Brazos Mall 3

Plitt had created a theatre on an exterior pad just outside of Dillards in 1984. But activity inside the Mall was heating up as the Mall reached its 10th anniversary and wanted to freshen up.

Cineplex Odeon had taken over the Plitt locations effective on November 26, 1985 and was obligated to create a triplex in the Mall that Plitt signed on to. When that new theater was ready, the exterior Brazos Mall 4 was modified to the Brazos Mall 1-4 and, on August 1, 1986, this venue opened as the Brazos Mall 5-7. The thinking was that the appearance of a “seven-plex” beat a triple and a quad in the multiplex era of 5, 6 and 8 screeners. The fun began with “Flight of the Navigator”, “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives”, and “Nothing in Common”.

The Brazos Mall, itself, had been proposed in 1974 by developer Paul Braodhead and began construction 1975 theatre-less to the plans of architects Heuer, Johns, Neel, Rivers & Webb. The Brazos Mall celebrated its Grand Opening on March 10, 1976 - Phase I of the Mall’s development with Sears and Bealls as anchors. Phase II of the Mall was started in 1977 with two more anchors - Joske’s (later bought by Dillards) and JCPenney’s in that expansion.

In June of 1990, Carmike took on a handful of Cineplex Odeon locations including both Brazos Mall locations. (Carmike made its bigger move and acquired 145 Cineplex screens in May of 1995 during the megaplex era boom.) Carmike changed the names of the two facilities to the Carmike Brazos Mall 4 and the Carmike Brazos 3 Triple.

Starplex Cinemas took the biggest risk in the megaplex opening Cinemas 10 in 1997 dooming the undersized triplex and quad. But they held on. Carmike first closed the exterior Brazos 4 at the 15-year mark. (The venue sat all the way until April of 2016 when it was demolished for a Staybridge Suites hotel.)

The Triplex was downgraded to a sub-run, dollar house when the Starplex 10 opened and they hit gold. The Triplex did great business for the next seven plus years. New Brazos Mall operator Prime Retail Inc. took on the venue just as it was reaching its all-important 30th Anniversary with lots of expiries due - including the Carmike Brazos 3 which was coming to closure on its 20-year leasing contract.

Give Prime Retail a lot of props because they created a great concept to basically break the Starplex 10’s lease for a much improved exterior facility opening up many new options at the food court and the flow between the new 14-screen cinema (two years away) and the improved Brazos Mall. It was risky but paid out. All this to say that the idea of a badly outdated and cramped triplex theatre was a foregone conclusion. The Brazos 3 would operate to September 5, 2005 - within months of the expiry of its 20-year leasing agreement. Its space would be repurposed for a clothing store.

Prime’s investment paid out in the first 10 years with the Cinema strong and the Mall at 92% occupancy. And they knew when to move along because that was their exit point. New mall operator Centennial Real Estate Company took over and ran into chop as the mall’s vacancy increased with the Sears closing and a number of interior stores packing up. The AMC chain didn’t give the biggest vote of confidence after their 2015 purchase of Starplex. They rebranded the facility as an AMC Classic - among the many venues in which the circuit limited upgrades as it ran out leasing agreements on the cheap.

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