Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: One location, two buildings

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Posted by Timothy Ervin (Member # 733) on 03-07-2005, 01:34 AM:

When did theatre companies start building two buildings for one location (ie: "General Cinema Dallas Northpark I-II, Northpark III-IV")?
Was General Cinema the first company to do this? Someone also told me that Plitt had done the same thing as well. If any of you have managed locations like this, did you find it easy or hard to manage two theatres at once? Are any of these theatres that are still operating?

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 03-07-2005, 08:45 AM:

Back in the 1980's and up though the late 1990's, AMC ran the Rockaway (NJ) Mall 12 plex, which consisted of 6 theatres in the mall, and 6 theatres in a free standing building in the parking lot. They were known (and advertised) as the Inner and Outer Rockaway Cinemas. All gone now.

Posted by Thomas Dieter (Member # 2507) on 03-07-2005, 09:29 AM:

When I moved to Yakima in 1996, the theatre that I was trained at use to be that way. House 5 and 6 (then was 1 and 2) were the oldest screens as this theatre was just built on to by the owner. House 3 through 6 were in the other building (now 1 through 4), and they were seperated by 2 walls and a door for the managers and doormen (some times know as ushers, but we had ushers too. Doormen cleaned the theatres, did crowd control, and got supplies for the concessions.) to use to go back and forth between the theatres. The booth was combined as 1 big booth that was connected by a catwalk that connected 5 and 6 to 1, 2, 3, and 4. This theatre was the oldest multi plex in the northwest, and had the largest concessions stand in the central washingtion area.

Being down here in FL, I have noticed that alot of the AMC's are setup with 2 locations, mainly in malls. they usually have half on oneside, and the other half on the other, and they have the box office in the mall hallway, and the theatres are diagnol from eachother (usually call North 8 AMC and South 8 AMC, or something like that).

To be perfectly honest, I don't like this setup, if AMC is the ones that started this idea, what were they thinking. If the booths are connected, that's fine, but that has got to be the hardest thing for management as far as it goes for schedualing and manageing the theatre. I'm sure that out of everyone that has managed a theatre you know what I'm hinting at when I say schedualing.

AMC this one is for you. [puke]

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-07-2005, 11:18 AM:

Holiday Showcase Theatres (Alvin Wright) on Union Road in Buffalo NY built separate two-plex (including a 70mm D-150 auditorium) and a six-plex on the site of the old Aero Drive-In during the late 1960's.

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 03-07-2005, 01:12 PM:

Let's not forget the Regal Hamilton Place Mall Stadium 9 and the Hamilton Place 10-17 dollar house in Tennesee.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 03-07-2005, 05:41 PM:

I know of a number of closed locations like this:

Woodfield Mall, Chicago Area: 1-2 outside (one of the finest theaters I ever attended), then more built inside the mall.

TriCounty Mall, Cincinnati: 1-5 in one building, 6-7 down the block

Strangest was Dayton Mall, Dayton OH: #1: an 1100 seat showplace theatre on main floor; #2: upstairs by the front door.; #3 & 4: down the hall from #2 about 50 yards;#5-8: Main level, but down the hall from #1 -- this may have had an outside entrance

Posted by Wayne Keyser (Member # 2420) on 03-07-2005, 05:56 PM:

Until recently, the AMC Skyline (12???) inside a mall in Arlington, Virginia, was split - half at one end of the mall, half at the other. Business at the second half gradually diminished over 3 or 4 years, until the entire mall was closed, gutted and turned into a single giant Target store (no theaters at all).

Posted by Richard C. Wolfe (Member # 431) on 03-07-2005, 11:24 PM:

I don't think that many, if any, of these split locations were built that way. Usually one was built first either in the mall or free standing outside the mall back when twins were the norm. When tri-plexes and quads(or larger) became the thing, often there wasn't any space to add additional auditoriums to the original complex and space was found only to be available at the other location.

We have a Loew's near here inside a mall in Stroudsburg, Pa. where there are two twins at either end of the indoor mall. One was added after the other as I mentioned before, but I think the mall actually preferred it that way as it created more traffic through the mall.

Really, when you think about it, what is the difference of having several single screen theatres located throughout the downtown area in years past. Sometimes several of them were owned by the same company and shared one general manager. However, each usually had there own house manager, staff, and booth personel.

I to this day would prefer having six single screen theatres, over one six-plex. Each theatre would have its own personality, and have competing management styles and polices that would make theatre going much more interesting then todays boring megaplexes. But thanks to the economics of the industry, those days are gone.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 03-08-2005, 03:46 AM:

in san francisco, the roxie (single screen) added the little roxie (single screen, video-only as of yet) two doors up. the shuttered regency I & II were i believe mutually around the corner. i don't know if they were separate buildings but they had separate listings in the paper. i never went there, but eric hooper might have.

carl

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-08-2005, 05:28 AM:

In West Springfield, Mass., National Amusements built the "West Springfield 1-15" a few years ago (standard boring Showcase architecture) and renamed the theatre across the street to be the "West Springfield 16-19." They then closed the latter theatre in 2002. As of August 2004, the building is still standing.

The 16-19 was a truly beautiful (as 1960s theatres go) piece of architecture and would probably make a very nice single or twin. I hope it manages to survive in some form (if it hasn't alreasy been demolished).

Here is a picture from 2002 (soon before it closed):

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 03-08-2005, 08:14 AM:

AMC Sarasota 1-6 and 7-12, dubbed West and East respectively. West was much older, and was closed 3 years ago, East stills operates. West was in the mall, and East is freestanding about 300 feet away. They both made plenty of money as they are close to where everyone lives, but due to the theatre being old, people drive the 20 minutes to a Regal downtown.

Also, Merritt Island did the same thing (north of Melbourne, FL...South of Cape Canaveral, FL). The 7-12 stayed open for a few years, but closed recently. Cobb Theatres bought it and opened a 16 Screen.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 03-08-2005, 09:52 AM:

quote: Carl Martin
the shuttered regency I & II were i believe mutually around the corner. i don't know if they were separate buildings but they had separate listings in the paper.

The Regency I and II were in the same physical building, just around the corner from one another, and had completely separate facilities (besides the common building). The Regency III (which closed long before the I and II) was a few blocks away.

-Aaron

Posted by Eric Hooper (Member # 1730) on 03-09-2005, 01:14 PM:

quote: Carl Martin
in san francisco, the roxie (single screen) added the little roxie (single screen, video-only as of yet) two doors up. the shuttered regency I & II were i believe mutually around the corner. i don't know if they were separate buildings but they had separate listings in the paper. i never went there, but eric hooper might have.

From what I remember, the Regency I & Regency II were separate buildings, separate box offices, separate listings in the paper. R1 is/was on the corner across from UA Galaxy, and R2 was 5 or 6 addresses down Sutter street.

Also, the CineLux Campbell 4 in Campbell, CA boasts two buildings, 2 theatres in each builiding, across the parking lot from eachother. And, UA ran the single screen across from The Golden State 3 Theatre in Monterey, and sold all tickets at the State Box office for both theatres.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 03-09-2005, 04:47 PM:

In Southern California, GCC had two locations that had two to three buildings. In Sherman Oaks, GCC had the Sherman Oak 5. When GCC opened it in the 70's, it was a twin. A few years later they added a tri-plex theatre across the street. Then after the Northridge earthquake the tri-plex was damaged. So GCC rebuilt the theatre into a 5-plex. AMC ran it for a short time before they closed the twin side. Then they sold the 5 plex side to Pacific Theatres. GCC opened the South Bay Theatre also in the 70's. They twinned that screen and then they built a large 1000+ seat house on the other side of a bowling alley in the mall. They twinned that theatre a few years later. They also built another single screen house just across the street from the the new twin. GCC South Bay Theatre was a 6-plex spread out in three building. United Artists built a small twin next door to their Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Those two screens were the worst screens on Hollywood Blvd.
Here in NYC in Times Square there was the Embassy 1 and across the street the Embassy 2,3,4 Theatres. (Embassy 2,3,4 was the former RKO Mayfair and later the DeMille Theatre)

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 03-09-2005, 08:55 PM:

GCC had many complexes in the D/FW area that shared the same name in different building, or different parts of the same building (like a mall).

I think ABC, Interstate, or Plitt had a location or 2 that multiple buildings.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 03-09-2005, 10:01 PM:

Let's not forget Century's "Winchester Block" in San Jose ... the 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25.

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 03-10-2005, 05:51 AM:

The Royalty in Windermere has a seperate entrance and foyer for its second screen (on the former stage).