The Villa first opened on December 23, 1949, after being built by then-owners Joseph L. Lawrence and David K. Edwards—the first feature shown was
Prince of Foxes. The theater had 1300 seats and was built using a
stadium seating design that utilized rising seating on a steep incline. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, The Villa was known for being the first Salt Lake City Theater to show new widescreen formats, including
CinemaScope,
Technirama-70, and
Cinerama. In 1958, the theater became famous for showing a 10-month-long run of
South Pacific, drawing Patrons from as far as Idaho and Nevada. In 1960,
Cinemiracle, a large, curved screen was installed, reducing the number of seats by approximately 300. A year later,
Cinerama was installed, which used three projectors instead of one. This was used until 1964, when the system was replaced by a new version that used one projector and
70 mm film. There was an expected expansion to the Villa in 1977 by
Mann Theatres, though the project was eventually scrapped. In 1981, the Villa was the only theater in Salt Lake City to offer the new Steven Spielberg film "Raiders of the Lost Ark". The Villa was acquired by
Carmike Cinemas in 1993. Repairs were started in 1995 and in 1996 a large renovation closed the theater shortly while the famous neon sign was restored, repairs were made to the auditorium's seat and carpets, and a
Dolby Digital sound system was installed. In 1998 Carmike Cinemas began a building spree across the Salt Lake Valley, erecting five new multiplexes. This sudden expansion lead to the ultimate demise of many first run theaters built before 1998 in the area. The only theaters left following the expansion were the Carmike 12, Holladay Centre 6, and 5 Star Cinemas. In 2001,
USA Today named the Villa Theater on a list of ten great classic theaters in the United States. This decision was criticized by some who said that the theater was run down and undeserving of the acknowledgment. Carmike Cinemas responded by cleaning up and repairing the theater, even taking out an advertisement for the Villa hyping the summer's blockbuster hit
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Even as ticket sales increased at the Villa during 2002, the financial improvement was not enough to take the theater off the market. Carmike considered simplifying or replacing the theater's neon sign, which was expensive to maintain and made maintaining a profit extremely difficult.
Wal-Mart looked into the possibility of turning the Villa into a
Neighborhood Market. Instead,
Harmons Grocery, which operates a grocery store near the Villa Theater, bought the property. Harmons offered to let Carmike Cinemas lease the theater, but they declined. The last movie to be shown at the Villa Theatre was
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on 18 February 2003. Despite it being a weekday and the film's considerable length, it drew a large crowd for the theater's final showing. Carmike Cinemas repaired the neon on the theater's sign and
marquee during the Villa's last week of operation so that it would be in perfect condition for closing night. ==Finding a New Purpose==