I worked before the opening and for the theaters at those times. Cinema 6 was opened in the spring of 1987 by an outfit out of KC called MidAmerica cinema. They used the old battle star galactica theme as their “now for our feature presentation” music. I started as an usher before the theater opened. We opened with Crocodile Dundee and Star Trek IV, didn’t get decent bookings until summer with Robocop, etc. We were direct competition for bookings with Dickinson Theaters at the time. My manager was Tim Dry and Doug Brown. We wore cheesy red sweater vests then. AMC purchased us in 1988 and we were AMC theaters for about 2 years. After that, the owner of AMC (stanley durwood) had a brother (Richard Durwood) who split off from him and started Crown Cinema Corporation. They ran it until about 1997. Richard did not want his son to take over and sold to the man who owned Hollywood Theaters, a new outfit out of Texas in 1997. I served as a theater manager from about 1990 until I left the theater business in 2000. I worked for a DM named Chuck Dunn. He has worked in cinema for years. Chuck was/is a great man. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because his son is the CEO of Regal, Greg Dunn. When Hollywood bought crown, they also bought all of the dickenson theaters in joplin as well. The eastgage, the northpark twin and the mall 5 were all under hollywood with cinema 6. The plan became open a newer cinemaplex (the northstar 14), make the cinema 6 a dollar house, and close the other theaters. At this time, some of the other managers quit and I was put in charge of overseeing the construction of the 14plex and act as city managers for the other theaters while the transition was occurring. The 14 opened dec of 1998 with Prince of Egypt and ST Insurrection and other films. We had a HUGE opening. Hollywood’s owner spent money too fast on these new 14 plexes and he was bought out and canned by Wallace, who was on his board. Wallace operated the 14 and shut down the cinema 6 after a couple of years. I left shortly after the opening of the 14 and was hired back by Chuck who went to work for Goodrich theaters. Chuck was a man I would follow anywhere, a great soul and like a second father to me. So I went to work for Goodrich theaters in pittsburg for a year, then went to babbages while completing my degree and went into IT. Anyway, I hope this helps fill in some gaps for you guys. Cheers!
I worked before the opening and for the theaters at those times. Cinema 6 was opened in the spring of 1987 by an outfit out of KC called MidAmerica cinema. They used the old battle star galactica theme as their “now for our feature presentation” music. I started as an usher before the theater opened. We opened with Crocodile Dundee and Star Trek IV, didn’t get decent bookings until summer with Robocop, etc. We were direct competition for bookings with Dickinson Theaters at the time. My manager was Tim Dry and Doug Brown. We wore cheesy red sweater vests then. AMC purchased us in 1988 and we were AMC theaters for about 2 years. After that, the owner of AMC (stanley durwood) had a brother (Richard Durwood) who split off from him and started Crown Cinema Corporation. They ran it until about 1997. Richard did not want his son to take over and sold to the man who owned Hollywood Theaters, a new outfit out of Texas in 1997. I served as a theater manager from about 1990 until I left the theater business in 2000. I worked for a DM named Chuck Dunn. He has worked in cinema for years. Chuck was/is a great man. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because his son is the CEO of Regal, Greg Dunn. When Hollywood bought crown, they also bought all of the dickenson theaters in joplin as well. The eastgage, the northpark twin and the mall 5 were all under hollywood with cinema 6. The plan became open a newer cinemaplex (the northstar 14), make the cinema 6 a dollar house, and close the other theaters. At this time, some of the other managers quit and I was put in charge of overseeing the construction of the 14plex and act as city managers for the other theaters while the transition was occurring. The 14 opened dec of 1998 with Prince of Egypt and ST Insurrection and other films. We had a HUGE opening. Hollywood’s owner spent money too fast on these new 14 plexes and he was bought out and canned by Wallace, who was on his board. Wallace operated the 14 and shut down the cinema 6 after a couple of years. I left shortly after the opening of the 14 and was hired back by Chuck who went to work for Goodrich theaters. Chuck was a man I would follow anywhere, a great soul and like a second father to me. So I went to work for Goodrich theaters in pittsburg for a year, then went to babbages while completing my degree and went into IT. Anyway, I hope this helps fill in some gaps for you guys. Cheers!