Tokyo Theatre

The original Tokyo Theatre opened its doors as a special events theatre on March 29, 1930 with several live acts by Onoe Kikugorou VI, Ichimura Uzaemon XV, and Onoe Baiko VI.

During the early stages of World War II, two movie theatres were added in separate parts of the building in the early-1940’s. The Ginza News Theatre, a newsreel theatre opened on the basement of the building, and the Tokyo Central Theatre, a movie theatre opened on the fifth floor.

The Tokyo Theatre officially became the ultimate choice of live entertainment at the main auditorium following the burning of the Kabuki Theatre during the Great Tokyo Air Raid of 1945. After the Kabuki Theatre finished reconstruction in December 1950, the Tokyo Theatre flipped its format to movies only on December 31, 1950.

The newsreel theatre in the basement was renamed Togeki Underground Movie Theater right after the death of the war and reopened as Tsukiji Daiei, a premiere theatre affiliated with Daiei, on December 27, 1955. At the same time, the former Tokyo Central Theatre on the fifth floor was renamed the Togeki Burlesque Room. All three theatres closed in 1974 and the original building was demolished to make way for a new home for Shochiku, which also housed a then-new movie theatre.

The newer Tokyo Theatre opened its doors on July 5, 1975 with the Japanese theatrical of the 1973 CBS American made-for-television movie “Sunshine” starring Cliff DeYoung. In its early days, it showed foreign films in a chain with Shibuya Tokyu and others, but later it became the chain master for small-scale movie chains and was used for moveovers and extended roadshows by Shochiku Tokyu in the Yurakucho area. Some notable films the Tokyo Theatre ran over the years include “Rocky”, “Taxi Driver”, “Bull Durham”, “Ghostbusters 2”, “The Matrix”, and “Pearl Harbor”.

On March 1, 2011, Shochiku transferred its film exhibition division to Shochiku Multiplex Theaters, which operates the cinema complex “MOVIX,” and the company took over management and operation of the complex. However, it does not offer the same services as the MOVIX cinema complexes.

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