grocery and TG&Y store. Strip owners Jewel Morris and Howard Gentry developed the Phoenix Valley Mall near the “Pig” store in 1969 independent of the existing center.

But there is little question that the first Arkansas interior mall cinema that was on the architect’s table was here as the American Royal Quad Cinema. But was it the first mall theater to open in the State of Arkansas? Technically, no. Was it the first mall theater to open in Fort Smith, undoubtedly? Technically, again, the answer is a qualified “no.”

In a twist of fate, the Central Shopping Center project morphed in early building stages to the Central Mall – a competitor to the Phoenix Village Mall. The strip containing the soon-to-be completed Malco triplex got butted into the development of the large, Central Mall. The venue opened on June 3, 1970 as the Malco Mall Trio optimistically hoping the planned mall would join in the fun quickly. The Central Mall housing the Mall Trio, however, was more than a year away from its grand opening. The point here is that the mall cinema there opened more than six months prior to the Phoenix Village’s cinema and technically was Fort Smith’s first enclosed mall theater… despite the lack of the existence of a completed, enclosed mall.

Over at the Phoenix Village (PV), the Durwood turned American Royal Cinema provider had again changed corporate names to American Multi-Cinema (later shortened to AMC) and architect Kenneth F. Cockram’s architectural plan now reflected a more modest twin-screen home. The Mall featured pony rides in the parking lot and a unique, rustic fountain on its interior. The main anchor tenants at PV Mall at launch would be Woolworth’s big box Woolco Store and two local businesses in Hunt’s and Gregg’s Department Store with a support tenant of TG&Y’s Family Center replacing its smaller “five and dime” store that had opened with the PV Center in 1961.

American Multi-Cinema’s Phoenix Village 2 Theatres opened on Christmas Day 1970 with Albert Finney in “Scrooge” & Burt Lancaster in “Airport.“ In 1971, it got a long-running Furr’s Cafeteria as a neighbor and many cinema goers spent time either prior to or after the show at the Aladdin’s Castle arcade that opened later on. The cinema got a slight name change to the AMC Phoenix Village Two. The Mall would go through some chop when Woolco left in 1979. The space became a Venture store to that chain’s demise, then and Atwoods store, then the Phoenix Expo Trade & Event Center then a shared service spot as the Mall failed to adapt to its first round of 30-year leasing expiries. The Mall got an Animal Fun Fair Park, a flea market to eat up space, an events center and a variety of other attractions as the mall entered into its long-running descent.

As for the theater, on July 28, 1978, Malco Theatres Inc. took on the operation as the Malco Phoenix Twin. New PV Mall owner Pharis & Associates took over in 1988 to try and change its trajectory. Much like the PV Mall, both of Malco’s mall properties were looking very dated by the multiplex era of the 1980s. Malco would part ways with the Phoenix Twin o November 28, 1988 screening Sally Field in “Punchline” & Amy Irving in “Crossing Delancy”. The same fate occurred for its Central Mall Trio - with its 1970-era dated wood paneling and limited three-screen capacity - just moments later (some 32 years)… in 2020 just shy of its 50th Anniversary.

The Phoenix found a new operator continuing as a sub-run discount $1.50 house opening on November 9, 1990 with Bill Cosby in “Ghost Dad” and Chuck Norris in “Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection". In a portent of things to come, Pharis & Associates in 1991 went bankrupt with the original owners back in. The age of the megaplex came bringing about Carmike’s 14-screen stadium seating conversion of an 8-plex in December 10, 1999 and a Malco 12-screen facility on August 3, 2001; but the Phoenix held tight a bit longer. The neighboring Furr’s Cafeteria threw in the dish towel on July 30, 2002 with the assistant manager eloquently summing up the Mall’s status with “The business ain’t here.”

The Cinema held all the way to November 3, 2002 with a $2 price point. It closed that day with Mike Myers in “Austin Powers in Goldmember” and Tobey Maguire “Spider-Man". By that point, the Phoenix Village Mall had shed stores to Central Mall as the PV had reached grey-field territory – a term associated with a “dead mall". In 2003, another major anchor left when Home World moved to a former Walmart building. A classified ad offered the former cinema, the former cafeteria and the former Animal Fun Fair Park for lease with equipment in house.

In 2005, the Mall was offered at a Sheriff’s Sale and the wheels fell off in the interior of the Mall under owner, Capital Bank of Glendale, Calif. The cinema’s weather battered sign remained in poor condition and, worse yet, the Venture store’s signage remained ten years after its closure on August 15, 1998. The interior mall’s roof was failing when an EF-1 tornado more or less decided the fate of the original interior mall on May 18, 2019.

According to locals and photos of the period, the Mall Cinema sat virtually unchanged in that period of time from 2003 to August 2020 - though its facing was covered up with drywall. Due to the 2019 tornado, PV Mall owner Lance Beatty of Temple Holdings had no choice during the COVID-19 pandemic but to demolish the interior portions of the PV leaving its anchor tenant buildings. Remnants of Venture’s ghost signage near the former store were apparent at the 2020 demolition taking away the former cinema and the neighboring former Furr’s Cafeteria.

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