Reel Harbor Theater
1 Mill Wharf Plaza,
Scituate,
MA
02066
1 Mill Wharf Plaza,
Scituate,
MA
02066
2 people
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Related Websites
Reel Harbor Theater (Official)
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Daytz Theatre Enterprises Corp., Lockwood & Gordon Enterprises, Patriot Cinemas, South Shore Cinemas
Functions: Movies (First Run), Movies (Independent)
Previous Names: Scituate Playhouse & South Shore, Playhouse 1&2, Patriot Cinemas at The Mill Wharf Plaza, Mill Wharf Cinemas
Phone Numbers:
Manager:
781.378.1323
Nearby Theaters
The Scituate Playhouse was an old big wooden theatre, beautiful inside with a sea-scape design. It was built in the late-1930’s with seating for 778. Before CinemaScope was installed in 1954, it had a lighthouse on each side of the screen. By 1957 it was operated by Daytz Theatre Enterprises Corp. It was twinned in the mid-1970’s and renamed Playhouse 1&2. The walls had hand painted floor to ceiling murals before the theatre was split into three in the late-1970’s. It later gained a fourth screen.
The seats in front of the screen used to flood with a high tide and the harbor was right behind the screen. It was owned for many years by Lockwood & Gordon, then by Sonderling, followed by a couple of local chains. Torn down in 2003, it was replaced in 2004 by a huge condo complex and a new small twin movie theatre which was operated by Patriot Cinemas chain.
Patriot Cinemas at The Mill Wharf Plaza was reopened in summer of 2008 with “Shrek 2” and “Harry Potter 3”. Patriot Cinemas at The Mill Wharf Plaza was remodeled with the addition of stadium seating. It was taken over by South Shore Cinemas on January 1, 2011. It was closed on March 7, 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
New owners had taken it over by 2024 and renamed it Reel Harbor Theater.
Contributed by
ReelMovieInfo, Richard Smith
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
Thanks for posting the updates…yes, my wife and I are the new operators at the Mill Wharf Cinema. We ran the old Playhouse for the final two years of its existence, and we’re happy to be back. It’s a small, friendly, boutique-style, two-screen cinema. Thank you.
Scituate is in Mass but there is one in R.I.. The old scituate playhouse was called the Satuit Playhouse after the original spelling of the town. The old theatre was big and pretty and owned originally by Lockwood/Gordon then Sonderling and then run by others including Hoyts. When it was to be closed it was taken over and run by The present operators Brett and his wife for a couple of years. It was then torn down and replaced with a new Condo complex upstairs and a twin cinema and ice cream shop downstairs. It was then run by Patriot Cinemas. Patriot cinemas vacated it and the Cameo theatre in Weymouth and they were once again operated by Brett and his wife. The theatres are modern and clean. One is small with about 90 seats and the other is about a 200 or less seater. Both have good size screens, stadium seating and stereo sound. Very comfortable and good Popcorn.
Perhaps someone with a long memory will recognize the photo a lower right on this page of the January 8, 1938, issue of Boxoffice. It illustrates an article about rubber mats for theater entrances, and shows the outer lobby of the Satuit Playhouse.
Please change your seat count to approx 200 cinema 1 and 75 in cinema 2.
Back last year when Frozen played, my wife and I went to see it and were late because of my stupidity. I went on line and read Fri times and we were there on Tues. I asked the young man in charge what time the movie had started. He said 7PM. It was then 7:15. I had wanted to see the Mickey Mouse cartoon that preceded Frozen. We missed it and the 1st 10 mins of Frozen. We stayed and at the end the young man told us to stay and he went to the booth and played the cartoon and Frozen(10 mins) for us. This was so nice of him. I would like to thank him right here. That’s life in a small town ell liked twin Cinema.
Back last year when Frozen played, my wife and I went to see it and were late because of my stupidity. I went on line and read Fri times and we were there on Tues. I asked the young man in charge what time the movie had started. He said 7PM. It was then 7:15. I had wanted to see the Mickey Mouse cartoon that preceded Frozen. We missed it and the 1st 10 mins of Frozen. We stayed and at the end the young man told us to stay and he went to the booth and played the cartoon and Frozen(10 mins) for us. This was so nice of him. I would like to thank him right here. That’s life in a small town ell liked twin Cinema.
Linkrot repair: The 1938 ad with a photo of the Scituate Theatre’s lobby is now here.
Closed March 2020.
Mill Wharf Cinemas closed 07 Mar 2021, Sun The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com
Once known as Playhouse 1 & 2 in the mid-1970s during its days as a twin.
The Satuit Playhouse was open in 1923 and retained that name - we think - for the Satuit Brook that flows into Scituate Harbor. (There is no evidence that it was called the “Scituate Playhouse” prior to the 1980s). However, in June of 1960, it was called, simply, Playhouse (Theatre by the Sea).
In October of 1970, the venue closed for a major retrofit. the Playhouse was twinned to the plans of Julian Borowko and Associates of Weymouth in an architectural style called Contemporary Nautical. The 1,000 seat theatre was split into two with a weathered look and the two auditoriums flanked by ships' lanterns and rough weathered pine wood. IT reopened as Playhouse 1 & 2 with Scrooge an The Owl & the Pussycat on December 25, 1970.
Entertainment Cinemas took it on and it became very briefly the Scituate Playhouse 1•2•3 from June 20, 1985 until the fourth cinema was ready on July 4, 1985 now as the Scituate Playhouse 1•2•3•4. In 1997, the Entertainment Cinemas was purchased by Hoyts which listed it as Hoyt’s Scituate 4. They moved on March 5, 2000 and it carried on independently as Scituate Playhouse Cinemas 1-4. It closed on August 31, 2001 at the end of its lease. Stephen and Ronald Warner razed the building.
The venue was replaced by Patriot Cinemas 260-seat twin, The Mill Wharf launching on June 18, 2004 with “Shrek 2” and “Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkabah.”
In 2011, South Shore Cinemas took on the Mill Wharf and the Cameo in South Weymouth. It ran it until the COVID-19 pandemic of March 2020. It reopened under new operators on June 16, 2023 with “Elemental" as the Reel Harbor Theater.