AMC Dine-In Yorktown 18
80 Yorktown Shopping Center,
Lombard,
IL
60148
80 Yorktown Shopping Center,
Lombard,
IL
60148
12 people
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Expanded to six screens in June 1983. The Yorktown would later become Illinois’s first THX theater in 1984.
I saw one movie at this theater back in 1979, “The Warriors” with my buddies. I will always remember leaving out of this movie when movie goers started chanting “Warriors… come out to play-ee-ah!” Years later I met Michael Beck, and Deborah Van Valkenburgh, at the “Hollwood Show.” All great memories.
The August 13th, 1976 grand opening as a 4-plex has been uploaded.
April 3rd, 1998 grand opening ad in the photo section.
The description in the overview has it correct. The building was built as a twin, then had two screens added onto it in ‘76. At some point (maybe '92, but possibly before) the large house was triplexed to make it a six. Then the replacement 18 was built on the site of the demolished six. It was never in the mall; it was always at the same site east of the mall next to Butterfield Road.
An old internal document from GCC shows that they operated three Yorktown Cinemas in Lombard, IL.
Yorktown Cinema 6 at 80 Yorktown Shopping Center 7/3/70-4/6/97
Yorktown Cinema at 97 Yorktown Shopping Center 8/13/76-10/31/92 –
Yorktown Cinema 18 at 80 Yorktwon Shopping Center Opening on 11/7/96.
I assume that perhaps the 97 Yorktown address was inside the mall and the 80 was outside?
The first movie I saw at yorktown 17 was “The Powerpuff Girls Movie”.
The 18-plex opened on April 3rd, 1998,
The original twin cinema opened on July 3rd, 1970. I uploaded the grand opening ad here.
Take a look at this web page for some pictures of the Premium Cinema and the food that was available.
View link
I would like to take a second to correct some of the posts here. The address is actually 80 Yorktown Center. And it seems to be thought by several people here that AMC tore down the origional building to put up the new one. However this isn’t the case. General Cinema had torn down their building and rebuilt the new 18 screen building and used it for long time before AMC bought out General Cinema.
My final visit to the old Yorktown was in ‘97 when I took my son to see the special edition of “Return of the Jedi.” It was the most stunning presentation I’d ever experienced—bright, clear image and crisp THX sound. Was therefore amazed to drive by there some weeks later and see that it had been torn down! We really like the new theaters that have gone up in their place, but can’t help wondering…what was wrong with the old ones? (Actually, I can answer that myself: there weren’t as many screens, and more screens mean more $$$$!)
The Yorktown 6 was one of the few theaters near Chicago to feature THX certified auditoriums. It’s two primary auditoriums were large and spectacular by multiplex standards. I recall particularly seeing The Rock there in one of the THX auditoriums, and the rerelease of The Empire Strikes Back.
The rebuilt Yorktown 18 still offers THX auditoriums, which is still quite rare around Chicago. The Premium theater is quite nice, the seats are huge and in a auditorium configuration. The screen is small, but of the correct size for the premium auditorium, which is also small.
Saw a lot of first-run mega-hit movies here in the late 70’s and early 80’s: Star Wars, King Kong, Grease, The Wiz, Lion King, Home Alone, Top Gun. As the years progressed and technology changed, so did these theaters. They added digital sound and 70mm projection. I saw Rollercoaster in Sensurround here. I remember they had signs in the lobby warning people in the next door auditorium that they would hear rumbling. When the cinema was still a twin, the main auditorium was very nice in a 70’s kind of way. Vast and a huge screen. The screen was set in a type of blue shadowbox. I used to love the General Cinema logo-promo that played before the movies. For Jaws, my father and I sat in the lobby for the length of two shows. This was the days before a movie would play in several auditoriums. It was very communal and the excitement was almost tangible. I’ve been back to the new AMC theaters that were built on the old site. Nice theaters but do not have the same “feel” as the old Yorktown GCC Cinemas.
Damn AMC, those money grubbing bastards. I wish they’d left GCC alone.
Granted this cinema is very beautful and has alot more screens and has stadium seating…but I still miss the old yorktown cinema.
Actually the Yorktown opened sometime in the 1960’s as a single screen. I am not sure when it was twinned but it became a 4 screen in 1976 (the opening attractions on the 2 new screens were “Murder by Death” and “The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea”). Two more screens were added in the early 80’s. The new 18 screen building stands on the same sight as the original screen from the 60’s.