Located within the Belvidere Discount Mall. All shows free admission. Belvidere Cinema is back as you remember it, and as never before! We are a DIY-minded arts occupation of a vintage movie theatre hosting live performances, film screenings, art exhibits, and available for tours and rentals. Join us every for throwback films on the third Saturday of the month! The Complete History:
Gene
ral Cinema premiered the Belvidere on January 21, 1966 with the Doris Day-Rod Taylor romcom, “Do Not Disturb”, as the cherry atop the brand new Belvidere Mall: Lake County’s first enclosed shopping center, which had opened the previous November. The press raved about it being the city’s first new theatre built in 38 years. It seated 1000 and featured the largest screen in the area, measuring 22x46 feet. Common General Cinema amenities included pushback seating and an art gallery in the lobby. In 1971, Lakehurst Mall opened five minutes west; spawning Waukegan’s second General Cinema house on its perimeter, with five screens. In early-1980, Belvidere became a second-run house and its theater was twinned, seating was reduced by 100+. In 1988 Lakehurst lured away Belvidere Mall’s only department store, Montgomery Ward, and the mall shops quickly followed in exodus. Having just expanded Lakehurst to 12 screens, General Cinema walked away from Belvidere in September 1988. Through the first half of 1989, it appears Belvidere ran as an independent before finally going dark. In late 1991, with Belvidere Mall nearly-empty and surviving as a flea market: the mall itself undertook renovating and reopening the Cinema. The twin theaters were halved again to create a four-screen “miniplex” seating around 200 each. Belvidere Cinema reopened as a bargain house with tickets for second-run features just $1.50. The Cinema and mall’s popularity rebounded during the 90s, reinventing itself as a discounter with mostly locally-owned retailers and services. In 2002 the mall handed Cinema operations to the Village Theatres chain, bringing both Belvidere and Lakehurst into the same circuit again. It showed first-run features again very briefly, however the outcome was the same as before: after dropping to weekend-only shows, Village closed Belvidere by the end of 2003. A planned $100,000 renovation to the seating, sound, common areas and restrooms was never completed. The Cinema remained mothballed for 16 years, virtually turn-key and unchanged from its General Cinema aesthetic beyond paint and carpet. Incidentally, Lakehurst Mall - which previously had all but decimated business for Belvidere Mall - closed in 2001 and was razed three years later. Itself, unable to compete with the 1991-opening of Gurnee Mills. Village Theatres' Lakehurst 12 fell into disrepair and shuttered in 2007; it, too, was razed and remains a vacant lot. With the Genesee Theatre serving as a performance venue, this left Belvidere as Waukegan’s only remaining movie theatre. In 2019, Belvidere Mall embraced Waukegan’s growing arts movement to drive events and business to the mall. Following use as a popup art gallery space, a stewardship opportunity launched efforts to reactivate the space after 18 years. Now known as the Belvidere Cinema Gallery: we are currently the only (known) DIY space between Chicago and Milwaukee featuring art exhibits, all-ages/all-genres concerts using Cinema I, and repertory/arthouse film screenings in Cinema II. We’re also open to rentals. Seating is currently 70 + standing room in Cinema I, and 120 in Cinema II.
