As 2009 becomes history Thursday night, so will one of Humboldt County’s movie venues. The Movies at the Bayshore Mall will close its doors permanently when its lease expires at the end of the year.
“Honestly, it’s high time,” General Manager Anibal Polanco said Tuesday afternoon. Attendance had dwindled in recent years to a measly trickle as the mall theater became a dumping ground for second-run films. Still, it’s kinda sad to see the place come to such a piteous end. I recall watching the Shelly Long vehicle
Troop Beverly Hills
there when I was in seventh grade. OK, that particular film may not be worthy of whimsy, but the mall is also where I watched
The Nightmare Before Christmas, Titanic
and
Out of Sight
.
The staff will be transferred down the street to the Broadway Cinema, Polanco said. If you’d like one last mall-movie hurrah, I suggest you go to a closing day showing of
Fantastic Mr. Fox
or
Brothers.
Then again, the disaster-bonanza of
2012
might be a more fitting end.
This article appears in Top Ten Stories of 2009.
Do we blame the economy, too many theaters in town, or Hollywood’s inability to produce consistently good films? The four you cited were made more than 10 years ago.
The last time I stepped foot in a theatre was in 2003. Not coincidentally, I have a 5-year-old child. There are few new films I’d show a young child and few other films good enough to merit my not waiting a few months to watch on DVD.
I’d love to see a failing film venue reach out to new families in order to fill seats (large crying rooms, sofa seating, etc.) as can be found in larger cities.
I, too, would like to see a theater with a large crying room. In fact, now that I think about it, let’s have crying rooms in every public facility. Restaurants with crying rooms, auto dealers with crying rooms, museums with crying rooms, libraries, tobacco shops, banks, etc. Does anyone know the phone number for The Palace? I cry almost every time I go there.
We saw The Fantastic Mr. Fox there on Christmas Day. The place pretty sad, especially since the rest of the mall was closed. The door to the first theater on the left was open — the seats were gone — it was already becoming an empty shell. Our theater had gone shabby with sagging fabric on the walls, but once the lights went down the glow of the screen carried us away.
In recent years it had become a place the chain to move the family films and B-movies. Will those now push out other films in the remaining theaters?
The county has a few live theatre companies that are in need of a home: maybe it could be shared as a live venue.
And the Arcata Playhouse needs theater seats, I hear.
A couple or three theatres in the same space would act as a draw for each other and create a vortex of energy for the space and the mall. Plus there is a lot of free parking.
Anybody remember the State Theater on Indianola? I saw Braveheart there in 1995. I remember seeing the updated versions of Star Wars: Episodes IV, V & VI at The Movies. Oh well. Our young child and jerks on cell phones keep us away from movie theaters now.
Worst theater ever. Refused to return after third horrible experience there. Worse than flying Delta. Lousy sound, uncaring staff and at the mall besides. Won’t miss it a bit.
Jen is right.
Goodbye krappy mall theatre.
Yeah I’m too bitchin’ to go to the mall. Change happens, things get old and some are discarded.
aint stepped a foot in poor EKA since 8-18-09 and wont ever unless must. too many ballpeen hammers
aint stepped a foot in poor EKA since 8-18-09 and wont ever unless must. too many ballpeen hammers
How do i find them to get ahold of some seats…that is what i say…
The harsh reality of everything is that there is a rich tradition in America of movie theaters going out of business to newer more high tech and fancier looking buildings. Its a proven fact in history if you pay close enough attention. I could pretty much see this coming from many many miles away. Some of my friends use to have shop space in the mall. I’m told that they were driven out because General Growth Properties are greedy heartless bastards that gouge their clients