The theater was owned and operated by Cinemark and closed in 2013. From what I could find on the internet, this theater was opened to the public in the Summer of 1989, just a few months before I was born. As we walked closer, and you cannot tell looking up close is that someone must have been vandalizing it as one of the glass doors was smashed and wood was nailed over it. When I walked up to the building itself, I saw that whoever owns the theater clearly didn't clean up the mess and shards of glass laid all over the ground. It broke my heart.
I pushed my son up to the ticket booth and snapped a photo. Honestly, the ticket booth was never really opened. A few times during the weekend during the summer, but, never during the winter. You always had to buy your tickets on the inside. Oddly, Cinemark yanked out the center speakers to communicate, leaving three hollowed out holes in the center of the glass. But they had left the three wooden wedges at the bottom of the glass where you would hand over payment and get your tickets.
The thing that really broke my heart over this theater to see the disrepair that it is in. After a year and a half, the concrete slabs on the outside ceiling are all ready crumbling apart. Upon facing the theater, on the right side where the entrance is at, I couldn't get over to the far door where the exit is because of the broken debris and I did not want to possibly endanger my infant son. The first picture is the right hand side and the second is on the left hand side.
We have had some harsh winters since the theater closed. The winter of 2013 to start off 2014 was brutal. We had the temperatures down to - 50 F. And as a dare, I walked to work in it. I had the first stages of frost bite developing in my legs, but, I walked it off and worked for ten hours that day. Last winter it was bad, but, not as brutal. This is something that I've told to my friends and co-workers and of course my fiancee, I honestly don't know which is worse, the Cinema 10 or the Cinema 4.
I think the difference is that the Cinema 4 is probably still heated and cooled by the building owners, even if it's still falling apart. I might try to get around to taking photos of it on Friday if I can find time.
Upon seeing the entrance, on the right side (facing the theater), seeing the lifeless insides almost brought tears to my eyes. The black and white tiles on the floor and walls still looked somewhat persevered and untouched. I can remember seeing countless movies and now, there is nothing. I know the final movies that I saw was Elysium and Kick-Ass 2. I know that right before they had closed, there was a screening of The Purge that was playing, It was a closed captioned copy that was for the deaf and hard of hearing. They did these types of screenings all the time and it usually was a movie that was all ready out on Blu-ray. I remember that Summer I had caught a closed captioned copy of Oblivion and it had all ready been out for a good three weeks. But, for $1, I could never resist going.
I remember telling my fiancee that when I was single after my second fiancee left me, if I had a Monday off from work, I would go kill a full day. Literally, I could take $20, and I would spend a whole day. The last time I did was probably around the end of February 2013. I want to say that I saw The Last Stand; Wreck it, Ralph 3D; A Haunted House; Red Dawn; and Skyfall.
All though, something that I noticed in the photo above, and I did make mention of it in my podcast; someone must have broken in and vandalized it as the doors to the main theater have been busted off the hinges.
I am going to bet that it was vandals and not mother nature taking back what belongs to her. The main theater is what angers me the most about Cinemark killing this theater. The reason why this theater shut down is because they didn't want to finish converting the theater to digital from 35mm. The main theater was converted to digital in 2010 after about a year I had returned from Hilo, Hawai'i. They had it and even had 3D projected in that main theater. They could have saved it. Even if it meant upping the ticket prices to say $4 or even $5, they still could have saved it.
In that photo right there where the concession stand is at, that spot where the candy display box is at was where you purchased tickets. It was just alien seeing the display signs off of the walls. In the zoomed out photo and in the next one, you'll see the light box displaying the film mylars off the walls, it is just sad.
You know, the funny thing is that Cinemark took everything out of the theater and oddly left the trash cans. There was one outside too and in the previous photos, you can see that they left the other one on the otherside and left the door open too. Very odd. In this photo above, you can see that there's a gallon of water on the stand. I don't know if that was from the possible break in or if someone working there had left it behind. The fire extinguisher is also in the previous photo by the supply room at the center of the concession stand.
Then this is from the exit on the left side. Again, the right side had debris blocking the way and I didn't want to push my son near it. The light boxes with the posters displayed in them are all gone. You can see the wall with the light box with the mylars gone. We can see the doors on the right to the main theater are still standing up. The doors on the left are to one of the screening rooms. I wish that I could have been able to get inside and see. I think to see big giant empty rooms would have been more heartbreaking. No seats, no screens, nothing...
After spending a few moments there and my son making some audible noises that he was ready to be moved around, I decided to depart from something near and dear to my heart. I decided to walk back, as a I stopped, I snapped one photo of a sign. I found it fitting as I was pushing my son.
I told my fiancee that if I was to ever become majorly successful while making movies, I would to buy one of these three empty theaters in my town and bring it back to life. I would love to see more indie and foreign movies play. Cinemark here in Mansfield has had lots of missed opportunities to bring some stuff here. They screwed us over on the last few Studio Ghibli films. I missed the Wind Rises which was Hayao Miyazaki's last film. They advertised it on their site, but, never came here. The misses and I did travel out to Columbus to see When Marnie Was There and it that had played here, they could have gotten my money.
And finally, I did a video podcast discussing it. I rambled a bit. But, if you want to see it, enjoy!
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