The Northgate theater had been operating since 1966.
The curtain has lowered permanently on one of the North Bay’s longstanding movie theaters—the multi-screen cineplex at Northgate mall in Terra Linda is now closed.
Cinemark Holdings, the Texas-based movie-theater chain that owns the Century Northgate Theater, decided not to renew its lease on the 45-acre complex, a mall spokesperson reported to the Marin Independent Journal. Cinemark acquired the Northgate theater as part of its acquisition of Century Theatres in 2006.
The mall has been owned since 2017 by Merlone Geier Partners, a real estate investment company which specializes in redeveloping shopping centers. Merlone Geier has proposed reinventing Northgate into a residential-commercial community hub featuring apartments, townhomes, restaurants, shops and, until now, a movie theater.
Merlone spokesperson Ross Guehring told the Marin IJ the closure could pave the way for a new theater operator, a different entertainment-center concept or “other compelling new retail tenants.”
The cineplex has been a Northgate staple since opening as a single-screen theater in 1966, a year after the launch of Northgate Fashion Mall—a then-state-of-the-art retail center anchored by the Emporium and Sears and featuring an open-air design by Marin-based architect Lawrence Halprin notable for its fountains and reflecting pools. Northgate expanded to 15 screens in 1994.
The movie theater industry has faced a headwind of challenges in recent years, as options for viewing films and various entertainment content have spread to streaming and other digital platforms. An estimated 25% of movie theaters nationwide never reopened following the pandemic.
Cinemark has closed about 50 theaters since the pandemic. The Century Regency 6, also in Terra Linda, closed last November; Century Larkspur closed in 2022.
