Fifty four years ago this week, Orange County welcomed it’s fifth ozoner with the grand opening of the Anaheim Drive-In. Once billed as “Orange County’s most luxurious super drive-in theatre”, the venue had a thirty-five year run, before closing in the spring of 1990. The Anaheim Drive-In also had a rather unique after life, being the site of one of the county’s more notable failed “lifestyle center” projects.
A few years after closing the drive-in, Pacific Theatres announced plans for a 26 screen megaplex and entertainment complex to be built on the property by the spring of 1997. In addition to the 100,000 square foot cinema, the plan called for ten restaurants and stores, a 30,000 square foot video game arcade, and 2,300 parking spaces; all set within a design that was to be modeled after Newport Beach’s Fashion Island shopping center (complete with “playful” fountains). At the time, the theatre would have been among the largest in the country.
Work on the proposed center began in July of 1996, with a VIP screen demolition ceremony that included local politicians and Pacific executives in attendance. Over the ensuing weeks, the lot was graded and a “coming soon” message was posted on the old drive-in marquee. However, by the end of the Summer, work came to an end almost as quickly as it has begun. Without explanation or an official announcement, the project was abandoned; the lone acknowledgement being the removal of the marquee message.
Rumors around the planned center’s demise have generally centered on AMC’s quick ten screen expansion of their neighboring Fullerton 10 theatre, in 1997. Yet, considering the potential drawing power of a full entertainment complex and new megaplex, one must question how the halfhearted expansion of an aging multiplex would have threatened Pacific out of a venture they had already committed considerable means in to launching. A second, less circulated rumor, involving a lack of financing, seems a more likely explanation. In any case, the lot sat empty for a few more years, before being sold and redeveloped in to a generic retail park; anchored by a hardware store and health club, rather than a cinema.
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