But UA ran into financial difficulty as a circuit as the century closed while others easily outflanked the chain’s 10-screen effort. The first shoe to drop in the Lewisville area was the first multiplex in the Rand/Hollywood/Silver Cinema 10-screen discount house in the Garden Park Shopping Center. Trans-Texas' Vista Ridge 8-plex opened across the street on Decemwith sub-runs and would go first run then back to sub-run discount when it became part of the Cinemark circuit. The UA theater launched Decemwith features including Speechless, Dumb and Dumber, Drop Zone and Disclosure though would not have its official grand opening celebration until January 26, 1995. It was 10 feet tall and 100 feet long projecting 14 color patterns that could be set to music.
The UA Lakepointe 10’s translucent theater canopy was designed by Runyon Architects and Associates. To demonstrate that it was out of the business of building generic boxy theaters, UA got a waiver from the City of Lewisville to include a laser lighting system that would adorn the main entrance and be visible to the busy adjoinging highway. Trans-Texas' 8-screen theater was of more modest scale and it was a race to see which would open first. Meanwhile, Trans-Texas announced a simultaneous project on the opposite side of the freeway.
And the UA Lakepointe 10 would be its first scheduled to open followed by a similar facility in Grand Prairie (1995), a grander location near Garland (1996), and two in Fort Worth (1997). UA concentrated its 1994-1997 growth with 9-to-11 screen builds that were more destination theaters then the generic, neighborhood 8-plexes that it had built in the early to mid-1990s. United Artists stepped up with a smaller-sized concept theater that would serve as a blueprint for its expansion within DFW over the next several years. AMC walked away from the 20-screen Lewisville project leaving an opening for another operator to build a megalplex in that spot. In May of 1993, AMC turned its attention to a 24-screen AMC Stemmons Crossroads project that would become the game-changing AMC Grand 24 opening in 1995. So in January 1993, AMC announced an exterior multiplex across the highway down from Corporate Drive that would be a 48,000 sqaure feet 20-screen multiplex the likes of which the DFW area hand’t seen. Because the shopping complex drew people from a wide circle including Lewisville, Flower Mound, Carrollton, Coppell, Lake Dallas, Corinth and Highland Village, there was room for another theater. When Vista Ridge Mall opened in 1989, Lewisville received its second 10-plus screen theater with Cinemark Theater’s Vista Ridge 12 inside the mall. The Studio Movie Grill Lewisville was originally going to be AMC’s first 20-screen super-megaplex.
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