This was such a big part of my middle school years and it makes me upset to see it go! But all good things come to an end and I just need to let the attachment go and say goodbye!
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Gwinnett Place Mall in Georgia. It’s barely opened though I think most of it is closed. What’s kinda funny is there was a Reddit post with a destroyed car in a dead mall, and someone was asking how it got there. Well apparently it was the set for Stranger Things 3, which I found pretty cool
i work right next to Gwinnett mall and live 20 mins away from it and I can tell you from growing up here that it is probably the most ghetto mall in Georgia. When I heard that they were filming there, I knew it'd be a great choice cause that mall hasn't been renovated since it opened haha
There’s been literal shootings there. Jordan release days before the ticket system were bonkers. Thank god I was working those at Mall of Georgia because Gwinnett Place is rough
I think Netflix missed a huge opportunity to keep star court open. Have it set up like the set people could come your, have a stranger things merch shop, and a scoops ahoy where we could get ice cream.
The location is to obscure for any profit to be made. This would need to be placed a location where the economy already relies on tourism and is near a port or airport. Otherwise they’d never make money. Especially with the show coming to a close now
Edit: an area that not only relies on tourism but also has other tourist attractions with high traffic so as not to be a one and done.
In my ideal scenario this wasn’t/wouldn’t be long term at all. But a short stint with a timeline. That way it created scarcity and would drive people there to see it…. I know I’m ~8 hours from it I think and would 100% have planned a vacation around going to see it.
Stranger Things isnt going to stop anytime soon. They already have the animated show planned for next year, and I bet there will be a full fledged sequel or spinoff series before you know it.
Game of Thrones is still technically going on as well, via House of the Dragon. It seems like it's rated well but it doesn't have as much mass traction as the original.
spinoffs and sequels that typically don't have the main cast can really only go so far till they're just bleeding the cow dry.
That’s a bit of recency bias as Melrose Place and Frasier are two classic spinoffs based on shows from the 90s/80s that were immensely popular. One key element seems to be to have some crossover with at least one character/backstory that gets ported over. I would also argue that GoT suffered a lot from its widely considered bad ending leaving a lot of fans frustrated, and that it’s a prequel, not a spinoff per se. Had they done a show set in the future with one or two characters (Sansa when she’s much older) it may have had better traction.
I could easily see a spin off where we have Nancy as a mom (would not be hard for the same actress given she’s already that age), where her children and their friends are the main characters.
holding out that Stranger Things is going to hold a grip on the pop culture landscape outside of milking the last of their IP is recency bias in itself. Neither of those shows you mentioned (especially Frasier) had that much of a rebirth with their revivals. ST will still have a footprint for a while after show wrap, but that'll dilute eventually to nostalgia marketing. Hell ,ST is already playing on the prequel market via their Broadway and that's a mixed bag.
Also, ST has a range of actors who are either industry veterans (like Harbour and Ryder) or the younger ones who are looking to break out of what's technically a "children's role" for them and tackle more projects. It's already a 50/50 shot for actors who grew up in their role.
Yes, this is what my point is, and I don’t think people realize how much of a success Frasier was in its time despite being a spinoff. Both a ratings and critical gem in its heyday.
It’s super accessible from Atlanta - literally right off the interstate about 15 miles north of the city and you can combine it with the railroad tracks that they walk down so many times for a good day trip.
Netflix has Netflix House which are located in high trafficked malls (KOP in the Philly Metro and Galleria Dallas in Dallas, TX). At Netflix Bites they have the USS Butterscotch, Scoops Ahoy Milkshake, Totally Radical Pepperoni from Surfer Boy Pizza, and a Turkey BLT with the name “The Hellfire Club”. The Dallas location has a Stranger Things themed experience called “Escape The Dark” and it opens tomorrow (Dec 11).
That mall is most definitely not still open 💔
There's 2 anchor stores still open (including the store that was in the place of JCPenney in the show), but you can only enter directly into those stores and not through the mall entrances. Last I heard, the county was going to tear it down to build a mixed-use development.
Last time I was in there was when they were distributing COVID vaccines in the shut-down Sear's building...
for our local mall our village bought the entire thing and demolished it, keeping an anchor Kohl's which was like the only viable prospect left there. It's now freestanding and was very interesting to see them engineer.
Yeah it’s not open other than two stores with no entrance into the mall itself. My family and I visited a couple of years ago and we managed to climb up to peak into the windows at the “Starcourt” entrance and you could still see some of the filming decor. Pretty cool!
I'm so fricking glad to learn this, I thought I was going CRAZY getting constantly confused between them. The change in furnishing and decorations didn't mask from me the fact the halls felt exactly the fucking same.
A friend of mine grew up in a very small town, and they only had one school for all 12 grades. They have since merged with another school district and now have two schools, but only 400 kids total.
I figured Hawkins was 5,000-ish people, which is about enough for two school buildings.
Back when it was Billy picking up Max, you could just walk across the large parking lot between the buildings. The kids usually just kept to their own sides, though. I don't remember if Mike and Dustin had to ride, but they probably just did it to get over there faster during their break.
Like my brain was like “ok cool the middle school and high school are right next to each other how delightful that all the older kids can drop their lil siblings off and then galavant a few steps to their school”
But noooo production done pulled a fast one on me 🤣
My high school was basically a 2 story square/ring with one wing of it being the middle school. Which was kinda nice because you could take a shortcut though the courtyard in the middle if you had a class on the other side of the building.
My middle school was on one end, and the high school part was in the middle. The cafeteria and gym were on the other end, so it was slightly terrifying walking through the senior hallway to get to the gym (everyone looked so old!).
I just rewatched seasons 1 through 3 and noticed this while re watching the first ep of s4. I thought it was a k-12 school at first because it’s obviously the same spot
This was a pre-existing school that had shut down right before they began production. The city of Stockbridge held onto it for stranger things. As soon as filming was complete they called for it to be demolished.
The school posted by OP was used for essentially all interiors and exteriors. The portion in the photo has been entirely closed for years, but the section of the building down the hill to the right was used as a daycare/pre-school thing (iirc) even around when this show was filming.
Some other high school was also using the gym for basketball practices in like 2018 (I ran into them there and asked) but the school itself has been out of commission for a while.
Yep! It was an alternative school for years where the bad kiddos went. I moved away from Henry county earlier this year and this is how I’m finding out they took the school down. lol
Maybe that changed after my generation. I’m 33 years old myself and went to Patrick Henry my junior year for being a dumb dumb, so maybe after 2010 when I graduated that changed.
Patrick Henry I think closed while I was in college (Ola High class of 2013 here), but tbf I remember when PH was Little Ola, for the Kinder and 1st grade kiddos.
So funny to me how the rebranded it as the high school and I never even noticed it was the same building 🫣 what about the early seasons when the kids were in middle school and the teens were in high school?
i mean.... he's a fictional character. he didn't need a memorial in the first place. it's cool that it was a thing but it wasn't a memorial for a real, living person who died tragically lol
I got a group of ass hats sent to this school when it was for the bad kids back in 2012/13. Anyone who went to school in Henry Co. back in the 2000’s/2010’s knows about them kids who got sent to Patrick Henry.
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Good that at least Starcourt Mall is a real mall which is still open (as far as I know).
Where is the real location?
Gwinnett Place Mall in Georgia. It’s barely opened though I think most of it is closed. What’s kinda funny is there was a Reddit post with a destroyed car in a dead mall, and someone was asking how it got there. Well apparently it was the set for Stranger Things 3, which I found pretty cool
i work right next to Gwinnett mall and live 20 mins away from it and I can tell you from growing up here that it is probably the most ghetto mall in Georgia. When I heard that they were filming there, I knew it'd be a great choice cause that mall hasn't been renovated since it opened haha
There’s been literal shootings there. Jordan release days before the ticket system were bonkers. Thank god I was working those at Mall of Georgia because Gwinnett Place is rough
there’s been shootings at every mall, duluth itself isn’t that bad. I’d say Norcross is a lot worse
I thought those were all rich areas
Duluth has some rich parts but Norcross is pretty ghetto for the most part
Someone died in a freezer at a fast food restaurant there a few years back. Grew up going to Gwinnett place in the 90s, it ain’t changed
Dare I say cool ?? 🤣🤣
How cool! Does someone have the link to the post?
https://www.reddit.com/r/deadmalls/s/bWaClyIWHp
Thank you!
Omg I’m pretty sure I’ve been there, it’s by my sister’s house. Small world!
I think Netflix missed a huge opportunity to keep star court open. Have it set up like the set people could come your, have a stranger things merch shop, and a scoops ahoy where we could get ice cream.
The location is to obscure for any profit to be made. This would need to be placed a location where the economy already relies on tourism and is near a port or airport. Otherwise they’d never make money. Especially with the show coming to a close now
Edit: an area that not only relies on tourism but also has other tourist attractions with high traffic so as not to be a one and done.
It’s 30 min north of Atlanta
In my ideal scenario this wasn’t/wouldn’t be long term at all. But a short stint with a timeline. That way it created scarcity and would drive people there to see it…. I know I’m ~8 hours from it I think and would 100% have planned a vacation around going to see it.
Stranger Things isnt going to stop anytime soon. They already have the animated show planned for next year, and I bet there will be a full fledged sequel or spinoff series before you know it.
Game of Thrones is still technically going on as well, via House of the Dragon. It seems like it's rated well but it doesn't have as much mass traction as the original.
spinoffs and sequels that typically don't have the main cast can really only go so far till they're just bleeding the cow dry.
That’s a bit of recency bias as Melrose Place and Frasier are two classic spinoffs based on shows from the 90s/80s that were immensely popular. One key element seems to be to have some crossover with at least one character/backstory that gets ported over. I would also argue that GoT suffered a lot from its widely considered bad ending leaving a lot of fans frustrated, and that it’s a prequel, not a spinoff per se. Had they done a show set in the future with one or two characters (Sansa when she’s much older) it may have had better traction.
I could easily see a spin off where we have Nancy as a mom (would not be hard for the same actress given she’s already that age), where her children and their friends are the main characters.
holding out that Stranger Things is going to hold a grip on the pop culture landscape outside of milking the last of their IP is recency bias in itself. Neither of those shows you mentioned (especially Frasier) had that much of a rebirth with their revivals. ST will still have a footprint for a while after show wrap, but that'll dilute eventually to nostalgia marketing. Hell ,ST is already playing on the prequel market via their Broadway and that's a mixed bag.
Also, ST has a range of actors who are either industry veterans (like Harbour and Ryder) or the younger ones who are looking to break out of what's technically a "children's role" for them and tackle more projects. It's already a 50/50 shot for actors who grew up in their role.
I think he is mentioning that the original Frasier show itself was immensely popular despite being a spinoff of Cheers.
Yes, this is what my point is, and I don’t think people realize how much of a success Frasier was in its time despite being a spinoff. Both a ratings and critical gem in its heyday.
1000%
It’s super accessible from Atlanta - literally right off the interstate about 15 miles north of the city and you can combine it with the railroad tracks that they walk down so many times for a good day trip.
Netflix has Netflix House which are located in high trafficked malls (KOP in the Philly Metro and Galleria Dallas in Dallas, TX). At Netflix Bites they have the USS Butterscotch, Scoops Ahoy Milkshake, Totally Radical Pepperoni from Surfer Boy Pizza, and a Turkey BLT with the name “The Hellfire Club”. The Dallas location has a Stranger Things themed experience called “Escape The Dark” and it opens tomorrow (Dec 11).
The Duffers said the reason they didn’t do that was due to the high likelihood of theft of props.
That would NEVER happen. /s
That would be like Netflix opening up a movie store, it’s a dead market. Malls aren’t profitable.
That mall is most definitely not still open 💔 There's 2 anchor stores still open (including the store that was in the place of JCPenney in the show), but you can only enter directly into those stores and not through the mall entrances. Last I heard, the county was going to tear it down to build a mixed-use development.
Last time I was in there was when they were distributing COVID vaccines in the shut-down Sear's building...
for our local mall our village bought the entire thing and demolished it, keeping an anchor Kohl's which was like the only viable prospect left there. It's now freestanding and was very interesting to see them engineer.
Yeah it’s not open other than two stores with no entrance into the mall itself. My family and I visited a couple of years ago and we managed to climb up to peak into the windows at the “Starcourt” entrance and you could still see some of the filming decor. Pretty cool!
Yeah I wouldn’t call it “open” as much as a dying corpse
One of the best parts of season 3
Right?! If they took that down it would bro get that’s one of THE MOST iconic places in the show!
Somehow I never even clocked that Hawkins High is exactly the same building as Hawkins Middle, just with a different sign, lol.
It’s always been the same building. They just repaint the gym, cafeteria, hallways, etc. depending on the scene.
Are you telling me the middle and high school building has been the same this entire time 😩
RIP
I'm so fricking glad to learn this, I thought I was going CRAZY getting constantly confused between them. The change in furnishing and decorations didn't mask from me the fact the halls felt exactly the fucking same.
That's basically how middle and high schools in rural Indiana are anyway, so that's authentic at least
My wife is from rural Nebraska and asked why they didn't just have a dual middle/high school 😭
I knew of plenty of those too
A friend of mine grew up in a very small town, and they only had one school for all 12 grades. They have since merged with another school district and now have two schools, but only 400 kids total.
I figured Hawkins was 5,000-ish people, which is about enough for two school buildings.
My middle and highschool was in the same building... I assumed since hawkins was a smaller town it would be the same there too
Same. Hawkins didn’t seem like a town big enough for both.
Don‘t Mike and Dustin ride away from the Highschool building when they go to get Erica at middle school for the DnD campaign in S4?
Back when it was Billy picking up Max, you could just walk across the large parking lot between the buildings. The kids usually just kept to their own sides, though. I don't remember if Mike and Dustin had to ride, but they probably just did it to get over there faster during their break.
Yes!! This is what tripped me up 😆
Like my brain was like “ok cool the middle school and high school are right next to each other how delightful that all the older kids can drop their lil siblings off and then galavant a few steps to their school”
But noooo production done pulled a fast one on me 🤣
My high school was basically a 2 story square/ring with one wing of it being the middle school. Which was kinda nice because you could take a shortcut though the courtyard in the middle if you had a class on the other side of the building.
My middle school was on one end, and the high school part was in the middle. The cafeteria and gym were on the other end, so it was slightly terrifying walking through the senior hallway to get to the gym (everyone looked so old!).
I just rewatched seasons 1 through 3 and noticed this while re watching the first ep of s4. I thought it was a k-12 school at first because it’s obviously the same spot
Maybe the town got a deal from the builders to have 2 identical buildings and save design costs
This was a pre-existing school that had shut down right before they began production. The city of Stockbridge held onto it for stranger things. As soon as filming was complete they called for it to be demolished.
Yeah I know, I was being sarcastic
Well at least we know where the budget didn’t go in terms of location setting 😂 they really said slap and paste, rinse and repeat
Stranger Things has a huge locations budget, the schools were decided in s1 when that budget was obviously much smaller.
Glad I got to visit before it went.
damn. is Vecna Linda McMahon, the way he's dismantling the schools
The school they filmed the inside scenes in is I think still a real school in Georgia, in Henry county.
Interiors were done in this building as well.
But it's a real school, I hadn't heard of any closing in the area? I used to live maybe 10 minutes away from there
The school posted by OP was used for essentially all interiors and exteriors. The portion in the photo has been entirely closed for years, but the section of the building down the hill to the right was used as a daycare/pre-school thing (iirc) even around when this show was filming.
Some other high school was also using the gym for basketball practices in like 2018 (I ran into them there and asked) but the school itself has been out of commission for a while.
Damn, time really flies huh.
Yep! It was an alternative school for years where the bad kiddos went. I moved away from Henry county earlier this year and this is how I’m finding out they took the school down. lol
I thought the "bad kid" school is what used to be McDonough elementary?
Maybe that changed after my generation. I’m 33 years old myself and went to Patrick Henry my junior year for being a dumb dumb, so maybe after 2010 when I graduated that changed.
Patrick Henry I think closed while I was in college (Ola High class of 2013 here), but tbf I remember when PH was Little Ola, for the Kinder and 1st grade kiddos.
God dammit this is all just reminding me of how old I am lol so apparently it’s had a bunch of different iterations since I went there.
When I was in HS, 2011-2015, it was the alternative school as you said. I got a group of boys sent there for a year. 🙃
That became the new alt school once they got rid of the school pictured
So funny to me how the rebranded it as the high school and I never even noticed it was the same building 🫣 what about the early seasons when the kids were in middle school and the teens were in high school?
They used the same school the whole time
How did they get away with that 💀
So sad
I knwoooowwwwww!!!
Can you share the location it was built on? I would also like to look it up in google maps.
109 South Lee Street, Stockbridge GA
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It's sad that our memorial to Eddie is gone. I don't think it was saved.
i mean.... he's a fictional character. he didn't need a memorial in the first place. it's cool that it was a thing but it wasn't a memorial for a real, living person who died tragically lol
Did I say otherwise? But in terms of the show, there should have been a way to keep it.
Does anyone have fun anymore?
It had been gone a long time. They cleaned everything up to film season 5. And had to hand paint every single brick to cover up all the writing.
🥺
Isn’t it a real school? Why did they tear it down?!
It was once a real school. They tore it down to build an updated school
where is it?
Does anyone know if the lab is still standing? I can’t find any recent pictures of it if so or anything recent at all.
I got a group of ass hats sent to this school when it was for the bad kids back in 2012/13. Anyone who went to school in Henry Co. back in the 2000’s/2010’s knows about them kids who got sent to Patrick Henry.