Monroeville Mall: Walmart Just Purchased the Iconic ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Filming Location

Almost 50 years ago, the late horror master George A. Romero forever immortalized Pennsylvania’s Monroeville Mall as a piece of horror history, filming his classic masterpiece Dawn of the Dead inside the real-life mall. Crazy enough, the mall has remained operational after all these decades. Even crazier, we’ve learned that Walmart just purchased the property.

Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 reports today, on George A. Romero’s birthday of all days, that Walmart has been confirmed as the buyer and will manage the site with Cypress Equities.

Walmart told the news station in an official statement, “Walmart did purchase the Monroeville Mall and is very interested in being part of any future redevelopment of this site. Walmart is working with Cypress on mall operations and potential redevelopment of the site.”

As part of the $34 million deal, Walmart and Cypress will work together to “re-imagine Monroeville Mall into a new retail and commercial destination,” with specific plans under wraps at this time. The “major redevelopment,” however, targets a wide variety of uses including “retail and entertainment, restaurants, residential, hospitality, office and public spaces.”

“We’ll talk to the local community. We’ll do focus groups, studies. We’ll do our higher-level demographic/psychographic analysis to figure out who is living there, and then we can match that with a retail database to say where are the voids,” said Cypress CEO Chris Maguire.

Located in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, the Monroeville Mall first opened its doors in 1969, with George A. Romero and his cast and crew taking over the mall less than 10 years later to bring Dawn of the Dead to life. The mall was also featured in Kevin Smith’s comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which used the location as a means to pay tribute to Romero’s legacy.

The Monroeville Mall has been a popular tourist location for horror fans to visit over the years, with Romero fans gathering together at the location for the annual Living Dead Weekend.

This year’s event takes place June 6 – June 8, 2025.

‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978)

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