http://articles.mcall.com/2002-12-13/news/3428308_1_general-cinema-s-chapter-movie-theaters-general-cinema-theaters
article on the Theater closing it’s final name was “AMC Lehigh Valley Mall 8” AMC only kept it open from March 2002 to December 2002.
Lehigh Valley Mall theater to call it a wrap
December 13, 2002|By Mike Frassinelli Of The Morning Call
4-5 minutes
Manager says 8-screen cinema made “obsolete' by giant complexes.
On Jan. 5, the lights will dim inside the Lehigh Valley Mall movie theaters.
Only this time, they’ll stay dim.
Nearly 26 years after opening with the films “Freaky Friday,” “The Seven Percent Solution” and “The Cassandra Crossing,” the mall’s cinemas will turn off their projectors for good.
Moviegoers dressed in leather and hosiery will have to find another place to swear at silly dialogue and throw rice at fellow patrons during showings of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which has enjoyed a record run of more than 24 years at the mall.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Hope Wesleyan Church will have to find another place to hold its Sunday morning services.
When it opened with three screens on Feb. 6, 1977, the Lehigh Valley Mall General Cinema was the first theater of its kind in the region.
Known since March as AMC Lehigh Valley Mall 8, the eight-screen theater has become a dinosaur in a world of stadium-seating movie theaters with digital sound.
“I’m going to miss it,” said Bruce Copio, general manager of the theater. “It’s the first shopping center theater in the Valley. It’s the end of an era, I guess.”
He said the theater employs between 17 and 20 during this time of the year.
In March, bankruptcy court accepted AMC Entertainment’s plan to buy General Cinema as part of General Cinema’s Chapter 11 reorganization. A spokesman for AMC said at the time that the company would evaluate the performance of all General Cinema theaters.
“It’s an old building, it’s obsolete,” Copio said on Thursday. “They are building all the fancy stuff now, with the stadium seats.”
The theaters are expected to give way to a department store.
Everyone from Hannibal Lecter to Forest Gump, from Luke Skywalker to Charlie’s Angels, from Batman to Spiderman, has been on the theaters' screens.
“Freaky Friday,” starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster, was a slapstick Disney comedy about a mother and daughter who switched bodies.
Lehigh Valley Mall opened in 1976. The theater grew from three screens in 1977 to five in 1980 and to eight in 1984.
“You didn’t have the 16- and 14-screen complexes,” Copio said. “Eight was considered huge back in ‘84, monstrous.”
“Rocky Horror” has been shown midnights during weekends since May 26, 1978.
During the cult classic, a line in the movie about making a toast causes patrons to fire bagels into the air.
At least two couples who met during showings of “Rocky Horror” have been married.
But people who dress as Transylvania transvestites are not the only ones who will miss the mall theaters.
The Rev. Dan Hall has grown his congregation since moving Hope Wesleyan Church to the mall theaters on Sept. 24, 2000. The church has attracted more than 120 people during 10 a.m. Sunday services in Theater No. 3.
Hall said that although a church “is not about bricks and mortar, it’s about people,” church members have become attached to the theater.
The theater seats are the pews.
Hall has made good use of the giant screen behind him during services. During a talk about the importance of getting off the sidelines and getting into the game, he showed a clip of Gene Hackman as a coach giving a rousing speech during the basketball movie “Hoosiers.”
“We find that most people get their information visually today,” he said. “To just sit and listen to a talking head gets boring.”
Hall also said the mall provided a visible, central location for members, who drive from Slatington and Phillipsburg and points in between.
The church, which rented the theater for $200 a week, is looking for another location.
Church leaders will hold the first — and only — Christmas Eve service at the church — the movie theater, rather — at 6 p.m. on Dec. 24.
http://articles.mcall.com/1987-01-09/business/2568742_1_amc-entertainment-amc-philadelphia-amc-plans
Article on the plans to open the theatre from the Morning call.
articles.mcall.com City May Get Eight-screen Movie House January 09, 1987|The Morning Call 2-3 minutes
AMC Philadelphia Inc., a new subsidiary of American Multi-Cinema Inc., formed in conjunction with the recent acquisition of Budco Theaters Inc., is planning to open an eight-screen movie theater in Allentown.
The project, part of a major expansion of the company’s theater circuit in the Philadelphia area, was announced yesterday by Ron D. Leslie, president and chief operating officer of AMC Entertainment.
A spokesman for AMC said Earl Voelker, vice president of AMC’s northeast division, declined to comment on where the theater might be located. The spokesman said negotiations to find a site are continuing.
He also said existing Budco theaters will not be affected by the expansion. The firm shows movies at the Budco Plaza on Grape Street in Whitehall, the 25th Street mall in Easton and the Budco Quakertown theaters on Route 309.
AMC Philadelphia, which operates 156 screens in 51 complexes, plans to build seven new complexes and add screens to existing locations, including the Barn 5 in Doylestown.
In all, AMC operates 1,336 screens in 263 complexes located in 27 states.
“The Philadelphia market is underscreened relative to other metropolitan areas of comparable population density,” Leslie said.
AMC plans to develop a 14-screen complex and shopping center on the site of the present Pennsauken Drive-In, at Route 73 and Haddonfield Road in New Jersey. Under construction in Harrisburg is the Sporting Hill 8 complex.
AMC’s Granite Run 8 Theater in Media, Delaware County, is characteristic of the state-of-the-art complexes AMC plans to build. It features fully automated projection equipment and bi-amplified stereo surround-sound systems. Ergonomic seating features beverage-holder armrests, and all sight lines are computer-calculated. The computerized box office serves all theaters and allows for daily advance ticket sales.
AMC Entertainment, based in Kansas City, Mo., pioneered the multiplex cinema concept in 1963, and today more than 70 percent of the company’s screens are located in complexes with six or more auditoriums.
This was a former Budco location according to this article about the “future” Tilighmsn sq 8. http://articles.mcall.com/1987-01-09/business/2568742_1_amc-entertainment-amc-philadelphia-amc-plans
This theater was featured in a episode of undercover boss after it was converted in to a gym they kept some of the screens to project video on for the bikes.
the location is now the “AMC Roosevelt Field 8”.
AMC is currently phasing out the Lowes brand as the locations are upgraded and changed over to one of there 3 current Brands.
it’s now being remolded to become a AMC location and will reopen as the AMC Kalamazoo 10. http://woodtv.com/2017/08/10/new-plans-revealed-for-kzoos-former-alamo-drafthouse/
if anything it should get upgraded to Dolby Cinema. Apparently Dolby requires the recliners now for there PLF spec as the seats have a link to the sound system.
https://www.amctheatres.com/dolby
The major upgrade is to make it ADA certified as the bathrooms are up a staircase with no lift. if there lucky they have the space to upgrade it to Dine-in other wise it might get stuck on the low traffic Classic brand.
it was part of the current CEO of AMC Entertainment plans to get every theater they run signed under one of 3 brands AMC, AMC Classic, and AMC Dine-in. Apparently no one thought to check if the community liked the old sign before requesting to replace it with the AMC logo text. looking at the size it might get rebranded to the Classic sub brand for smaller theaters in low traffic markets. they should have just stuck to replacing the street level signs.
BigD was recently renamed “BigD at AMC” to match there other PLF formats. they might switch some of them to Dolby or IMAX when they come up for upgrades.
https://www.amctheatres.com/food-and-drink/dine-in/express-pick-up apperently it has the Dine-in menu but not the rest of the features the Express concept seems to be set upo for former Sundance and the former Muvico Thousand Oaks location.
1 Depends on the showtime for that policy at AMC. it looks like currently this location has it for all films.https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/los-angeles/amc-dine-in-sunset-5
2. AMC ,is keeping for this year the tuesday discounts but requires you have a Stubs card to get them. https://www.amctheatres.com/carmike
it’s new official name is “Universal Cinema an AMC Theatre” according to it’s official yelp page. https://www.yelp.com/biz/universal-cinema-an-amc-theatre-universal-city But AMC’s internal systems including the website still use the AMC Citywalk 19 name.
This theater opened with separate Box Office booth’s inside the vestibule but a later renovation by Carmike removed the box office and customer service desk and combined them with the Concession stand. The old external box office shells were converted to flat windows with signs telling guests where to buy tickets.
https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/san-francisco/amc-dine-in-kabuki-8
the DOJ trade off already happened they spun off the few that had to go so it’s back as a AMC. it also marked as a “Dine-In Express Pick-up” location so they have the full dine-in menu but you order it and pick it up at the booth and carry it in to the theater. the table may have to wait for a full renovation of the auditorums to add tables.
it’s now running as a joint venture with AMC. listed on the AMC site as Hornbeck Twin. https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/oklahoma-city/hornbeck-twin
moviebuff82 more than likely yes as AMC is trying to reduce there Brands down to 3 all with AMC signage
Technically AMC Theaters acquired Odeon Cinemas and decided to pull the AMC brand from that market and run all of there locations there as Odeon.
it’s Name under AMC Management was AMC Plaza 2.
http://articles.mcall.com/2002-12-13/news/3428308_1_general-cinema-s-chapter-movie-theaters-general-cinema-theaters article on the Theater closing it’s final name was “AMC Lehigh Valley Mall 8” AMC only kept it open from March 2002 to December 2002.
Lehigh Valley Mall theater to call it a wrap December 13, 2002|By Mike Frassinelli Of The Morning Call 4-5 minutes
Manager says 8-screen cinema made “obsolete' by giant complexes.
On Jan. 5, the lights will dim inside the Lehigh Valley Mall movie theaters.
Only this time, they’ll stay dim.
Nearly 26 years after opening with the films “Freaky Friday,” “The Seven Percent Solution” and “The Cassandra Crossing,” the mall’s cinemas will turn off their projectors for good.
Moviegoers dressed in leather and hosiery will have to find another place to swear at silly dialogue and throw rice at fellow patrons during showings of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which has enjoyed a record run of more than 24 years at the mall.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Hope Wesleyan Church will have to find another place to hold its Sunday morning services.
When it opened with three screens on Feb. 6, 1977, the Lehigh Valley Mall General Cinema was the first theater of its kind in the region.
Known since March as AMC Lehigh Valley Mall 8, the eight-screen theater has become a dinosaur in a world of stadium-seating movie theaters with digital sound.
“I’m going to miss it,” said Bruce Copio, general manager of the theater. “It’s the first shopping center theater in the Valley. It’s the end of an era, I guess.”
He said the theater employs between 17 and 20 during this time of the year.
In March, bankruptcy court accepted AMC Entertainment’s plan to buy General Cinema as part of General Cinema’s Chapter 11 reorganization. A spokesman for AMC said at the time that the company would evaluate the performance of all General Cinema theaters.
“It’s an old building, it’s obsolete,” Copio said on Thursday. “They are building all the fancy stuff now, with the stadium seats.”
The theaters are expected to give way to a department store.
Everyone from Hannibal Lecter to Forest Gump, from Luke Skywalker to Charlie’s Angels, from Batman to Spiderman, has been on the theaters' screens.
“Freaky Friday,” starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster, was a slapstick Disney comedy about a mother and daughter who switched bodies.
Lehigh Valley Mall opened in 1976. The theater grew from three screens in 1977 to five in 1980 and to eight in 1984.
“You didn’t have the 16- and 14-screen complexes,” Copio said. “Eight was considered huge back in ‘84, monstrous.”
“Rocky Horror” has been shown midnights during weekends since May 26, 1978.
During the cult classic, a line in the movie about making a toast causes patrons to fire bagels into the air.
At least two couples who met during showings of “Rocky Horror” have been married.
But people who dress as Transylvania transvestites are not the only ones who will miss the mall theaters.
The Rev. Dan Hall has grown his congregation since moving Hope Wesleyan Church to the mall theaters on Sept. 24, 2000. The church has attracted more than 120 people during 10 a.m. Sunday services in Theater No. 3.
Hall said that although a church “is not about bricks and mortar, it’s about people,” church members have become attached to the theater.
The theater seats are the pews.
Hall has made good use of the giant screen behind him during services. During a talk about the importance of getting off the sidelines and getting into the game, he showed a clip of Gene Hackman as a coach giving a rousing speech during the basketball movie “Hoosiers.”
“We find that most people get their information visually today,” he said. “To just sit and listen to a talking head gets boring.”
Hall also said the mall provided a visible, central location for members, who drive from Slatington and Phillipsburg and points in between.
The church, which rented the theater for $200 a week, is looking for another location.
Church leaders will hold the first — and only — Christmas Eve service at the church — the movie theater, rather — at 6 p.m. on Dec. 24.
610-820-6595
The connected Big d closed in Augest. http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article169579527.html
it looks like this closed in aug. http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article169579527.html
http://articles.mcall.com/1987-01-09/business/2568742_1_amc-entertainment-amc-philadelphia-amc-plans Article on the plans to open the theatre from the Morning call.
articles.mcall.com
City May Get Eight-screen Movie House
January 09, 1987|The Morning Call
2-3 minutes
AMC Philadelphia Inc., a new subsidiary of American Multi-Cinema Inc., formed in conjunction with the recent acquisition of Budco Theaters Inc., is planning to open an eight-screen movie theater in Allentown.
The project, part of a major expansion of the company’s theater circuit in the Philadelphia area, was announced yesterday by Ron D. Leslie, president and chief operating officer of AMC Entertainment.
A spokesman for AMC said Earl Voelker, vice president of AMC’s northeast division, declined to comment on where the theater might be located. The spokesman said negotiations to find a site are continuing.
He also said existing Budco theaters will not be affected by the expansion. The firm shows movies at the Budco Plaza on Grape Street in Whitehall, the 25th Street mall in Easton and the Budco Quakertown theaters on Route 309.
AMC Philadelphia, which operates 156 screens in 51 complexes, plans to build seven new complexes and add screens to existing locations, including the Barn 5 in Doylestown.
In all, AMC operates 1,336 screens in 263 complexes located in 27 states.
“The Philadelphia market is underscreened relative to other metropolitan areas of comparable population density,” Leslie said.
AMC plans to develop a 14-screen complex and shopping center on the site of the present Pennsauken Drive-In, at Route 73 and Haddonfield Road in New Jersey. Under construction in Harrisburg is the Sporting Hill 8 complex.
AMC’s Granite Run 8 Theater in Media, Delaware County, is characteristic of the state-of-the-art complexes AMC plans to build. It features fully automated projection equipment and bi-amplified stereo surround-sound systems. Ergonomic seating features beverage-holder armrests, and all sight lines are computer-calculated. The computerized box office serves all theaters and allows for daily advance ticket sales.
AMC Entertainment, based in Kansas City, Mo., pioneered the multiplex cinema concept in 1963, and today more than 70 percent of the company’s screens are located in complexes with six or more auditoriums.
This was a former Budco location according to this article about the “future” Tilighmsn sq 8. http://articles.mcall.com/1987-01-09/business/2568742_1_amc-entertainment-amc-philadelphia-amc-plans
This theater was featured in a episode of undercover boss after it was converted in to a gym they kept some of the screens to project video on for the bikes.
the location is now the “AMC Roosevelt Field 8”. AMC is currently phasing out the Lowes brand as the locations are upgraded and changed over to one of there 3 current Brands.
it’s now being remolded to become a AMC location and will reopen as the AMC Kalamazoo 10. http://woodtv.com/2017/08/10/new-plans-revealed-for-kzoos-former-alamo-drafthouse/
if anything it should get upgraded to Dolby Cinema. Apparently Dolby requires the recliners now for there PLF spec as the seats have a link to the sound system. https://www.amctheatres.com/dolby
The major upgrade is to make it ADA certified as the bathrooms are up a staircase with no lift. if there lucky they have the space to upgrade it to Dine-in other wise it might get stuck on the low traffic Classic brand.
it was part of the current CEO of AMC Entertainment plans to get every theater they run signed under one of 3 brands AMC, AMC Classic, and AMC Dine-in. Apparently no one thought to check if the community liked the old sign before requesting to replace it with the AMC logo text. looking at the size it might get rebranded to the Classic sub brand for smaller theaters in low traffic markets. they should have just stuck to replacing the street level signs.
here is the website for the format. https://www.amctheatres.com/bigd
BigD was recently renamed “BigD at AMC” to match there other PLF formats. they might switch some of them to Dolby or IMAX when they come up for upgrades.
https://www.amctheatres.com/food-and-drink/dine-in/express-pick-up apperently it has the Dine-in menu but not the rest of the features the Express concept seems to be set upo for former Sundance and the former Muvico Thousand Oaks location.
This location is listed as a express dine-in location on AMC’s site. https://www.amctheatres.com/food-and-drink/dine-in/express-pick-up
1 Depends on the showtime for that policy at AMC. it looks like currently this location has it for all films.https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/los-angeles/amc-dine-in-sunset-5 2. AMC ,is keeping for this year the tuesday discounts but requires you have a Stubs card to get them. https://www.amctheatres.com/carmike
it’s new official name is “Universal Cinema an AMC Theatre” according to it’s official yelp page. https://www.yelp.com/biz/universal-cinema-an-amc-theatre-universal-city But AMC’s internal systems including the website still use the AMC Citywalk 19 name.
This theater opened with separate Box Office booth’s inside the vestibule but a later renovation by Carmike removed the box office and customer service desk and combined them with the Concession stand. The old external box office shells were converted to flat windows with signs telling guests where to buy tickets.
https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/san-francisco/amc-dine-in-kabuki-8 the DOJ trade off already happened they spun off the few that had to go so it’s back as a AMC. it also marked as a “Dine-In Express Pick-up” location so they have the full dine-in menu but you order it and pick it up at the booth and carry it in to the theater. the table may have to wait for a full renovation of the auditorums to add tables.
now Branded as AMC Dine-in Thousand Oaks 14
now running as a joint venture with AMC. https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/oklahoma-city/cinema-centre-8
it’s now running as a joint venture with AMC. listed on the AMC site as Hornbeck Twin. https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/oklahoma-city/hornbeck-twin
it’s now running as a joint venture with AMC.