After driving by that area a few times in the last month there is activity in the building. Workers from the gas company looking like they are adding a new gas line, there were a dozen cars in the lot with people going in and out of the theater on numerous days. Something is obviously going on.
Hopefully dispon bought the place since they have had huge success with McKinley Mall as a discount theater (on weekends the place is sold out completely).
This theater is history. What was a very nice theater 11 years ago when movieland took it over after Dipsons failed attempt at running a discount theater – was run right into the ground. From the first month the place started going downhill.
Hopefully Dipson will take it on as a reduced price theater as the Buffalo market would easily support it.
I went to see the most recent marvel Comic type movie on opening day (I was shocked they received it on the first day). The ticket price was almost 50% less than the chain theater a few miles away, the concessions are VERY fairly priced, popcorn is about the best I have had anywhere. The projection is digital and sharp, sound clear and adjusted appropriately. The only downside to this theater is the seats which are very small, old and the rows too close together. Uncomfortable even. Will that stop me from seeing another movie here? Probably not.
The owner offers a movie going experience that is unequaled in the southtowns and a price that is affordable for families. he is to be commended.
This is a nice chain theater but is nearing 20 years old and the viewing experience reflects this.
It has no competition and charges prices that support this.
Screens are well lit, sound is clear but there is a lot of sound bleed from other screens.
If you are frequent on a weekend be prepared to miss 20 minutes of your movie when you leave for snacks. Slow, understaffed and organized poorly add to the wait. However, it is not as bad as the amazingly long wait to purchase tickets.
Regal has designed a very nice theater and have kept up the theaters well. The prices are very high so it may be best to wait until the movie arrives down the street.
I’ve been going to this theater since the 80’s. GCC, AMC, Dipson and Movieland.
Unfortunately this place has become about the worse moviegoing experience you can imagine. 2 of the 8 theaters seem to not even be in use any longer. An employee said the projectors are broken (for 3+ months!)
The 3 digital projectors they have are often underlit and out of focus.
While each theater seems to be swept between showings I wonder how often the rug is cleaned (it smells), how often the floors are mopped in the theaters (disgusting) or how often the chairs are cleaned (really disgusting). Use the restroom and your feet stick to the floor.
The concessions are priced fair – the soda never has the right c02 mixture, popcorn is made fresh is decent but if you don’t see it popping, it’s stale. For a number of months they played movie trivia before showings on Saturday nights – that was great. I have not seen that happen for a long time.
Unfortunately, the owners of Movieland 8 previously owned the Appletree/Como theaters and they are following the same path. Como had theters that fell into disrepair and couldnt be used.
Dipson is now all digital. Since going to a second run house they have increased prices to $2 and 3d is $4. A great value.
The projections are bright and clean, sound is OK. It lacks any sort of surround sound and in the majority of the theaters the sound is simply coming from the front, nothing from the sides.
The ticket prices are great, the concessions are fairly priced and they once again make their own popcorn instead of trucking it over from another theater. Some of their chocolate concessions are melted because of the heat in the display cases.
The staff is OK. When I went this past sunday afternoon the concession girl had her head down on the counter like she was severely hung over. She made it out like a big deal that she was taking care of me. Note to the manager who was 5 feet away – fire her. She represents your company poorly.
Movieland is beginning to upgrade to digital. So far it will be limited to one theater (they say this on their facebook page). In order to pay for this they have increased their prices.
With new competition from dipson movieland needs to convert to digital and clean this place up. The theaters are dirty, they smells and the viewing experience due to underlit projections is poor.
What a great redo of a theater. Dipson did it right.
All the auditoriums have been converted to stadium seating, all digital projection, 3D and d-Box (don’t bother, what a poorly crafted gimmick).
The prices for the snacks are very fair, the staff friendly and the quality of the presentation is very good. My only complaint is when they redid the theaters they should have redesigned the ticket selling area and snack area. Poorly layed out.
This is my theater of choice even though I need to pass regal to get here.
After going to this theater for the last 30 years (the last 8 as movieland) it is time to avoid this place.
The operators are running this place into the ground much like their previous theater (Como 8).
Chairs are no longer attached to the floor, ceiling tiles in the theaters have fallen due to a leaky roof and never replaced, the rest rooms are disgusting, the bulb intensity of the projectors is turned down to save money, theaters 1 & 2 have a constant humming the last several times I have been there and if that is not enough the theaters are rarely cleaned.
I was there 3 times in the last 8 days – old pop cups are laying around, one theater I was in twice still had the wrappers, sticky pop and candy laying on the floor from a couple days prior. The smell is getting to be too and the place is simply becoming a dump.
This theater is always a teat to attend, not the most comfortable. but the friendliness of the staff makes up for it.
Very fair prices for admission and snacks, the theater is always clean and the projection focused and sound adjusted to a comfortable level.
Being so close to the Regal 18, this theater is not a first run house but it is worth visiting. Stoogefest, Hitchcock, late night movies are all appearing here and this theater is carving a nice niche for itself. I wish they would start some theme showings, Western Sundays, John Wayne films or Foreign Film Sundays, etc., for afternoon showings. The closest theater to show foreign films is 20+ miles away.
My one and only compaint is the using of DVDs for some specialty showings. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Stoogefest (actually used DVDs that can be purchased at FYE). I expect better quality from a movie house than what I receive at home.
When they are showing films, this theater can’t be beat. Quality theater with quality staff.
The Aurora theater, though popular and well attended is highly overated.
The improvements and updates when purchased by a corporation were done well, the overall experience is less than adequate.
The prices are fair, the projection and quality are average for an old theater it certainly does not compare to any of the chain theaters. Sound is below average.
the screen is VERY distant from even the first rows and this affects the viewing the quality. The white paint touch up on the screen looks terrible and the whole thing needs to be replaced.
Concessions are fairly priced and more often fresh than not.
Parking is terrible but that is not the theaters fault.
Seating comfort is terrible. In fact beyond terrible. Uncomfortable, thinly padded seats in aisles that are amazingly narrow. They should do themselves a favor and rip the seats out and buy new ones and only put in 2/3 of them to spread things out.
The real disappointment with this theater is the snarky staff. They have an attitude, like most in this town, that they are something special. Buying tickets and waiting to be admitted is no better than a cattle call and politeness does not seem to exist, especially from the old lady ticket seller.
This theater was a class act when the Blatt Bros owned it and the couple that owned it after them, not any longer.
There is little else to do in E.A. in the evenings so this theater will thrive but it is too bad that the town that does not want a Wal Mart thinks a corporate owned movie theater still makes it a little town.
Since Dispon has a thing about only showing some films in specific theaters while the southtowns dipson shows common dribble, I am forced to go to the Eastern Hills cinema for certain films.
This is one of the worse theaters around for comfort. As bad as the Dipson Amherst. The aisles are cramped, the seats cheap and hard. Why would Dipson not rip out every third row when they bought new seats? They certainly never fill the place up.
Projection and sound are average, comfort below average, all around a dated movie house that is being used the only way it can be – showing niche films and charging too much for what is offerd.
Flix is a decent family owned theater surrounded by chain owned monster theaters. It has been operating for about 15 years and when it opened was surrounded by nothing. Now, as a previous poster said, it can be difficult to find and coule really use a new, larger, brighter well designed sign.
The theater itself has ample parking, large lobby but is very disorganized on handing ticket sales. The entrance is poorly marked and less than welcoming.
The theater just missed the stadium seating transition and when built went with the traditional seating arrangement. A theater or two at Flix removed some rows to give patrons “stretch seating”, a gimmick that while comfortable just comes across as a gimmick.
The theater can use some maintenance, the spit balls on the screens have been there forever, the touched up white paint on the screens is very noticeable, sound spillover is a problem in some of their theaters. Though, these are all problems at the big chain theater down the street too.
Flix is a decent theater showing first run movies but is often overlooked by the chain theaters that surround it 5 miles in each direction and by the local dollar theater. I wish they would start to offer some of the independent and smaller movies that do not get seen by many people.
Flix is a good choice for watching a movie and you can help out a local owned business instead of sending your money to a corporate. There are only a couple non-large corporation theaters that are preventing this area from being a monopoly for theaters.
This theater was originally a 3 screen GCC theater which was soon expanded to 8 theaters.
This was one of the more popular theaters in the Buffalo area until the building of the galleria mall just a couple miles away.
Around 1990 GCC purchased the Galleria theaters and now there were two GCC theaters with a total of 20 screens within 2 miles of each other. The Thruway Plaza GCC was relegated to playing the least popular movies or receiving them after Walden Galleria need to make room for newer movies. The GCC Thruway site was a ghost town, not visible from any street, an empty plaza nearby (with Wal Mart going up), a roller rink next door where shootings happened on weekends all led to the demise of this GCC theater.
Around 2000, the local chain Dispon reopened this site as a combination first run/dollar theater. Dipson performed extensive improvements, carpeting, concession area, lighting, parking lot, etc.. The shooting plagued roller rink was gone and replaced by a box store, wal mart was built and people were visiting the plaza once again. The theater should have been a success but Dipson did a poor job of running the theater as it quickly became dirty and run down and terribly understaffed. After a little more than a year, Dipson closed the theater and it sat empty once again.
After sitting empty for a couple years the former owners of a local dollar theater reopened this site as Movieland 8. After all these years the old GCC autograph wall remains in place and theater on many weekends has a line stretching out the door down the walkway. It is a busy and popular theater. It would be nice if the theater spent some time cleaning the place. The rest rooms are often pretty poor, the theater floor sticky and the projection underlit. However, it is still a popular theater that should have a long life.
For some odd reason this theater seems to be on a 2 year clint eastwood marathon. No Top Gun, only Clint Eastwood.
This theater has once again gone to first run movies. They seem busy even with Regal 18 a mile down the street.
There are no second run theaters in the buffalo area any longer.
This theater is gone forever. Believe it or not a church bought the place for 1.2 million.
I went here for years when it was GCC, AMC, Dipson and Movieland. Too bad Dipson didn’t lease the place as Buffalo needs a second run theater.
JMC Entertainment ran this place into the ground as they did Como/Appletree 8. Too bad.
The last films played here were 50 Shades of Gray, Danny Collins, Big Hero 6, Run All Night,While We’re Young.
Movieland 8 closed on May 11, 2015 and opened in 2004.
After driving by that area a few times in the last month there is activity in the building. Workers from the gas company looking like they are adding a new gas line, there were a dozen cars in the lot with people going in and out of the theater on numerous days. Something is obviously going on.
Hopefully dispon bought the place since they have had huge success with McKinley Mall as a discount theater (on weekends the place is sold out completely).
This theater is history. What was a very nice theater 11 years ago when movieland took it over after Dipsons failed attempt at running a discount theater – was run right into the ground. From the first month the place started going downhill.
Hopefully Dipson will take it on as a reduced price theater as the Buffalo market would easily support it.
What a great theater to frequent!
I went to see the most recent marvel Comic type movie on opening day (I was shocked they received it on the first day). The ticket price was almost 50% less than the chain theater a few miles away, the concessions are VERY fairly priced, popcorn is about the best I have had anywhere. The projection is digital and sharp, sound clear and adjusted appropriately. The only downside to this theater is the seats which are very small, old and the rows too close together. Uncomfortable even. Will that stop me from seeing another movie here? Probably not.
The owner offers a movie going experience that is unequaled in the southtowns and a price that is affordable for families. he is to be commended.
This is a nice chain theater but is nearing 20 years old and the viewing experience reflects this.
It has no competition and charges prices that support this.
Screens are well lit, sound is clear but there is a lot of sound bleed from other screens.
If you are frequent on a weekend be prepared to miss 20 minutes of your movie when you leave for snacks. Slow, understaffed and organized poorly add to the wait. However, it is not as bad as the amazingly long wait to purchase tickets.
Regal has designed a very nice theater and have kept up the theaters well. The prices are very high so it may be best to wait until the movie arrives down the street.
I’ve been going to this theater since the 80’s. GCC, AMC, Dipson and Movieland.
Unfortunately this place has become about the worse moviegoing experience you can imagine. 2 of the 8 theaters seem to not even be in use any longer. An employee said the projectors are broken (for 3+ months!)
The 3 digital projectors they have are often underlit and out of focus.
While each theater seems to be swept between showings I wonder how often the rug is cleaned (it smells), how often the floors are mopped in the theaters (disgusting) or how often the chairs are cleaned (really disgusting). Use the restroom and your feet stick to the floor.
The concessions are priced fair – the soda never has the right c02 mixture, popcorn is made fresh is decent but if you don’t see it popping, it’s stale. For a number of months they played movie trivia before showings on Saturday nights – that was great. I have not seen that happen for a long time.
Unfortunately, the owners of Movieland 8 previously owned the Appletree/Como theaters and they are following the same path. Como had theters that fell into disrepair and couldnt be used.
I don’t think Movieland is long for the world
Dipson is now all digital. Since going to a second run house they have increased prices to $2 and 3d is $4. A great value.
The projections are bright and clean, sound is OK. It lacks any sort of surround sound and in the majority of the theaters the sound is simply coming from the front, nothing from the sides.
The ticket prices are great, the concessions are fairly priced and they once again make their own popcorn instead of trucking it over from another theater. Some of their chocolate concessions are melted because of the heat in the display cases.
The staff is OK. When I went this past sunday afternoon the concession girl had her head down on the counter like she was severely hung over. She made it out like a big deal that she was taking care of me. Note to the manager who was 5 feet away – fire her. She represents your company poorly.
Good theater, well maintained and fairly priced.
Movieland is beginning to upgrade to digital. So far it will be limited to one theater (they say this on their facebook page). In order to pay for this they have increased their prices.
With new competition from dipson movieland needs to convert to digital and clean this place up. The theaters are dirty, they smells and the viewing experience due to underlit projections is poor.
What a great redo of a theater. Dipson did it right.
All the auditoriums have been converted to stadium seating, all digital projection, 3D and d-Box (don’t bother, what a poorly crafted gimmick).
The prices for the snacks are very fair, the staff friendly and the quality of the presentation is very good. My only complaint is when they redid the theaters they should have redesigned the ticket selling area and snack area. Poorly layed out.
This is my theater of choice even though I need to pass regal to get here.
Great job Dipson!
After going to this theater for the last 30 years (the last 8 as movieland) it is time to avoid this place.
The operators are running this place into the ground much like their previous theater (Como 8).
Chairs are no longer attached to the floor, ceiling tiles in the theaters have fallen due to a leaky roof and never replaced, the rest rooms are disgusting, the bulb intensity of the projectors is turned down to save money, theaters 1 & 2 have a constant humming the last several times I have been there and if that is not enough the theaters are rarely cleaned.
I was there 3 times in the last 8 days – old pop cups are laying around, one theater I was in twice still had the wrappers, sticky pop and candy laying on the floor from a couple days prior. The smell is getting to be too and the place is simply becoming a dump.
The Palace has restored the marquee sign with new neon and blinking bulbs – it looks great!
This theater is getting better all the time.
Great job!
I have visited this theater a coupe more times and need to amend my previous review –
The concessions have become more expensive but still fairly priced. Popcorn is fresh more often then not and the pop is mixed correctly.
The staff is still pretty unfriendly and would do them well to crack a smile once in awhile. Especially the ticket seller.
Poor management of lines/crowds for a popular film.
Seating comfort is by far the worst of any theater I have ever been to.
The screen is still in poor shape as the white aint touch up job is very evident.
Not a bad place to see a film but it may be worth driving another 6 miles to Regal, 8 miles to Dipson or 9 miles to Hamburg Palace.
This theater is always a teat to attend, not the most comfortable. but the friendliness of the staff makes up for it.
Very fair prices for admission and snacks, the theater is always clean and the projection focused and sound adjusted to a comfortable level.
Being so close to the Regal 18, this theater is not a first run house but it is worth visiting. Stoogefest, Hitchcock, late night movies are all appearing here and this theater is carving a nice niche for itself. I wish they would start some theme showings, Western Sundays, John Wayne films or Foreign Film Sundays, etc., for afternoon showings. The closest theater to show foreign films is 20+ miles away.
My one and only compaint is the using of DVDs for some specialty showings. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Stoogefest (actually used DVDs that can be purchased at FYE). I expect better quality from a movie house than what I receive at home.
When they are showing films, this theater can’t be beat. Quality theater with quality staff.
The Aurora theater, though popular and well attended is highly overated.
The improvements and updates when purchased by a corporation were done well, the overall experience is less than adequate.
The prices are fair, the projection and quality are average for an old theater it certainly does not compare to any of the chain theaters. Sound is below average.
the screen is VERY distant from even the first rows and this affects the viewing the quality. The white paint touch up on the screen looks terrible and the whole thing needs to be replaced.
Concessions are fairly priced and more often fresh than not.
Parking is terrible but that is not the theaters fault.
Seating comfort is terrible. In fact beyond terrible. Uncomfortable, thinly padded seats in aisles that are amazingly narrow. They should do themselves a favor and rip the seats out and buy new ones and only put in 2/3 of them to spread things out.
The real disappointment with this theater is the snarky staff. They have an attitude, like most in this town, that they are something special. Buying tickets and waiting to be admitted is no better than a cattle call and politeness does not seem to exist, especially from the old lady ticket seller.
This theater was a class act when the Blatt Bros owned it and the couple that owned it after them, not any longer.
There is little else to do in E.A. in the evenings so this theater will thrive but it is too bad that the town that does not want a Wal Mart thinks a corporate owned movie theater still makes it a little town.
Since Dispon has a thing about only showing some films in specific theaters while the southtowns dipson shows common dribble, I am forced to go to the Eastern Hills cinema for certain films.
Projection and sound are average, comfort below average, all around a dated movie house that is being used the only way it can be – showing niche films and charging too much for what is offerd.
Flix is a decent family owned theater surrounded by chain owned monster theaters. It has been operating for about 15 years and when it opened was surrounded by nothing. Now, as a previous poster said, it can be difficult to find and coule really use a new, larger, brighter well designed sign.
The theater itself has ample parking, large lobby but is very disorganized on handing ticket sales. The entrance is poorly marked and less than welcoming.
The theater just missed the stadium seating transition and when built went with the traditional seating arrangement. A theater or two at Flix removed some rows to give patrons “stretch seating”, a gimmick that while comfortable just comes across as a gimmick.
The theater can use some maintenance, the spit balls on the screens have been there forever, the touched up white paint on the screens is very noticeable, sound spillover is a problem in some of their theaters. Though, these are all problems at the big chain theater down the street too.
Flix is a decent theater showing first run movies but is often overlooked by the chain theaters that surround it 5 miles in each direction and by the local dollar theater. I wish they would start to offer some of the independent and smaller movies that do not get seen by many people.
Flix is a good choice for watching a movie and you can help out a local owned business instead of sending your money to a corporate. There are only a couple non-large corporation theaters that are preventing this area from being a monopoly for theaters.
This theater was originally a 3 screen GCC theater which was soon expanded to 8 theaters.
This was one of the more popular theaters in the Buffalo area until the building of the galleria mall just a couple miles away.
Around 1990 GCC purchased the Galleria theaters and now there were two GCC theaters with a total of 20 screens within 2 miles of each other. The Thruway Plaza GCC was relegated to playing the least popular movies or receiving them after Walden Galleria need to make room for newer movies. The GCC Thruway site was a ghost town, not visible from any street, an empty plaza nearby (with Wal Mart going up), a roller rink next door where shootings happened on weekends all led to the demise of this GCC theater.
Around 2000, the local chain Dispon reopened this site as a combination first run/dollar theater. Dipson performed extensive improvements, carpeting, concession area, lighting, parking lot, etc.. The shooting plagued roller rink was gone and replaced by a box store, wal mart was built and people were visiting the plaza once again. The theater should have been a success but Dipson did a poor job of running the theater as it quickly became dirty and run down and terribly understaffed. After a little more than a year, Dipson closed the theater and it sat empty once again.
After sitting empty for a couple years the former owners of a local dollar theater reopened this site as Movieland 8. After all these years the old GCC autograph wall remains in place and theater on many weekends has a line stretching out the door down the walkway. It is a busy and popular theater. It would be nice if the theater spent some time cleaning the place. The rest rooms are often pretty poor, the theater floor sticky and the projection underlit. However, it is still a popular theater that should have a long life.
GCC closed GCC Thruway around 2000
2002 Dipson
2004 Movieland