Malco Theatres
Encyclopedia
Malco Theatres, Inc. is a fourth generation movie theatre chain that has remained family owned and operated for over nine decades. The company has 33 locations with 326 screens in five states (including Arkansas
, Kentucky
, Mississippi
, Missouri
and Tennessee
). Malco also operates four bowling
lanes in southern Louisiana
under the Malco Theatres Bowling name. The company's highest grossing theatres are the Paradiso in Memphis, TN, the Desoto cinema in MS, and the Grandview cinema in Madison, MS
immigrant, left his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee
, and went to Colbert County, Alabama
, to work on the Wilson Dam project as an engineer. Although he held a degree in engineering from Vanderbilt University
, he thought of himself more as a showman and entertainer. Lightman decided it was time to try something new one day while in Northwest Alabama, when he came upon a long line of people waiting to get into a local theatre. He decided he wanted to operate a movie theatre. Lightman traveled to Atlanta where he had made a contact in the theatre business and sought to learn the art of movie exhibition.
Upon his return two months later to Northwest Alabama, in February 1915, Lightman formed The Sterling Amusement Company and opened his first theatre in a storefront he had rented in Sheffield, Alabama
. Lightman named this storefront theatre "The Liberty Theater", and later opened a 400 seat theatre, "The Majestic" across the river in Florence, Alabama
at 204 North Court Street, in August 1919. Lightman opened a third theatre in the area before accepting an offer from another local theatre owner to buy out his theatres in the area. In return, Lightman received a 50 per cent stake in a theatre in North Little Rock, Arkansas
.
After leaving Northwest Alabama, M.A. Lightman, Sr., partnered with his father, Joseph Lightman, a stone construction contractor, to build the Hillsboro Theater in Nashville, Tennessee. They opened the Hillsboro on May 18, 1925, with the D.W. Griffith film America. Three months later, Tony Sudekum, founder of Crescent Amusement Co., opened a competing theater at the opposite end of the same block. The competition with Sudekum forced M.A. and his father to close the Hillsboro Theater. The theater was used as a live production venue for many years until being converted back into a cinema and renamed the Belcourt Cinema in 1966 by a new group of owners.
The former Hillsboro Theater is still standing today and is operated by a non-profit organization as an independent art house. M.A. Lightman, Sr. left Nashville in 1926 after the Hillsboro failed and went to North Little Rock. Joseph Lightman died in 1928, in Nashville. His passing was covered on the front page of the Tennessean.
It was in North Little Rock that Lightman partnered with M.S. McCord and M.J. Pruniski forming the Malco Amusement Company. They began building a theatre chain by buying and building single screen cinemas throughout Arkansas.
In September 1926, Malco Amusement Company took on two more partners, W.F. McWilliams and L.B. Clark, in El Dorado, Arkansas
. This led to the formation of Arkansas Amusement Enterprises, Inc. with a total of 32 theatres in Arkansas with locations including Little Rock, North Little Rock, Camden
, Hope
, and Smackover
. Not long after the formation of Arkansas Amusement Enterprises, McWilliams and Clark left the partnership and bought the five El Dorado locations from the company.
In 1929, Arkansas Amusement Enterprises became Malco Theatres, Inc. This is also the year that the company started installing Vitaphone
and Movietone
equipment to add sound for the first time in their theatres.
Malco Theatres began acquiring cinemas not only in Arkansas but also in West Tennessee, Louisiana, Northern Mississippi, Western Kentucky, and Southeastern Missouri. It was in 1929 that Malco Theatres purchased its first location in Memphis, Tennessee
, the Linden Circle Theatre.
, a former vaudevillian theatre in downtown Memphis, and renamed it The Malco. This opulent movie palace at 89 Beale Street
also became the base of operations for Malco Theatres until 1976.
The Malco began operations on April 20, 1940, with its first film It's a Date. The premiere gala was sponsored by the Nineteenth Century Club.
Malco Theatres continued to operate The Crosstown until the mid-1970s.
On December 8, 1958, at age 67, M.A. Lightman, Sr. died as a result of a heart attack while in Detroit. Like his father before him, his death garnered an epitaph on the front page of the local newspaper.
During the highly controversial period of integration in the South, Malco Theatres introduced integrated seating in their five Memphis theatres without any major incident. M.A. Lightman, Sr.'s two sons, M.A. Lightman, Jr. and Richard Lightman were running the company during this time. In the segregated South, movie theatres would only permit black patrons in the balcony, providing them with a separate entrance to the building. In 1962, Richard Lightman met with Vasco Smith of the Memphis Bi-Racial Committee and set up a staggered process over a three week span where the first week they sold tickets to the "whites only" orchestra level at The Malco (the present day Orpheum) to one African-American couple. The second week it was increased to four couples and the third week it was increased even more. By the fourth week, all African-American patrons were permitted to buy tickets anywhere in the theatre. Richard worked with the local media to keep any news of the integration to a minimum as to avoid any conflict with the outspoken pro-segregation leaders of the time.
This initial period of integration of the Memphis theatres saw only one incident of note. During a showing of Cleopatra
at The Crosstown, a white patron poured his soda down the neck of an African-American patron. Richard Lightman sought to calm the situation with the patron and keep the incident out of the news. As a result, Malco Theatres, purchased the gentleman a new suit.
In the summer of 1969, it was announced that Cinerama, Inc., of New York was purchasing Malco Theatres, Inc., for $10 million. At the time Malco had 50 theatres in five states. The deal was never finalized and Malco Theatres remained in the control of the Lightman family.
The Clark Tower Quartet was never built. The Highland opened later that year and operated until the fall of 2005.
Friday, June 16, 1977, saw the opening of the Ridgeway Four theatre in East Memphis. The opening slate of films was A Bridge Too Far, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
, The Other Side of Midnight
, and Final Chapter - Walking Tall. The Ridgeway Four also became the location of Malco's corporate headquarters and continues to serve in that capacity.
, was scheduled to be completed by the end of that summer. The deal fell through when Commonwealth decided not to expand at that time. Commonwealth Amusements ended up selling all of their theatre assests, mostly to United Artist, by 1990.
It was in December of that same year when company president, Stephen P. Lightman (son of M.A. Lightman, Jr.) announced that Malco Theatres would expand.
. This opening came only three and a half months after construction began. The estimated price tag for the complex was around half a million dollars. The first film shown was Innerspace
.
One of the Winchester Court's two 350 seat auditoriums was THX
-certified. All of the auditoriums featured JBL speakers and Dolby processors. The theatre also had 70mm film projection capability in its two 350 seat auditoriums. Four of the auditoriums could seat 210 with the remaining two auditoriums seating 160.
Malco's first and only foray into the megaplex scene began with the Majestic theatre, which opened in 1997 with 11 screens and expanded to 20 in 1998. A technological showcase, the Majestic featured THX-certified auditoriums, Dolby Digital
and DTS audio, large format screens and an auditorium with a custom-designed audio system crafted with Klipsch
speakers.
Cinema systems throughout its circuit. At present Malco has 16 digital screens at The Paradiso in Memphis, TN, 17 at The Grandview in Madison, MS, 16 at The Razorback Cinema in Fayetteville, AR, 12 at The Pinnacle Hills Cinema in Rogers, AR, 12 at the Malco Cinema 12 in Fort Smith, AR, 15 at the Hollywood Cinema 15 in Jonesboro, AR, 8 at the Oxford Studio Cinema in Oxford, MS, and 14 at the Malco Smyrna Cinema in Smyrna, TN.
Malco Theatres has installed Dolby Digital
3D digital systems at The Paradiso, Malco Smyrna Cinema , The Razorback Cinema, The Grandview, the Malco Cinema 16 in Owensboro, KY, the Malco Cinema 12, The Pinnacle Hills Cinema and the Hollywood Cinema 15. A Real D Cinema
3D digital system is currently installed at the DeSoto Cinema 16 in Southaven, MS.
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
and Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
). Malco also operates four bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
lanes in southern Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
under the Malco Theatres Bowling name. The company's highest grossing theatres are the Paradiso in Memphis, TN, the Desoto cinema in MS, and the Grandview cinema in Madison, MS
Beginnings
Malco Theatres' history began during World War I when Morris A. Lightman, Sr., (known as M.A.) the son of a HungarianHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
immigrant, left his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, and went to Colbert County, Alabama
Colbert County, Alabama
Colbert County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of brothers George and Levi Colbert, Chickasaw Indian chiefs. George Colbert operated a ferry across the Tennessee River in 1790 near present day Cherokee....
, to work on the Wilson Dam project as an engineer. Although he held a degree in engineering from Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
, he thought of himself more as a showman and entertainer. Lightman decided it was time to try something new one day while in Northwest Alabama, when he came upon a long line of people waiting to get into a local theatre. He decided he wanted to operate a movie theatre. Lightman traveled to Atlanta where he had made a contact in the theatre business and sought to learn the art of movie exhibition.
Upon his return two months later to Northwest Alabama, in February 1915, Lightman formed The Sterling Amusement Company and opened his first theatre in a storefront he had rented in Sheffield, Alabama
Sheffield, Alabama
Sheffield is a city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States, and is included in The Shoals MSA. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 9,652. Sheffield is the birthplace of notable attorney, actor, former senator and presidential contender Fred Thompson...
. Lightman named this storefront theatre "The Liberty Theater", and later opened a 400 seat theatre, "The Majestic" across the river in Florence, Alabama
Florence, Alabama
Florence is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the northwestern corner of the state.According to the 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the city's population was 36,721....
at 204 North Court Street, in August 1919. Lightman opened a third theatre in the area before accepting an offer from another local theatre owner to buy out his theatres in the area. In return, Lightman received a 50 per cent stake in a theatre in North Little Rock, Arkansas
North Little Rock, Arkansas
the city was 62.55% White, 33.98% Black or African American, 0.41% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.18% from other races, and 1.26% from two or more races...
.
After leaving Northwest Alabama, M.A. Lightman, Sr., partnered with his father, Joseph Lightman, a stone construction contractor, to build the Hillsboro Theater in Nashville, Tennessee. They opened the Hillsboro on May 18, 1925, with the D.W. Griffith film America. Three months later, Tony Sudekum, founder of Crescent Amusement Co., opened a competing theater at the opposite end of the same block. The competition with Sudekum forced M.A. and his father to close the Hillsboro Theater. The theater was used as a live production venue for many years until being converted back into a cinema and renamed the Belcourt Cinema in 1966 by a new group of owners.
The former Hillsboro Theater is still standing today and is operated by a non-profit organization as an independent art house. M.A. Lightman, Sr. left Nashville in 1926 after the Hillsboro failed and went to North Little Rock. Joseph Lightman died in 1928, in Nashville. His passing was covered on the front page of the Tennessean.
It was in North Little Rock that Lightman partnered with M.S. McCord and M.J. Pruniski forming the Malco Amusement Company. They began building a theatre chain by buying and building single screen cinemas throughout Arkansas.
In September 1926, Malco Amusement Company took on two more partners, W.F. McWilliams and L.B. Clark, in El Dorado, Arkansas
El Dorado, Arkansas
El Dorado , a multi-cultural arts center: South Arkansas Arts Center , an award-winning renovated downtown, and numerous sporting, shopping, and dining opportunities. El Dorado is the population, cultural, and business center of the 7,300 mi² regional area...
. This led to the formation of Arkansas Amusement Enterprises, Inc. with a total of 32 theatres in Arkansas with locations including Little Rock, North Little Rock, Camden
Camden, Arkansas
Camden is a city in and the county seat of Ouachita County in the southern part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Long an area of American Indians villages, the French also made a permanent settlement here because of its advantageous location above the Ouachita River. According to 2007 Census...
, Hope
Hope, Arkansas
Hope is a small city in Hempstead County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2008 United States Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 10,378...
, and Smackover
Smackover, Arkansas
Smackover is a city in Union County, Arkansas. According to the 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city stands at 1,929.The name Smackover comes from an anglicization of the French "Sumac Couvert" which translates to "covered in sumac"...
. Not long after the formation of Arkansas Amusement Enterprises, McWilliams and Clark left the partnership and bought the five El Dorado locations from the company.
In 1929, Arkansas Amusement Enterprises became Malco Theatres, Inc. This is also the year that the company started installing Vitaphone
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
and Movietone
Movietone sound system
The Movietone sound system is a sound-on-film method of recording sound for motion pictures that guarantees synchronization between sound and picture. It achieves this by recording the sound as a variable-density optical track on the same strip of film that records the pictures...
equipment to add sound for the first time in their theatres.
Malco Theatres began acquiring cinemas not only in Arkansas but also in West Tennessee, Louisiana, Northern Mississippi, Western Kentucky, and Southeastern Missouri. It was in 1929 that Malco Theatres purchased its first location in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, the Linden Circle Theatre.
The Memphian - Memphis, TN
Malco Theatres opened The Memphian in 1935 on Cooper Avenue in Memphis. It continued operations for 50 years until being closed in 1985.The Malco - Memphis, TN
In 1940, Malco Theatres purchased the Orpheum TheatreOrpheum Theatre (Memphis)
The Orpheum Theatre, located on South Main St. at the corner of Beale in Memphis, Tennessee, was built in 1928 and is one of the few remaining "movie palaces" of the 1920s. The theatre presents a variety of events from Broadway shows and concerts to films....
, a former vaudevillian theatre in downtown Memphis, and renamed it The Malco. This opulent movie palace at 89 Beale Street
Beale Street
Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are...
also became the base of operations for Malco Theatres until 1976.
The Malco began operations on April 20, 1940, with its first film It's a Date. The premiere gala was sponsored by the Nineteenth Century Club.
The Crosstown - Memphis
In 1951, Malco Theatres opened The Crosstown located on Watkins in Memphis. The Crosstown cost $400,000 to build and had a seating capacity of 1,400. An overview of The Crosstown published in the 1952 Theatre Catalog describes the theatre:
A towering signature sign, measuring 90 feet (27.4 m) from marquee to top, and a marquee that is 75 feet (22.9 m) long and seven and a half feet high, strikingly distinguish the front of this neighborhood shopping district theatre. An under-the-marquee driveway for patrons to use in bad weather is provided, with a circular roadway cutting through the sidewalk under the marquee and back to the street.
The Crosstown is said to have the only contour curtain in the territory. Measuring 70 feet (21.3 m) across and 32 feet (9.8 m) high, the curtain rises from the floor into eight festoons, and is made of 350 yards (320 m) of 54 inches (1.4 m) plush.
Auditorium walls are in aqua, with rose-tan wainscoting and a trim of silver, gold, and red-tan. On each side wall are 45-by-22-foot murals depicting river scenes.
Malco Theatres continued to operate The Crosstown until the mid-1970s.
Time of change
After three decades of partnership, M.A. Lightman, Sr. announced on July 17, 1952, that Malco Theatres, Inc. and Malco Realty Corp. had acquired the outstanding 33 percent of the stock that was owned by M.S. McCord and M.J. Pruniski. At the time, Malco Theatres operated 63 theatres in Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana including the Crescent Drive-In that had just opened in New Orleans. Pruniski and McCord retained the group of theatres in North Little Rock removing them from the Malco chain.On December 8, 1958, at age 67, M.A. Lightman, Sr. died as a result of a heart attack while in Detroit. Like his father before him, his death garnered an epitaph on the front page of the local newspaper.
During the highly controversial period of integration in the South, Malco Theatres introduced integrated seating in their five Memphis theatres without any major incident. M.A. Lightman, Sr.'s two sons, M.A. Lightman, Jr. and Richard Lightman were running the company during this time. In the segregated South, movie theatres would only permit black patrons in the balcony, providing them with a separate entrance to the building. In 1962, Richard Lightman met with Vasco Smith of the Memphis Bi-Racial Committee and set up a staggered process over a three week span where the first week they sold tickets to the "whites only" orchestra level at The Malco (the present day Orpheum) to one African-American couple. The second week it was increased to four couples and the third week it was increased even more. By the fourth week, all African-American patrons were permitted to buy tickets anywhere in the theatre. Richard worked with the local media to keep any news of the integration to a minimum as to avoid any conflict with the outspoken pro-segregation leaders of the time.
This initial period of integration of the Memphis theatres saw only one incident of note. During a showing of Cleopatra
Cleopatra (1963 film)
Cleopatra is a 1963 British-American-Swiss epic drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The screenplay was adapted by Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, Ranald MacDougall, and Mankiewicz from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. The film starred Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy...
at The Crosstown, a white patron poured his soda down the neck of an African-American patron. Richard Lightman sought to calm the situation with the patron and keep the incident out of the news. As a result, Malco Theatres, purchased the gentleman a new suit.
In the summer of 1969, it was announced that Cinerama, Inc., of New York was purchasing Malco Theatres, Inc., for $10 million. At the time Malco had 50 theatres in five states. The deal was never finalized and Malco Theatres remained in the control of the Lightman family.
Quartets
On June 4, 1970, M.A. Lightman, Jr., announced Malco Theatres' plans for the first two four-screen cinemas for the company. The first, the Highland Quartet, was in Memphis at the corner of Highland and Poplar in what was then called "Dillard Mall". The second quartet was three and a half miles away in the Clark Tower. At the time, four screen theatres were considered huge and were not yet common. M.A. Lightman, Jr. had this to say concerning these two locations:
With this setup, we can bring back films that a neighborhood house couldn't because of the overhead and small return. With our overhead more or less centralized, we could bring in a film that would attract, say, only a hundred or so, but we could do it because we wanted to and without loss.
Every type of good picture -- with the exception of the nudies, of course -- will be brought in. We haven't figured out all the combinations ourselves.
The Dillard Mall building is already completed and will be turned over to us in several weeks. It will take us only about three months to complete our additions. Plans call for the new Clark Tower to be started this spring. It should be completed in about 18 months.
The Clark Tower Quartet was never built. The Highland opened later that year and operated until the fall of 2005.
Friday, June 16, 1977, saw the opening of the Ridgeway Four theatre in East Memphis. The opening slate of films was A Bridge Too Far, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is a 1976 Canadian-French film directed by Nicolas Gessner and starring Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen. It was written by Laird Koenig, based on Koenig's 1974 novel of the same title; Koenig also wrote a stage play based on his book...
, The Other Side of Midnight
The Other Side of Midnight
The Other Side of Midnight is a novel by American writer Sidney Sheldon published in 1973. The book reached No.1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. It was made into a 1977 motion picture of the same name, directed by Charles Jarrott. The cast included Marie-France Pisier, John Beck, Susan...
, and Final Chapter - Walking Tall. The Ridgeway Four also became the location of Malco's corporate headquarters and continues to serve in that capacity.
Almost bought again
Malco Theatres, Inc. confirmed to the Commercial Appeal on July 24, 1986, the sale of the company's 38 locations to Commonwealth Amusements Corp. of Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, was scheduled to be completed by the end of that summer. The deal fell through when Commonwealth decided not to expand at that time. Commonwealth Amusements ended up selling all of their theatre assests, mostly to United Artist, by 1990.
It was in December of that same year when company president, Stephen P. Lightman (son of M.A. Lightman, Jr.) announced that Malco Theatres would expand.
Rather than sell our circuit as many small circuits around the country are now doing, we have made a commitment to become more aggressive and find our niche in the new wave of theater exihibition. We will be one of the smaller chains. We used to be a fairly good-sized chain, but it's getting down to six or seven dominant chains. -- Stephen P. Lightman
Multiplexes
July 3, 1987, the Winchester Court cinema opened three of its eight screens as the company's and the area's first multiplexMultiplex (movie theater)
A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens, typically three or more. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums are split into smaller ones, or more auditoriums are added in an...
. This opening came only three and a half months after construction began. The estimated price tag for the complex was around half a million dollars. The first film shown was Innerspace
Innerspace
Innerspace is a 1987 science fiction comedy film directed by Joe Dante and produced by Michael Finnell. Steven Spielberg served as executive producer. The film was inspired by the classic 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage. It stars Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan, Robert Picardo and...
.
One of the Winchester Court's two 350 seat auditoriums was THX
THX
THX is a trade name of a high-fidelity audio/visual reproduction standard for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, and car audio systems. The current THX was created in 2001 when it spun off from Lucasfilm Ltd...
-certified. All of the auditoriums featured JBL speakers and Dolby processors. The theatre also had 70mm film projection capability in its two 350 seat auditoriums. Four of the auditoriums could seat 210 with the remaining two auditoriums seating 160.
Malco's first and only foray into the megaplex scene began with the Majestic theatre, which opened in 1997 with 11 screens and expanded to 20 in 1998. A technological showcase, the Majestic featured THX-certified auditoriums, Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
and DTS audio, large format screens and an auditorium with a custom-designed audio system crafted with Klipsch
Klipsch
Klipsch Audio Technologies is an American loudspeaker company based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in Hope, Arkansas in 1946 as 'Klipsch and Associates' by Paul W...
speakers.
Singles, twins, trios & quartets
|
|
|
Multiplexes
- Malco Cinema (Jackson, TN 1976-2001) (originally Malco Quartet)
- Trinity Commons (1988-2004)
- The Appletree (1991-2001)
- Razorback 6 (Fayetteville, AR 1977-2007)
- Winchester Court (1987-2008)
Drive-ins
|
|
Present day
Digital projection
Malco Theatres is continuing to add digital projection systems by installing Dolby DigitalDolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
Cinema systems throughout its circuit. At present Malco has 16 digital screens at The Paradiso in Memphis, TN, 17 at The Grandview in Madison, MS, 16 at The Razorback Cinema in Fayetteville, AR, 12 at The Pinnacle Hills Cinema in Rogers, AR, 12 at the Malco Cinema 12 in Fort Smith, AR, 15 at the Hollywood Cinema 15 in Jonesboro, AR, 8 at the Oxford Studio Cinema in Oxford, MS, and 14 at the Malco Smyrna Cinema in Smyrna, TN.
Malco Theatres has installed Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
3D digital systems at The Paradiso, Malco Smyrna Cinema , The Razorback Cinema, The Grandview, the Malco Cinema 16 in Owensboro, KY, the Malco Cinema 12, The Pinnacle Hills Cinema and the Hollywood Cinema 15. A Real D Cinema
Real D Cinema
RealD Cinema is a digital stereoscopic projection technology made and sold by RealD Inc. It is currently the most widely used technology for watching 3-D films in theatres.-Technology:...
3D digital system is currently installed at the DeSoto Cinema 16 in Southaven, MS.
Tennessee
|
|
|
Arkansas
|
|
|
Mississippi
|
|
|
Bowling Centers
|
|