Amigoland Cinema 1 & 2

Robb Rowley’s Rowley United Division of United Artists Theatre Circuit (UATC) announced this twin, 350-seat cinema in June of 1973 as part of the new-build Amigoland Mall. The UA Cinema 1 & 2 would launch between the Dillard’s and Montgomery Ward’s anchors. The venue opened February 20, 1974 with Steve McQueen in “Papillon” and Dean Jones in “Mr. Superinvisible". The theater would last through a 20-year commitment closing in 1994.

A.J. Tony Cranesi had originally announced a much more visionary Amigoland project in 1966. He described it as the Mexican American Disneyland - complete with a major amusement park, resort hotels, condominiums, and over 600 acres of attractions. The project used Economic Research Associates, a company that had provided the foundational studies behind Disneyland and Six Flags Over Texas. Amigoland received national coverage when ground was finally broken for the project in 1970.

That groundbreaking coverage included a New York Times story and a Texas Parade Magazine article. People were impressed with the scope of the “eight world” project that was to include Aztecland with recreations of the Mexican Pyramids and a jungle ride, along with the Amigoland Topical Islands featuring a log flume ride.

The 1971 announced opening date for the $15 million Amigoland Amusement Park likely led to prolific mall developer Melvin Simon & Associates' announcement of Amigoland Mall. It would be adjacent to the amusement park and was scheduled to open two years after the park in 1973. Four high rise condos by Condo-Rio were to be built and planned for launch in December 1974 which would help foot traffic for Amigoland Amusement Park and Amigoland Mall.

Groundbreaking for the Mall was on July 14, 1972 with Dillard’s and JC Penney already on board as two anchors with Montgomery Ward’s soon joining as the third anchor. But there was no Amigoland Amusement Park to be found as it stopped not too long after groudnbreaking. Dillard’s opened on November 17, 1973 with a more formal grand opening on November 28, 1973.

The opening date of the Amigoland Mall was pushed back to early 1974 including the UA Cinema 1 & 2. J.C. Penney’s opened with a grocery store on January 17, 1974 and Ward’s opened on February 6, 1974. Though the mall had a very uneven opening, the 55-store facility did celebrate its grand opening on February 21, 1974 - with the UA Cinema 1 & 2 opening the day prior.

The theme park and the associated Aztecland attraction, with its pyramids project, stalled and started in 1977 only to stall again. Meanwhile, the competing Sunrise Mall opened in 1979 and would prove to be a most worthy retail contender with the Amigoland project sputtering. The Aztecland portion of that project had a final mini-spurt of activity in 1981 before being abandoned. That left the Amigoland Mall as the only real attribute of the plan - not quite what Simon properties had in mind ten years earlier when it announced the mall.

Amigoland Mall was a regional center whose uneven start appears to have led to a variety of 20-year, 25-year and 30-year leases. The cinema appears to have been on a 20-year lease. Plitt Southern took over UATC’s Harlingen and Brownsville locations effective October 5, 1985. It was renamed the Amigoland Cinema 1 & 2. The venue struggled in part due to the Mall’s decline and the lack of an attractor sign on Mexico Street for the theater. It was downgraded to a sub-run discount dollar venue.

Cinemark took on the Plitt Southern locations in 1987 including the Amigoland Cinemas 1 & 2. The venue closed on December 27, 1994 with “In the Army Now” and a split screen with “Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale” and “The Swan Princess.” Unlike a number of struggling malls with cinemas, the Amigoland Cinema’s space was converted to retail. But Amigoland found few friends willing to sign renewal leases. The Mall began a quick descent to greyfield status - a term akin to a dead mall where occupancy sinks below 50%. The Sunrise Mall celebrated its 20th Anniversary by expanding its footprint and coming to dying Amigloand to recruit its remaining retailers - likely willing to be helpful on the backend of remaining leases.

By its 25th Anniversary in 1999, many of the remaining, commercial 30-year lease holders moved out of Amigoland to Sunrise Mall including anchors J.C. Penney and Dillards. Plucky Amigoland then tried to recruit smaller Sunrise retailers to join Amigoland at rock bottom leasing prices. This led to a disheveled and uninviting - and dying - Amigoland Mall with the Cinema, of course, already long gone.

Some nonprofit entitles continued in the space including a Children’s Museum. But the Mall was put up for sale closing in 2001 while seeing Montgomery Ward’s, the last retail anchor, go bankrupt and exiting. Amigoland was sold in 2002 to the University of Texas at Brownsville. It became the ITEC Center (the International Technology, Education and Commerce Campus) and home to the Mexican Consulate. Interior pictures from the mid-2020’s capture the look and original flooring of the Mall very much intact with the cinema’s exterior entry and pathway to the former cinema looking almost identical to that of the 1970s - less signage and poster frames.

Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.