Pruneyard Cinemas in Campbell announces it’s closing after seven years

Pruneyard Cinemas announced Wednesday afternoon that it will be closing its doors Jan. 25 after eight years at the Campbell shopping center.

“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the permanent closing of Pruneyard Cinemas and Cedar Room this coming January 25,” an announcement on the theater’s website reads. “This decision has not come easily, and it reflects the challenges we have faced over the years. We have navigated through the difficulties of the pandemic, the writer and actor strikes, and most recently, the rising costs that have made it unsustainable for us to continue.”

In June 2024, the owners went public about their need for a lease adjustment from their landlord, Pruneyard Shopping Centers owner Regency Centers. At the time, they didn’t expect to be closing their doors, but the economic pressure doesn’t seem to have gotten any better in the 18 months since.

Pruneyard Cinemas opened to a lot of fanfare in 2018, but its owners have been running uphill — and losing ground — since the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Customers did not return quickly to movie theaters even once they did reopen, but Pruneyard Cinemas tried every trick in the book to bring them in. It offered memberships with included ticket vouchers and concessions discounts, put live comedy in its auditorium and hosted popular drag queen bingo nights in the Cedar Room, the lounge and eatery connected to the movie theater.

It’s most popular offering of late was its Culinary Cinema series, which paired classic films with three-course meals and often a themed cocktail.

But it wasn’t enough.

The original Pruneyard Cinemas opened in 1969 with three screens, and the first movies shown there that Christmas were “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” the couple-swapping comedy “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” and director Elia Kazan’s “The Arrangement.”

United Artists ran the movie house for 30 years — eventually running it into the ground by the time it closed in 1999. Camera Cinemas — the independent outfit led by Jack NyBlom, Jim Zuur and Dennis Skaggs — came in, renovated and added four auditoriums and reopened in July 2002 with a combo of first-run blockbusters and independent movies.

Camera 7 continued on until 2017 when it closed as part of a massive renovation of the shopping center. The new theater, Pruneyard Dine-in Cinemas opened the following year, with NyBlom as one of the partners.