A 16-screen stadium seating Cinemark theater will be built as part of an outdoor expansion of University Mall. The 20-acre open-air retail center will be called the Village at University Mall and will include twenty-five shops, three or four restaurants, water features, shop-front parking, and landscaping. Groundbreaking was scheduled for Fall 2007 with an anticipated opening in Fall 2008.^[1][2]

The 47,000-square-foot^[1] theater complex will be built on parking lots and fields that currently separate Mervyn's department store from the Festival Cinemas at University Mall.^[3]

One of the main reasons for adding a new cinema to the University Mall Village was a BYU study which said the number one improvement customers wanted at the mall was a movie theater. Local college and high school students make up one of the mall's main demographic groups and account for half of the mall's sales. According to the study, going to the movies is the primary leisure activity for the majority of college students.^[4]

Rick Woodbury, president of Woodbury Corporations, said “The theater, entertainment component is one of the last pieces of the puzzle necessary in making University Mall a well-rounded community destination for entertainment and shopping for the Utah County area."^[3]

Century Theatres announced on their web site in 2005 their intent to build a 14-screen theater at University Mall. Century Theatres was later acquired by Cinemark.

University Mall is owned by Salt Lake City-based Woodbury Corp.^[2]

1. "Orem mall to add on", Deseret News, 20 September 2007
2. "Cinemark theater comes to Orem mall", Daily Herald, 5 September 2007, page A1
3. "University Mall Begins Expansion this Fall", BYU NewsNet, 22 October 2007
4. "Mall Responds to Student Suggestions by Adding New Movie Theater", BYU NewsNet, 22 October 2007