Village Cinemas

8707 S Tacoma Way Tacoma WA

Information for this tour was contributed by Mark Campbell.

Originally a small 2-screener that opened sometime in the late 1970s in a strip mall of what is now Tacoma's Korea Town, the Village Cinemas quietly played Hollywood fare including Tacoma exclusives of the occasional blockbuster: "Arthur", "For Your Eyes Only" and "Poltergeist" to name a few.

The bigger auditorium featured Dolby Stereo and probably had 250 seats. The smaller one was around 100-150 seats. In 1982 or so the Village Cinemas added 2 more screens in another space in the mall with its own box office. The screens both had less than 100 or so.

The Village began mixing art house films and with Hollywood fare. In the early to mid 1980s numerous multiplexes sprung up in the Tacoma area and theatres no longer had exclusive bookings on films, with the same film now playing at 2 or 3 locations. The Village Cinemas fell victim and eventually closed its doors in 1990 as a second run discount house.

It is unclear if the Village Cinemas were ever tied to another chain. Early on the owners were advertised as "Cascade Cinemas" which also operated the Lakewood Theatre. Their advertising style, though, in the early to mid 1980s was an except replica of Seattle's Seven Gables art house chain before they were taken over by Landmark Theatres. (The Lakewood closed soon after the 2 new screens opened).

The Village Cinemas booked many of the same popular art house films that played at the Seven Gables chain. ("Blue Velvet", "Never Cry Wolf" the Hitchcock re-releases). For first run Hollywood fare in the mid 1980s it was usually from Disney, Orion, Cannon, TriStar and 2nd tier films from the majors.

New operators took over the Village in 1988 and it last another couple years. At some point past its initial closure it might have been run as a Korean language cinema briefly or a church, but it is now vacant.

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Last featured 8/14/2011. Last edited 8/14/2011.

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