Cinedome Theatres

3001 W. Chapman Avenue,
Orange, CA 92868

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Showing 1 - 25 of 59 comments

MSC77
MSC77 on June 21, 2024 at 4:00 pm

CHINATOWN opened here fifty years ago today.

MSC77
MSC77 on February 26, 2023 at 10:52 pm

A chronology of Orange County’s 70mm presentation history has recently been published. The Cinedome is, of course, mentioned numerous times.

Flix70
Flix70 on January 4, 2022 at 4:50 pm

Thanks for the tips on clickable links, Michael. I’ll try & remember the process.

I’d like to “strongly encourage” Cinema Treasures to make links clickable once you copy them, as most other websites do. Members shouldn’t have to write “code” every time they add a link.

Happy New Year!

MSC77
MSC77 on January 1, 2022 at 3:11 am

Here’s a clickable link to the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK retrospective article that was mentioned a few comments ago.

I can’t be the only Cinema Treasures member who wishes the Cinema Treasures crew would “strongly encourage” commenters make their links clickable. It’s not difficult: Simply type out within brackets how you wish the link to read and then paste the URL within parenthesis that follow the brackets.

I skip right over comments that include an un-clickable link (and I bet most members do the same). So I imagine links to articles will get read more often if they’re clickable.

Happy New Year!

MSC77
MSC77 on December 31, 2021 at 12:21 am

Here’s a new 4-page 50th anniversary FIDDLER ON THE ROOF retrospective featuring a roadshow playdate chronology and historian Q&A. Cinedome’s year-plus (and venue record) run is mentioned in the piece.

MSC77
MSC77 on December 31, 2021 at 12:18 am

Thank you, Flix70!

Flix70
Flix70 on October 13, 2021 at 4:58 pm

Film historian Michael Coate has just published an exhaustive Raiders of the Lost Ark 40th anniversary retrospective at https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/history-legacy-showmanship/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-40th

Great job as usual, Michael.

Flix70
Flix70 on June 13, 2021 at 12:18 am

Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning 1981 classic “Raiders of the Lost Ark” opened at the Cinedome in 70mm 40 years ago today (June 12, 1981).

Widely considered the greatest action-adventure movie ever made, it became the highest-grossing film of 1981, introduced the world to Indiana Jones & spawned three sequels (with a fourth on the way), not to mention kept all us Star Wars fans busy between The Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi.

I saw Raiders at the Cinedome with my dad & it’s one of the best memories I have of spending time with my old man.

ridethectrain
ridethectrain on May 8, 2021 at 11:21 pm

Please update, theatre closed January 6, 1999. It the later years it was discount theatre. Final display ad posted. It became a discount theatre November 21, 1997 when the Stadium 25 opened by Angels Stadium.

rivest266
rivest266 on November 27, 2019 at 9:56 pm

Expansions:

  • 1 screen June 17th, 1969

  • 2 screens June 18th, 1969

  • 3 screens November 7, 1974

  • 4 screens November 13th, 1974

  • 6 screens June 29th, 1977

  • 8 screens November 11th, 1986

  • 11 screens February 19th, 1992

rivest266
rivest266 on November 19, 2019 at 11:32 pm

1977 and 1992 grand opening ads posted.

Dave Tavres
Dave Tavres on April 10, 2019 at 5:58 am

FYI – the link above (Related Websites – The Final Curtain For The Cinedome) is broken, but here’s an updated link to the same article – https://www.in70mm.com/newsletter/2000/62/cinedom/index.htm

OCGirl
OCGirl on May 14, 2018 at 6:10 am

I loved this theatre. I saw Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, just to name of few. You had to see those kinds of movies at the Dome. I was heartbroken it was closed down and it was really hard to watch it be demolished.

Coate
Coate on June 19, 2017 at 10:38 pm

The Cinedome was among just eleven theaters in the United States that installed the then-new Dolby Digital sound system for their engagement of “Batman Returns” which opened twenty-five years ago today. And here’s the link to a retrospective article that commemorates the occasion.

Flix70
Flix70 on April 24, 2017 at 6:06 pm

Seeing Raiders @ the Cinedome was pretty memorable for me, too. My parents had divorced a few years earlier and my dad took me to see it that first Sunday of release. We rarely saw movies together (my mom and I generally went Saturdays) so it was kind of cool seeing a big action flick sitting next my old man.

Just a wonderful, enveloping cinematic experience from start to finish. I remember lifting my feet off the dark ground during the Well of the Souls sequence because I was freaked by all the snakes.

Easily one of my best memories of spending time with my dad.

Richie_T
Richie_T on April 3, 2017 at 1:57 am

My one and only visit was so memorable… Raiders of the Lost Ark, summer 1981. We almost didn’t make it on time because a tanker truck jackknifed on the freeway and exploded. We literally took our seats as the Paramount logo appeared on screen. The vast dome was packed. My 8 year old brain experienced its first dose of cinematic bliss. What a ride! It was the last time our family of four saw a movie together. Divorce happened shortly thereafter.

3Dforlife
3Dforlife on April 19, 2016 at 8:18 pm

I was the manager of the theater that started the last set of movies ever run at the Cinedome. The last movie (played to an audience) was “The Siege” and played in theater 11. As I was started each film I would recall each film I saw in each theater before starting the film. All the prints that night were being moved over to The New Century 25. If not I had to break them down (take them apart) and they were going over to the The Block (AMC) or back to the studio. I would run a film as background noise as I was working so the very last film EVER run at the Cinedome was the re-issue of “The Wizard of Oz.”

I have great fond memory’s of the theater. I was also the manager who did all of the promotions for the theater in it’s final years. Yes I was the one who ran the Star Wars Special Edition promotion and even “The 11 Screen’s Of Scream’s.” Which we ran classic horror film’s on the big screen like Alien, Alien’s, Creepshow, Dead Alive, Cujo, Christine and more in 1998.

Just can’t believe that theater I grew up with is gone. The theatres were all big… The smallest screen was almost the size of most Mid-sized theaters now (290 seats.) One of the reasons it closed was they needed to do about 3 million is repairs and to add two more theaters. But they opted to build the Century 25 theaters and the area around it for 25 million. It’s sad they didn’t keep the Domes.

Well I ended up with about 200 seats from the theater, the Phone “recording” machine that gave the showtimes, several things from the concession stand, a few poster frames and posters of “Welcome to the Cinedome Theaters” and many more items. DAMN I MISS THE THEATER!

vmoyneur
vmoyneur on April 17, 2014 at 4:58 am

I was there before demolition started. I was able to get inside to get the remaining equipment. Later on the Superintendent showed up gave him a hundred bucks and he helped me get the rest. Love this theatre when it was just 2 screens. My first movie experience there was Oliver. I also have lots of pictures of it during demolition.

dn6
dn6 on June 13, 2013 at 5:35 am

I got to experience near the end-run of this awesome theatre during my college days. I remember on my days off or driving home from class, I would enter through the business complex in the back and park in the rear lot next to the dome where employees would park and leave/enter for their meal breaks. Occasionally, I could sneak into the theatre through the rear exit doors which were either left jarred open or the lock was still broken.

Some of my most favorite movies were seen during these times…Thelma & Louise, Terminator 2, People Under the Stairs, Star Trek VI…all of which were in 1991. Most of the movies I saw were during the same visit when one could still hop from screen to screen. The theatre more than made up for it from my constant visits to the concession stands and arcade games while waiting for the next feature to start. I truly miss this theatre. There will probably never be another one like it in OC thanks to the mega-scum small screen complexes that they keep building to please the masses and pack them in like sardines.

I, too, remember hearing the playful little blonde girl laughing and running around in the back of the theatre. She still haunts me to this day…

Bruce D
Bruce D on June 3, 2013 at 11:22 am

Miss this place….the two main theaters cannot be described…you really needed to experience it to understand how awesome those theaters were.

As a little kid I remember the first movie I saw there with my parents was Sounder and few year later Young Frankenstein. When I was old enough to drive I would drive from Long Beach to see movies there that I knew needed to be seen in a theater like this…Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Aliens, Jurassic Park…

Flix70
Flix70 on May 24, 2013 at 9:54 pm

Good stories, Imissoldanaheim. I hear you, going to the movies just isn’t the same as when we were kids. The Cinedome, Big Newport, South Coast Plaza, they were palaces that made the great flicks even better. At least we have our memories.

Scott Neff
Scott Neff on May 20, 2013 at 6:16 pm

I find that theatre hopping is a lot easier now. With 20-30 screens, just go in one side and lay low, nobody will bother you. With the smaller theatres, people would notice when you were there all day because there were only 10 employees vs. the 20-30 that a multiplex has now.

imissoldanaheim
imissoldanaheim on May 18, 2013 at 7:33 am

I actually tear up when I think of my beloved Cinedome. I went to Loara High and I have nothing but the fondest memories of my friends and I watching THE GREATEST movies there. There was a time when going to the movies was an EXPERIENCE. Every movie seemed packed which made going to the theater this really incredible shared experience. People cried, laughed, shrieked and clapped together. We seemed strangers going in and acquaintances coming out.

Does anyone remember seeing E.T. there? People were sitting in the isles so you couldn’t go to the bathroom!!!!!!! That’s not allowed anymore. Neither is “theater-skipping”. It was so easy to pay for one movie and see 6 if you wanted to. Nobody cared.

Some of the best times I had happened while I was waiting in the super long lines for a movie. When my friends and I were waiting to see Aliens, some guy next to us said he was hungry and was going to Burger King. He said he’d bring us back hamburgers and fries if we saved his place for him. Free Burger King and Aliens. It didn’t get anymore kick-ass than that! It also seemed like only cinephiles went to the Cinedome because everyone we talked always knew a lot about film and were just as passionate about going to the movies as I was.

After high school I went to Chapman College (now University) and would always catch a movie in between classes. I was in complete shock and overwhelmed with anger when I drove past the Cinedome and saw it boarded up. God, did that suck!

In an ironic twist, perhaps not so surprising, I later got an MFA in Film Production from Chapman. I was the first graduating class of the MFA program. I owe my love of film and career choice to the Cinedome. The theater-going experience for me now pales in comparison to what I had known in my youth but I feel lucky to have experienced it at all.