Regnier Extreme Screen at Union Station

The Vic & Helen Regnier Extreme Screen Theatre has been managed by B&B Theatres since their October 2014 acquisition of Dickinson Theatres. According to the Kansas City Star, Vic Regnier, who died in 2000 at the age of 82, was a pioneering Johnson County developer since 1945. Mr. Regnier donated $2 million to help establish the Extreme Screen in 1999. As an important part of Kansas City history, Union Station opened in the fall of 1914.

The Kansas City Star reported that the City Extreme Screen began operations in November 1999, one of three theaters, which included City Dome and City Stage. It was noted at the time that iWERKS Entertainment was selected over IMAX to provide the 70mm, 3D system. In March of 2012, a few weeks after the start of a run of “The Abyss", the projector malfunctioned and the theater was unable to go on. At that time Union Station officials decided to eliminate the iWERKS system and go digital.

On March 7, 2013, after renovations and technical upgrades, the theater reopened with a new five-story-high, 74-foot-wide Extreme Screen. Dickinson Theatres was designated to manage and book the films and opened, with permission from Disney, the 3D film “Oz The Great and Powerful”. This was the first time a major Hollywood film played on the Extreme Screen.

The Kansas City Star says that the new theater was created with $400,000 in private donations and has been completely modernized. It is now a high-tech business conference center as well as a venue for entertainment and educational features. In addition to science and educational films the 440-seat Regnier Theatre also screens popular crowd-pleasers such as “Avengers: Age of Ultron” in both 2D and 3D.

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

midtown_kc on April 4, 2017 at 12:26 am

The picture above is Kansas City Union Station lobby. The theatre is on the lower level of Union Station. The theatre can not be seen from street view.

Joe Vogel on October 25, 2017 at 6:13 pm

A brief article (link, probably temporary) in Boxoffice of May 1, 1971, concerns a theater then called the Astro which was located at the north end of the station’s waiting room. Prior to 1969, the house had been called the Circle Theatre. If the article is correct about the location, the theater was most likely in the space now occupied by the model train exhibit. Does anyone know anything about this lost theater?