Cinema Viejo (also known as Viejo Twin)
Chrisanta Drive, Mission Viejo, CA.
Specifications
Operators: Edwards
Status: Closed
Opened: 12/25/70
Closed: 10/1/93
Current Use: Church
Screens: 1/2
Seating: Slope (897 seats)
Profile
The Cinema Viejo was opened on Christmas Day, 1970, as part of the, then new, planned community of Mission Viejo. Located down a secluded side street, off of La Paz and near Mission Viejo High School, the theatre was Southern Orange County’s first modern cinema.
Edwards’ sixth Orange County location, the Cinema Viejo was opened as a large single screen, that mirrored Mission Viejo’s Spanish themed architectural style. The interior was 70’s modern in design, featuring deep pile carpeting, brass fixtures, faux wood paneling, and an earth tone color scheme. Technically, the theatre was billed as offering stereo sound and “highly sophisticated projection equipment.” Proving extremely successful, as the venue was the area’s only movie theatre for years, the Cinema Viejo was twinned in 1976 and renamed the Viejo Twin.
With the heavy growth of southern Orange County, throughout the 70’s and 80’s, the Viejo Twin began to face stiff competition from new area theatres and became somewhat dated in the era of the multiplex. The theatre was finally closed on October 1, 1993, and converted in to a church shortly thereafter.
Today, the former Cinema Viejo serves as a youth ministry and bares little resemblance to it’s days as the area’s premiere movie going destination.
Images
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Cinema Viejo: Fleeting Notoriety // Jan 25, 2009 at 1:17 pm
[…] 2009 by ccrouch Demonstrating how swiftly the tides of notoriety shift with cinemas, we have Cinema Viejo. Opened in 1970, as the area’s fist movie theatre and one of the only modern cinemas south […]
2 Forgotten Cinema: Saddleback 1-2-3 // Jul 13, 2009 at 9:46 am
[…] auditoriums, and sterile decor, the theatre provided far less than it’s nearest competitor, Edwards’ Viejo Twin, but the cinema continually outperformed the competition, as the area’s top draw. Within a […]