University City Cinema

480 Ackerman Road,
Columbus, OH 43202

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rivest266
rivest266 on November 14, 2021 at 8:34 am

Two screens on October 7th, 1977

rivest266
rivest266 on November 12, 2021 at 3:13 pm

The Great Western and University City Cinema both opened on November 16th, 1966. shared grand opening ad posted.

wfergus42
wfergus42 on June 4, 2013 at 9:40 am

Wow. I lived in University Village for several years and would have loved to have had easy access to a theater. I would eat at Applebees at least weekly. I had no idea that a theater was there and I lived there around 1999.

bbfarmer
bbfarmer on February 5, 2013 at 9:41 am

Sorry, Chuck, didn’t mean that to come out as hostile as I now realize it sounded. I just thought it was kind of strange that every theater I was landing on had you giving a date, then someone else saying “it was open longer than that”. No problems. We’re all just trying to share what we know; sorry for sounding snotty.

bbfarmer
bbfarmer on February 4, 2013 at 11:34 pm

As someone who’s lived in Columbus for a long time, I keep noticing that “Chuck” has a habit of listing closing years for theaters that are early by a year or two, yet he says it with such concise authority, like he’s certain of it. I also, like a poster above, saw Terminator 2 here, so it was still open at least into 1991.

My fondest memory of the theater is taking a break from the film project I was editing at OSU late one evening, walking down the hill to Ackerman Road, and catching “Return of the Living Dead”, which I didn’t really expect to be any good. Turned out I loved it, and was humming the closing song to myself while walking back past the gigantic cemetery which is on the north side of Dodridge. Appropriate.

DAK8601
DAK8601 on April 28, 2010 at 9:13 pm

I saw Madonna: Truth or Dare there. That would mean the theater was still open in May 1991.

Theater interior and exterior were functional and unremarkable, as previous commenters have observed.

The Applebee’s that currently occupies the site has a framed snapshot of the old theater hanging on the wall just inside the entrance.

Mark_L
Mark_L on April 26, 2010 at 4:37 pm

Columbus Dispatch archives show this theatre closing in late 1991.

Mark Fontana
Mark Fontana on April 26, 2010 at 1:17 pm

It had to have been still open in 1991, as I saw Terminator 2 there. The theater still had a very 1960s lobby decor (big white ball lights, chrome and walnut veneer concession stand?) and the seats were upholstered in red, white and blue vinyl. As with many twinned theaters, projection was from an original porthole near a rear corner of the split auditorium, making for a suboptimal presentation.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on September 28, 2007 at 6:47 am

Here is a January 1969 ad from the Columbus Dispatch:
http://tinyurl.com/yttv34

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on August 6, 2005 at 11:19 am

The address was 480 Ackerman Road.

Mark_L
Mark_L on August 14, 2004 at 8:37 am

This was a generic, blue shadowbox GCC house. It was twinned in the ‘'80’s. It was one of the first theatres in the area with Dolby Stereo. Did play at least 2 of the Sensurround films (Earthquake and Rollercoaster.) Local GCC office may have been located here.

Now an Applebees.

meheuck
meheuck on August 4, 2004 at 12:48 pm

General Cinema had many theatres designed like this in Columbus now gone: the Town & Country and the Great Western for example. All were free-standing single screens later twinned. And all are now gone.
If I recall correctly, what finally doomed the University City was not just GC’s pullout, but a large flood of water (pipe burst?) that so damaged the interior that anyone who wanted to perhaps take on the property was scared off by the repair bills.