Up the 91 Freeway off Weir Canyon Road is the Anaheim Hills Festival Shopping Center.  This was the community’s first and only major shopping complex.  Sitting on a bluff above it are the Festival Cinemas.  Mann Theatres initially built the multiplex, but Edwards took over before the complex opened in late-1992.

The Festival opened as an 8-screen complex with a large open lobby.  The auditoriums were small, except for two in the back that each held 388 seats.  They’re not big by any means.  But what was surprising was that the theatre was equipped for 70mm projection.  Initial advertisements for the theatre didn’t list that they were equipped for the format.  But during the summer of 1993, the one and only 70mm print to screen here was “Last Action Hero.”  The theatre still operates, but now as a 14-screen complex with some newer stadium-seat auditoriums.

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Edwards Anaheim Hills Festival under construction (September 1992)

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Lobby under construction

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Edwards Anaheim Hills Festival grand opening ad (November 19, 1992) [Enlarge]

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Ad from June 1993 — Note 70mm presentation blurb for "Last Action Hero" [Enlarge]

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Festival (2005)