Vieutopia International Motion Picture Festival

About Belvidere Cinema Gallery:

Belvidere Cinema Gallery is a DIY-minded arts occupation of a vintage movie theatre hosting live performances, art exhibits, and throwback films on the third Saturday of every month.

The Complete History: 

General Cinema premiered the Belvidere on January 21, 1966 with the Doris Day-Rod Taylor romcom, “Do Not Disturb”, as the cherry atop the brand new Belvidere Mall: Lake County’s first enclosed shopping center, which had opened the previous November. The press raved about it being the city’s first new theatre built in 38 years. It seated 1000 and featured the largest screen in the area, measuring 22x46 feet. Common General Cinema amenities included pushback seating and an art gallery in the lobby. 

In early-1980, Belvidere became a second-run house and its theater was twinned, seating was reduced by 100+. 

General Cinema walked away from Belvidere in September 1988, having just expanded Waukegan's Lakehurst Cinema to 12 screens.

Through the first half of 1989, it appears Belvidere ran as an independent before finally going dark. In late 1991, with Belvidere Mall nearly-empty and surviving as a flea market: the mall itself undertook renovating and reopening the Cinema. The twin theaters were halved again to create a four-screen “miniplex” seating around 200 each. Belvidere Cinema reopened as a bargain house with tickets for second-run features just $1.50. 

The Cinema and mall’s popularity rebounded during the 90s, reinventing itself as a discounter with mostly locally-owned retailers and services. In 2002 the mall handed Cinema operations to the Village Theatres chain, bringing both Belvidere and Lakehurst into the same circuit again. It showed first-run features again very briefly, however the outcome was the same as before: after dropping to weekend-only shows, Village closed Belvidere by the end of 2003. 

A planned $100,000 renovation to the seating, sound, common areas and restrooms was never completed. The Cinema remained mothballed for 16 years, virtually turn-key and unchanged from its General Cinema aesthetic beyond paint and carpet. 

When Village Theatres' Lakehurst 12 fell into disrepair and shuttered in 2007, this left Belvidere as Waukegan’s only remaining movie theatre. 

In 2019, Belvidere Mall embraced Waukegan’s growing arts movement to drive events and business to the mall. Following use as a popup art gallery space, a stewardship opportunity launched efforts to reactivate the space after 18 years. 

Now known as the Belvidere Cinema Gallery: it is currently the only (known) DIY space between Chicago and Milwaukee featuring art exhibits, all-ages/all-genres concerts using Cinema I, and repertory/arthouse film screenings in Cinema II.