Cinema City I & II
11 Main Street,
Westbrook,
ME
04092
11 Main Street,
Westbrook,
ME
04092
1 person
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Esquire Theatres of America
Previous Names: Cinema I & II, Cinema City
Nearby Theaters
The Westbrook Plaza / Bradlees Plaza was announced in the Summer of 1962 as a 23-acre shopping center anchored by Bradlees, the discount shopping center subsidiary of Stop & Shop. Announced soon after was Cinema I & II in an outparcel building across from Bradlees to be managed by Esquire Theaters, Inc. Circuit out of Boston and a single-screen drive-in behind Bradlees. The two indoor theaters launched January 31, 1964 with Albert Finney in “Tom Jones” and Bette Davis in “Dead Ringer”.
The Drive-In Theatre was never constructed and the plaza welcomed Martin’s Discount Foods as another primary anchor. Cinema I & II’s auditoriums featured identical 350-seat auditoriums. The twin screener with its abundant parking would vanquish the downtown Westbrook Theater, the venerable Star Theater which would be demolished. Named Cinema City from June 30, 1967 after its 3rd screen opened with Julie Andrews in “Thoroughly Modern Millie”. A fourth screen named the Screening room opened on April 1, 1970 with Mark Frechette in “Zabriskie Point”. In the mid-1970’s that screen began screening adult movies. The venue raised eyebrows for a long run with a violent film, “The Warriors”, and the theater was picketed in that year of 1979 by a Catholic special interest group.
The shopping center shedded the cinemas during the home video era in 1991, then the Bradlees - having the distinction of Maine’s final Bradlees store before the chain shuttered all of its stores. The shopping center officially became the Westbrook Plaza although it had unofficially been called that even during Bradlees' operation. Following the Cinema City closure, movie traffic was in the plaza’s Blockbuster Video store that operated for a long period of time. It would go and the complex was renamed as the Westbrook Crossing and was still going in the 21st Century.
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
This was renamed Cinema City on June 30th, 1967, after its third screen opened. The fourth screen, billed as the “Screening Room” opened on April 1st, 1970. Adult movies were shown in the “Screening Room” in the mid 1970s. More to come.
Cinema III opened with “Throughly Modern Millie”/ The Screening Room opened with “Zabriskie Point” and played Art House fare before switching to adult fare. This theater showed most of the hard ticket/reserved films in the state including ‘My Fair Lady’, ‘Doctor Zhivago’, ‘'The Sound of Music’, ‘Gone With the Wind’, ‘Doctor Dollitle’ & ‘The Bible’.