Northgate Theaters
1000 N. Rohlwing Road,
Lombard,
IL
60148
1000 N. Rohlwing Road,
Lombard,
IL
60148
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 14 comments
the Northgate theatres opened on July 30th, 1993. Grand opening ads posted.
Is the Brauer House housed in the former Northgate Theaters or is it King’s Hall Banquets? The description mentions Brauer House, but the picture is of Kings Hall, both located in the former Northgate Plaza (now called Lombard Landings). The satellite view doesn’t seems like the space where Brauer House is in was large enough to have been a six screen theater, but the banquet hall building does.
The Northgate Theatres launched as a six-screen sub-run discount venue on July 30, 1993. Hoping for better things, the Northgate changed its policy to first-run showings beginning on July 9, 1999. The theatre was not able to gain traction and made a brief return to sub-run discount runs just prior to ending operations on January 30, 2000.
According to the Brauerhouse website,
“Horror, hot rod, classic and killer B-movies” are shown on Sunday nights.
i loved this theater!! I could actually see movies without breaking my piggy bank. I didn’t care that it was second-run movies. I had a wonderful time, and was sorry to see it go.
I agree with ‘malicedoom’ that the first run change up was a bad move.
Anything happening with this place?
This place was apparantly very similar to the Harlem Corners Cinema. Same architect? Both were operated by Value Theatres.
The Bricktown, the Northgate, and the Rolling Meadows are probably Chicagoland’s shortest-lived multi-plexes (11 years for the Bricktown, 8 years for the Northgate, and 7 for the Rolling Meadows.
I’ve always felt this place killed itself with the attempt to go first-run.
I remember it always being crowded during its initial phase as a second-run theatre, but it went completely DEAD when they attempted to go first-run (although I did see a few films there during that time and their presentation was very nice – good projectionists), and then it was still pretty empty when they attempted to ‘recover’ and go back to second-run (even lowering the prices to $1.00, all shows, every day).
I could be wrong, but it seems like they had a good thing and then ruined it by trying to change things and were never able to bounce back. A shame – it was a nice place.
Saw a few movies at the Northgate, “The Client”, “Timecop”, “Tomorrow Never Dies”, etc. The admission was $1.00 before 6pm, $1.50 after 6pm. In 1999 it briefly had shown first-run movies before going back to second-run before it closed. The Northgate had very good business. Every time I went it was always crowded. It was part of the Value Theaters chain.
Does anybody know why this theatre closed? It seems like it was successful. What a waste of an almost-new building (though not as wasteful as the huge Loews 20 North Versailles, which closed after only one year).
Also, was this theatre part of a chain, or was it independent?
The nightclub is closed. The building is vacant. It sits right next to the Harlem Furniture corporate offices.
Very short-lived theaters. It was a nice “strip-mall” type of theater. I saw two films here: Dennis the Menace and Wolf. I’m surprised they didn’t last that long.
You could also smoke in the lobby, I haven’t seen that
since the 1980’s.
I visited the Northgate on a few occasions. Not only did they show second run films but charged only one dollar to get in. They also had midnight showings of classic films such as “Taxi Driver” and “Dr Strangelove”. The location was odd as it was behind the shopping center and hard to find. I will say I was surprised when it closed as each time I went the theater was crowded.