Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 + IMAX
99 Redstone Road,
Manchester,
CT
06045
99 Redstone Road,
Manchester,
CT
06045
5 people
favorited this theater
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Cinemark Theatres (Official)
Additional Info
Operated by: Cinemark
Previously operated by: National Amusements, Rave Motion Picture Theatres
Firms: Beacon Architectural Associates
Functions: Movies (First Run)
Previous Names: Showcase Cinemas Buckland Hills, RC Buckland Hills 16, Buckland Hills 18 + IMAX
Phone Numbers:
Box Office:
860.646.4555
Nearby Theaters
Showcase Cinemas Buckland Hills opened May 22, 1998 on the former site of Builders Square. Built into this former warehouse, the project cost $8 million. The theatre has four large auditoriums with true stadium seating, all with about 290 seats each. The remaining cinemas have about 120 seats each and lower tiers (about 1/3 lower than the standard 18 inch riser).
The cinema offers hot foods (served from an auto fry at the concession stand). In 2004 theatre #16 was converted to IMAX, a wall to wall, floor to ceiling screen was built for the 3-D exhibition of “The Polar Express”. While the screens are a decent sized, this one is relatively weak by IMAX standards.
Ironically this theatre resides on Redstone Road. I don’t think thats a refrence to its owners.
Two extra screens were added, and then in December 2009, it was taken over by Rave Motion Picture Theatres, and in June 2013 was taken over by Cinemark. In 2018 Cinemark renovated the theatres with recliner seats replacing the aging stadium seats that Rave installed when they moved into the theatre, along with adding D-box seats and updating the IMAX to make it bigger. The Crave restaurant (on the left when you enter the theatre) has been converted into Cinemark’s own Movie Bistro and adding Pizza Hut to the menu. The theatre is now known as Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 + IMAX and the Rave sign has now been removed and a Cinemark sign put up once the renovations were completed.
Contributed by
John J. Fink
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Recent comments (view all 18 comments)
Was here this evening – good digital projection (still not sold on digital, but it was sharp and in focus, more than I could say for another screening I had prior that I will talk about once that theatre’s corporate gets back to me). The theatre really hasn’t changed much – aside from digital projection and the removal of the reserved seating (even though some Rave’s have rebranded them as “Rave Reserved”). Did solid business it looks like, probably now more than ever with East Hartford gone (that was always plan B if a show was sold out here). Chatters is now “Bar & Grill” with a smaller menu with the words “cRAVE”. The quick service concessions are all still open. The popcorn is larger but not as good, and the fountains are now coke.
Still a good multiplex experience much as it was under National Amusements.
A quick note on the rebranding: they actually replaced the “Showcase Cinemas” sign on the door with “rave motion pictures” – however for the marquee on Redstone Road (ha ha – no longer the owners of the property…) they simply painted over the “Showcase” name, as I had seen at their Hazlet site. Truthfully it looks a bit ghetto – like a cheap discount operator came in and took over. As for the other rebranding – they also have covered up verses replaced the “Cinema De Lux” branding with temporary-looking signage that I suppose will now be permeant. This is better though than some sites where they simply just took off the letters “Showcase” or “Multiplex” and left on “Cinemas”.
It’s actually 18 screens now – – two were added before Rave took it over (right around the time East Hartford and East Windsor shut down).
I think the marquee is probably been redone by now. I know when I was in Cincinnati for Cinematour the managers at one of the theatres said that they were taking down/covering all the marquees. When you think about it people don’t really look at them anymore because they 1) expect every theatre is showing every movie regardless of the zone they’re in and 2) they used the internet instead.
May 22nd, 1998 grand opening ad in the photo section.
I’m confused… I almost can’t believe how it’s possible that I didn’t go to this theater before 1998. I don’t think I went to the one in East Hartford (now closed) that often.
And what about that seemingly ancient EXIT sign and directions video that they finally (sadly) stopped showing recently? Maybe I’m thinking of the one that was in East Windsor? (Also now closed.) I guess that was probably it. Was the tape effect on that video fake? How old was that theater?
I love this theater. Best seats, best showtimes in the area, the food is better than it used to. Very happy with how this theater turned out with the renovations.
Though, can someone tell IMAX that their seats suck? My mom went to a showing in IMAX with me and she had a ripped seat, and it felt like we were stuck in a theater back in 2008.
When we saw Force Awakens (surprisingly not in their IMAX), at least one of the center speakers were blown out. Voices were staticy like 80% of the time through the whole movie.
They changed that system… It’s now a different audio system to stop that from happening. But now everything I go to a ghibli fest, one part is silent for some reason. That’s the only audio issue I’ve had at that cinema.