Did You Know Maine’s Auburn Mall Used to Have a Movie Theater?

The Auburn Mall opened in 1979 on open land that thriving restaurants and shopping centers have surrounded today. Unfortunately, the place that started this land of retailers isn't thriving like it used to. While the mall still has tenants, it lacks much of what it used to have when it opened over 30 years ago, including a two-screen movie theater.

Growing up in the Oxford Hills, we all drove to the Auburn Mall in high school to go to the movies. There were only two theaters near us that weren't drive-in movie theaters. The Promenade Mall, now called Gendron Place in Lewiston, had two theaters in the back of the building. I took this photo of all that remained of the theaters about 10 years ago.

The other twin theater was at the Auburn Mall, and you would never know where it used to be today unless you knew where to look.

Cinema Treasures says the Auburn Mall Cinemas opened on November 25, 1981. They lasted a little over nine years before the big, multiplex theaters of today started popping up. Hoyts Entertainment bought the Auburn Mall Cinemas in 1986 before opening a new theater in 1990, which is today's Flagship Cinema.

The last movies at the Auburn Mall Cinemas were Home Alone and Three Men and a Little Lady. So where were these theaters? They were to the left of where TD Bank's offices are in the Auburn Mall, near the current restrooms and vending machines.

Where the vending machines are, is where the tiny box office and concession stand were, and the theater doors were to the left of it.

One of the movies I saw at the old Auburn Mall Cinemas was Can't Buy Me Love, starring a 20-year-old Patrick Dempsey, who grew up not far from the Auburn Mall in Turner.

Hard to believe that 30 years later I met the man himself, having no idea that he was in that movie.