Hamamatsu Central 1-5

The Hamamatsu Theater opened its doors in December 1946, though the Asanuma group worked on a complete renovation exactly two years after its opening. It was renamed twice throughout its early days as a single-screener. It was renamed the Hamamatsu Daiei Theater in 1949, and finally the Hamamatsu Central Theater after it received another renovation and was partially relocated in 1962. 70mm projection was also installed around that same time.

In 1968, the theater became a triplex after two more screens were added, and all three auditoriums went under the names Hamamatsu Takarazuka Theater, Hamamatsu Central Theater, and Hamamatsu Miyukiza Theater. The Miyukiza auditorium was located on the first floor, while the Takarazuka was located on the third floor, and the Central on the fifth floor, all in the Central Building on Tamachi that also includes a mahjong parlor and a pachinko parlor.

With an unbelievable note, a total of 400,000 moviegoers visited the theater alone throughout 1985, but when the multiplex boom kicked into high gear is when the number dropped sharply to 117,000 in 2000. Although already a fiveplex at the time (but dropped to four for unknown reasons by its death), the number of moviegoers at the Central got even worse during its final years of operation, all because of Virgin Cinemas launching their own multiplex that same year in November 2000 that would eventually become the TOHO Cinemas Hamamatsu with nine screens and 1,903 seats. Not just the fall, but also because of the Central building’s aging, the building at the time is an existing unqualified building under the Fire Service Act and the Building Standards Act.

Despite its big success before the massive hole, the Hamamatsu Central closed on September 28, 2005, and was demolished that October to make way for a parking lot that would eventually turn into a multi-story parking garage during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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