Opened in the Fall of 1972, at a cost of $30 million, the Laguna Hills Mall has served southern Orange County for the better part of four decades. While originally built without a cinema, deferring business to the near bye Saddleback 1-2-3, a theatre was later added, as part of an early 80’s remodel. This theatre, which is about as non de script as the surrounding mall, initially involved a rather unusual business arrangement.
The Laguna Hills Mall Cinema opened shortly before Christmas, in 1983, under the joint operation of Edwards and Sanborn (later known as So Cal Cinemas) Theatres. Long time competitors in the southern California market, Edwards and Sanborn were both family owned chains that had histories dating back to the dawn of the industry (Sanborn founded in 1918 and Edwards in 1930). The reasoning behind the co management was never made public, but the scenario appears to be somewhat similar to Mann’s/Edwards’ Woodbridge theatre deal, three years earlier; with the exception that Mann sold the Woodbridge, while Sanborn chose to retain partial ownership in the Laguna Hills Mall Cinema.
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Specific details, as to which company was more dominant in the theatre’s initial operation, are a bit cloudy. The site was definitely intended as a Sanborn Theatre, as the theatre’s design was more reflective of that company’s style and early staff were directly employed by Sanborn. However, most of the theatre’s early marketing and promotion were through Edwards. As the years passed, this management picture shifted more towards Edwards and Sanborn seems to have fully stepped away from the theatre, by the early 90’s. The Laguna Hills Mall Cinema continued as an Edwards until the new millennium, but, following the company’s 2002 bankruptcy, the theatre was cast off, ending one of the more unusual chapters in Orange County theatre operation.
In retrospect, this bizarre marriage of competitors was likely reflective of the “eccentic” personalities behind each of the companies; Sanborn having demonstrated a long track record of non traditional operations, Edwards having existed as one of the more stubborn and competitive of theatre operators. Whatever the true reasoning may have been, the Laguna Hills Mall Cinema has a truly unique back story for such an indistinguishable theatre.
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