Pleasant Valley Promenade 7

6240 Glenwood Avenue,
Raleigh, NC 27612

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp.

Previous Names: General Cinema

Nearby Theaters

GCC Pleasant Valley 7 - Howard Stern's Private Parts movie

This was another very nice, personal theater that has fallen victim to the megaplex. It is sentimental to me, since I have so many childhood memories of it. It’s a great theater, typical General Cinema style building.

Opening on October 27, 1989, the Pleasant Valley Promenade Cinemas became General Cinema Corporation’s first movie theatre to open in the greater Raleigh-Durham market, and also was General Cinemas’s first foray in the greater Triangle market. At the time of its opening, it became GCC’s fifth movie theatre to open in North Carolina, since it had already existing theatres located in Charlotte, Fayettesville, Greensboro and Winston-Salem. The Pleasant Valley Promenade Cinemas was one of Raleigh’s premiere movie plalaces which had all its seven auditoriums equipped with Dolby Stereo Sound. The opening attractions were “The Bear”, “River of Death”, “Gross Anatomy”, “Worth Winning”, “Shocker” and “Rain Man”.

By the late-1990’s, this theatre fell victim to the more larger megaplexes that were being built along Glenwood Avenue with the opening of the Raleigh Grande 16 (which opened in 1998), and the Brier Creek Cinemas (which opened in 2001). This forced the Pleasant Valley from showing first-run films to becoming a second-run discount house until its closing in 2001.

Contributed by mrpibbles, raysson

Recent comments (view all 23 comments)

rsmayton
rsmayton on January 25, 2011 at 3:30 am

I had forgotten about that. I was working at another theater and had a friend who worked there at the time and supposedly he had killed his “partner” at an apartment complex nearby then headed over to the theater and killed himself at the part in A few good men where JT walsh commits suicide. Creepy.

PhilMarlowe89
PhilMarlowe89 on December 25, 2011 at 1:03 am

Anybody know where there might be pics of the place’s interior from back when it was a theater? Or any other cool stories about it. On that note, is there anywhere I could find GCC memorabilia?

NightHawk1
NightHawk1 on June 6, 2012 at 11:07 am

This theater opened in 1987, one week before the Carmike 7 (now Carmike 15) opened. I saw Howard Stern’s “Private Parts” here in 1997, choosing this theater instead of Carmike’s Park Place, Six Forks Station or Tower Merchants 6 cinemas – Carmike got my money on this movie at Greenville’s Carolina East 4. Pleasant Valley was a well-run and well-kept multiplex; it just wasn’t elaborate enough to compete with either Carmike’s marble-lobbied multiplexes or the stadium seating of the Raleigh Grande, which opened later in 1997. The Pleasant Valley 7 was probably left in better shape when General Cinema abandoned it than any theater abandoned by Carmike; it’s a shame the discount incarnation of the Pleasant Valley failed. Under GC the admission prices were too high to compete with the Carmike and UA theaters in town; GC never ran another theater in the Triangle.

NightHawk1
NightHawk1 on June 6, 2012 at 11:42 pm

Correction: the Raleigh Grande opened in 1998. It still hastened the Pleasant Valley 7’s demise, however. Stadium seating vs. slant-floor? No contest.

raysson
raysson on June 6, 2012 at 11:54 pm

Correction:I will post this information on this site. I have the original ads for this theatre. FYI: The Pleasant Valley Cinemas opened in October of 1989,a week before the Carmike 7 opened in North Raleigh on November 3,1989.

Micah
Micah on June 7, 2012 at 12:02 am

I think “replaced” is the wrong choice of words. It replaced those theaters as a place for those in area to see first-run films, but Valley and Terrace were physically separate theaters. Terrace was discount for about 5 years and changed to art-house Colony Theater in 1994.

raysson
raysson on June 22, 2012 at 4:18 pm

Nighthawk1: I have the original ads from the theatre’s grand opening. The Pleasant Valley Cinemas opened on October 27,1989,one week before the Carmike Cinema 7(that opened on November 3,1989). It was General Cinema’s first and only movie theatre in the Raleigh-Durham area. A lot of great movies played here that brought in the crowds too “Batman Returns”, “Dick Tracy”, “Terminator 2”, “New Jack City”, “Eyes Wide Shut”,“Private Parts”, “Speed 1 and Speed 2”, “Die Hards 2 and 3”, “Batman Forver”, not to mention huge crowds for “Toy Storys 1 and 2”, “Unforgiven”, and it was the only movie theatre in Raleigh that also did reissue of Hollywood classics too. I saw “A Few Good Men” here as well as “Batman and Robin”,and James Cameron’s “Titanic” that played here before capacity crowds. Pleasant Valley was a well run and very well kept multiplex during it’s heyday between the late-1980’s all the way into the 1990’s. By the late 1990’s it wasn’t elaborate enough to compete with either Carmike’s marble lobbied multiplexes or the stadium seating of two other movie theatres that were being built along that stretch of Glenwood Avenue that were the Raleigh Grande 16,that opened in 1998 and the other stadium seating megaplex,The Brier Creek Commons that opened in 2001 that put this theatre out of business. By 2000,it re-opened as a discount movie theatre under Entertainment Film Works(EFW) that really closed it’s doors by early 2001.

raysson
raysson on June 22, 2012 at 4:24 pm

I saw a lot of great movies here……. “ALADDIN” in 1992 played to capacity crowds as well as a lot of big blockbuster flicks.

“MRS. DOUBTFIRE”, “HOME ALONE”, “HOME ALONE 2”,

“DANCES WITH WOLVES”, “TERMINATOR 2:JUDGMENT DAY”,

“THE KARATE KID III”, “DAYS OF THUNDER”, “TWISTER”

“THE LION KING”, and many many more.

Anyone else have great movie memories of the Pleasant Valley Promenade Cinemas?

raysson
raysson on June 22, 2012 at 4:28 pm

FYI: The Valley Theatres 1 & 2 at Crabtree Valley Mall closed in 1988. But the Valley and the Terrace along with the Village Twin Theatres at Cameron Village were separate movie houses since the Terrace became a discount movie house by 1989 and remained that way for five years until it became the Colony as an arthouse cinema in 1994.

NightHawk1
NightHawk1 on June 28, 2012 at 7:14 am

raysson: Thanks for the correct dates regarding the Pleasant Valley’s opening and the Valley Twin’s closing. Pleasant Valley deserved to stay in business longer than it did, but the stadium megaplexes nearby pretty much killed any chance of reviving it. Second-run theaters in North Carolina are disappearing (particularly from the Triangle eastward); Raleigh still has Blue Ridge and Raleighwood, Fayetteville has the Omni Cinemas 8, and Smithfield may still have the Howell. I’m amazed that there aren’t more discount houses now, considering the ludicrous prices of the big chains. Then again, it’s cheaper to bootleg movies off the Internet (I personally don’t do this; I prefer to pay for good quality) than it is to go to even a cheap theater.

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