Westgate Cinema Centre
200 Westgate Drive,
Brockton,
MA
02301
200 Westgate Drive,
Brockton,
MA
02301
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 34 comments
Having managed this theatre from 1972 to 1984, the grossing decline wasn’t so much the National Amusements Randolph (although it did’t help)but the ability of Sack Theatres to keep their exclusive film openings. Back in the LOL “old days” your location had to be 21 miles outside of Boston to play day and date. With the expansion of more suburban theatres/screens the booking patternschanged.
I had them at 7 cinemas in total before Hoyt’s took over the location. Could be wrong.
General Cinema was issued a permit to build two more screens at its Brockton Westgate complex on December 29, 1969, according to an article in Boxoffice of January 26, 1970. Construction (by L. E. Hogg Construction of Hartford, Connecticut) was slated to begin as soon as the weather permitted. Estimated cost of the project was $400,000.
1965 the theater open as a twin, I was the third asst. and was transferred a number of times and returned in 1968 as the third manager I opened the second twin which had its own box, concession, and both, the name at that time change to CINEMA CENTRE the theater played first run other Boston area theater were sub run, the theater at the time was number one in the company GENERAL CINEMA, I was transferred to Denver as division manager, the first manager Larry Gleason also move on to open Braintree Cinema l & ll, later became division manager of Ca. WESTGATE CINEMA ONE SEATS 952, TWO was 526 seats, THREE 750 SEATS, and CINEMA FOUR 580 seats this theater remain one of the top gross theaters for many years.
October 7th, 1970 grand opened as 4-plex uploaded here.
The theatre shares the same design with the GCC Sunset Hills 4 Theatre, in Sunset Hills, MO, and the GCC Northeast 4 Theatre, in Philadelphia, PA, amung those with the “Cinema I & II” designed buildings
Aerial posted of the old theatre
There was a brief item about development on this site in the business news of the Quincy Patriot Ledger a few weeks ago which stated that plans for a proposed cinema fell apart.
In the business news in yesterday’s Quincy Patriot-Ledger there is an article titled “Prospects for Westgate theater dim”. It says that the site of Macy’s store is clear and ready for construction. But it now looks highly unlikely that National Amusements will proceed there with their plan for a 12-screen cinema. “Ward 7 Councilor Christopher MacMillan said the theater plan may be dead. ‘It looks like it’s not going to happen’, he said.”
It baffles me that National Amusements is even THINKING of putting another theater here. As dwodeyla said above, the Showcase Cinemas in Randolph is a short trip up Route 24. It’s what killed this previous theater in the first place, or at the very least, a major contriubiting factory. I don’t see any theater succeeding here, as long as the Showcase in Randolph is around. It will simply out-draw it.
And even if that goes(which it won’t, trust me), about the same distance in the opposite direction gets you to the Silver City Galleria in Taunton, and a multi-screen Regal Cinema. No winning here, either way.
This news is unfortunate, but given Redstone’s current sad financial status, I’m quite sure he could use the reprieve.
An article in the Patriot Ledger of March 24, “Credit Crunch – Westgate Mall Theater on Hold” says that financing problems have put a temporary halt to construction of the new 12-screen National Amusements cinema on the site of Macy’s at Westgate Mall. The site has been cleared and is ready to go. Construction was to have begun this spring. The mall owner says that construction is now postponed to within a year. A Brockton city councilor expects a delay of 6 to 12 months.
Today’s Globe has an article entitled Ailing malls shopping for a new identity. Regarding Brockton, it says:
“Westgate Mall in Brockton last week said it is postponing indefinitely a plan to add a movie theater to replace a Filene’s department store that closed several years ago. A huge torn-up lot surrounded by a chain-link fence is the only evidence of the moribund project.”
Heres what i rememebr about the Westgate Cinema:
1) I snuck in all the time, i saw Purple Rain in the summer of 84 so many times that i ended up knowing the script by heart.
2)Sneaking in the movies in the early 80’s was easy. U just stayed in the bathroom until the next crowd comes in and then u blend in with them.
3) The bigger auditoriums echoed in the front row
4) In the front part where the 4 cinemas are located, there was a hallway behind the concession stand that lead from the 2 theatres on
the left to the 2 theatres on the right.
5) I always played Dig Dug, Donkey Kong and Asteroids there.
6) When u see a guy with a flashlight in the theatre, that meant something was up.
7) Throwing candy from the back row to the crowd in the dark was fun.
8) The introduction of the GCC on the screen looked like something i cant post on here, try to figure it out when the 2 C’s would rotate in a circle and the G was in the middle of the 2 C’s, and i remember
the music very well.
9) General Admission in the esrly 80’s was $2.50, and $5 after 6pm.
the Sack Cinema building is still there and vacant, the Foxy Lady thats there, is in a spot that has nothing to do with the Sack Cinema building.
I live in Quincy MA and here is what I rember of Westgate:
1) I went on a field trip to see Close Encounters of The Third Kind.
2) After General Cinema sold to Hoyts, the place went downhill.
3)It had fans on top of the ceiling to circulate the AC.
4)I saw Looking for Mr Goodbar there and there was a sign that said no one will be admitted during the last ten minutes of the film.
The Quincy Patriot Ledger of Feb. 12th has an article “Theater to Open at Westgate Mall” by Maria Papadopoulos which states that National Amusements' new cinema will be located on the former location of Macy’s at the south end of the mall. Construction is expected to start in the spring, it will have 12 stadium-style auditoriums, and should open in mid-2009. Next to it will be a new building containing a restaurant and retail shops.
“What goes around, comes around”. The business section of the Boston Herald today has a report that National Amusements plans to build a 12-screen, 55,000 square foot cinema at Westgate Mall in Brockton. They hope to open it in mid-2009.
In addition— there was another 3 or 4 plex just around the corner from this theatre that is not on this site. They never shared the same movies— the other theatre was this big beige box of a place. I remember seeing Cabin Boy there after it got a three and a half star in the Boston Globe. huh?
This was one of the only theatres in the area to play Pulp Fiction. I remember seeing it on senior discount day – it was practially sold out; a sea of white hair. There were many walkouts throughout, but at the point when Myron gets his brains blown out in the back of the car, literally half the audience got up and left.
I remember going to this cinema all the time in the summer of 83 and all through 84 and 85. I used to go there with a bunch of friends and we used to play the video games that were in the front and in the back of the cinema. I grew up in Brockton so the cinema was the place to go for kids like us back then.
I was 9 in 1983 and i used to tag along with my brother and other kids we always hung with. My brother used to play Asteroids and Dig Dug and even Donkey Kong. My brother knew one of the managers there and he would give my brother free credits to the games and even let
us get in for free.
My thing was sneaking in the theatres. In 1984 me and 2 of my friends saw the movie “Purple Rain” during that summer and we saw it so many times we ended up knowing the lines and talked with the
movie. That cinema was memorable. The bigger auditoriums had an echo
and i remember one of the screen auditoriums was set back and we
could actually walk up on a ramp that was attacthed to the wall and
walk up to the screen , but we never did that because we werent
allowed to.
We always snuck in and saw “Purple Rain”, “Indiana Jones & The
Temple of Doom” during the summer of 84. I biggest thing was in May of 1983 when “The Return of the Jedi” came out, that cinema was packed and i rememeber wondering why so many people were cheering during that film when Darth Vader killed the Emperor, but i do know now.
That cinema had many memories for me and my friends and i will never forget that place. I still see the lobbies and the auditoriums in my head and thats the only pictures that are left to cherish.
The Sack Cinema next to the then Cardinal Cushing Hospital is still closed and the biulding is still empty.
About the Westgate, I managed the complex from 1985 thru 1987, having transferred from the Cleveland, OH market. I was told by upper brass that running the house was a stepping stone to senior management within the company and if this was true, then their idea of promoting must have been trial by fire. Probably one of the toughest places in the chain to operate, I found out AFTER taking over that GCC had gone thru several managers in a short span of time…most giving up when they realized that help was non-existant, despite having the largest high school east of the Mississippi just a few blocks away. At one time, I had 96 direct reports and could have hired another dozen. At that time, most of Brockton was affluent and the kids didn’t want to work. Many a night I ran the place with a skeleton crew.
On the other hand, I did enjoy some of my tenure there. I made some new friends, we got to see alot of historical Boston, and I learned that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
I understand that the neighborhood isn’t mush to write home about today and evidence of that shift was apparent just before I decided to leave the area. I left the building one night with a sizeable deposit bag under my arm and an incoming patron held the door for me as I left. That incoming fellow turned out to have a gun and he and his two buddies proceeded to rob the place…after I left with most all of the money! They managed to get a few hundred bucks and were soon caught when they tried to spend some of the wrapped coin that was stamped with our logo. Not the brightest…
Another memory…the constant parade of stolen cars that appeared in our lot. Apparently, the Brockton area is a dumping ground for stolen vehicles. Many a night I left the building only to find a car in the lot that didn’t belong to anyone in the place.
People who live in the Brockton area go to the Showcase in Randolph.
To br91975: I did drive by the area of the old Sacks/USA/Loews/Entertainment Cinemas Brockton recently. I stand corrected from my earlier post, the building is still there, the exterior hasn’t changed at all and there’s a big “For Rent†sign, although I don’t remember any businesses moving in since the theatre closed in the mid-90s. I noticed that signs for The Foxy Lady have replaced the two small marquees of the theatre.