Palace East Theatre
2220 W. Chesterfield Boulevard,
Springfield,
MO
65807
2220 W. Chesterfield Boulevard,
Springfield,
MO
65807
2 people
favorited this theater
Located at W. Chesterfield Boulevard and James River Freeway. This eight-screen cinema opened as a second-run house December 8, 1995. With the opening of a couple of multiplexes in the same area the Palace East Theatre played sub run at discount prices of $1.50 per show.
The theatre is a beauty for an eight screener. It has a large moulded round center that reaches well above the roof. A large triangular-shaped marquee with attraction panels on both sides. Miles of orange, green and yellow stretch around the roof of the building and the marquee.
A large spacious and well decorated lobby greets the patrons as they enter. A very ample concession area with a game section to one end of the lobby.
The auditoriums all have Dolby Stereo with spacious high back seats. The walls are lined with a dark red sound absorbing material. The seating is on an inclined floor and the rows are staggered. The Palace East Theatre has matinees daily and late shows on the weekends. It is operated by Palace Theatres, a subsidiary of Warren Theatres. It was closed June 8, 2017.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
Films I’ve Seen At The Grindhouse (aka The Palace):
Dunston Checks In
Tom and Huck
Happy Gilmore
Oliver and Company
D3: The Mighty Ducks
For Richer Or Poorer
Mouse Hunt (in THX)
Mr. Magoo
The Borrowers
Krippendorff’s Tribe
Mulan (in THX)
10 Things I Hate About You
Never Been Kissed
The Bourne Identity (in THX)
Star Wars Episode II (in THX)
Chicago
Biker Boyz
View From The Top
The Core
What A Girl Wants
Malibu’s Most Wanted
Hollywood Homicide
Love Actually
Gothika
The Missing
Honey
Love Don’t Cost A Thing
Stuck On You
Mona Lisa Smile (in THX)
Cold Mountain (in THX)
House Of Sand and Fog
Torque
The Butterfly Effect (in THX)
The Big Bounce
You Got Served
Twisted
Dawn Of The Dead
Taking Lives
Johnson Family Vacation
The Whole Ten Yards
Little Black Book
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Alfie
Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason
Darkness
Elektra
Coach Carter
In Good Company
Constantine
The Interpreter
The Honeymooners
Herbie: Fully Loaded
Bewitched
Two For The Money
Prime
The Weather Man (in THX)
Jarhead
Derailed
Rumor Has It
Last Holiday
Annapolis
The Pink Panther (in THX)
Eight Below (in THX)
Take The Lead
The Sentinel
Garfield: A Tail Of Two Kitties
Monster House
The Ant Bully
Barnyard
Beerfest
The Last Kiss
School For Scoundrels
A Good Year
Stranger Than Fiction
Apocalypto
The Holiday
Charlotte’s Web
Freedom Writers
Breach
300
Shooter
Perfect Stranger (in THX)
In The Land Of Women
Spider-Man 3
Shaun Of The Dead (special show, in THX)
Gone Baby Gone
Dan In Real Life
The Goonies (special show)
The Golden Compass (in THX)
P.S. I Love You
The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything
Never Back Down
The Terminator (special show, in THX)
I accidentally left out 28 Weeks Later (in THX).
I’ll have you all know that there is a Palace West in Wichita that is in terrible condition, operated under the Warren Name as well, it has the same seating capacity, setup; but has been open since 1989. The Palace in Springfield has a great crew that is trying to create a better moviegoing environment. All I know is, if Mr. Warren was to build one of his luxurious monsters like the one in Moore, Oklahoma he just built, no competitor would be able to withstand it. His luxury theatres are such a force to be reckoned with, I believe for one, Dickinson AND Hollywood would definitely shut their doors, and Wehrenberg would be crippled.
I’ve read about that. All digital AND THX. I don’t really see there being more of those coming though, due to the recession and Warren not being a major player in the exhibitor game.
And I actually got the idea that the Wichita theatre was treated better. They seem to get the better bookings (for example, Fox titles actually get play there) plus they’re better with the midnight series and they even have a classics series on Wednesdays. Here in Springfield it seems that half the movies don’t get run, the midnight series seems to be smaller and there is no classics series yet. If given the opportunity, I’d rather pay $2.50 to watch The Godfather or Citizen Kane or Raging Bull instead of Eagle Eye or Beverly Hills Chihuahua. But at least we got the Gillioz booking classics sometimes.
Why is this called the Palace East on this website? Even Warren Theaters own website doesn’t call it that (just the Palace). An inside joke maybe?
My theory on the ‘east’ part of the name originally, is that Warren built this Palace east of Wichita and the Palace ‘West’ is west of Springfield. Then again, maybe it just designated the side of town the theater is on. It seems like the Palace in Wichita was a second-run theater pretty much from the beginning, like Springfield. But they both had THX, which was unheard of for a second run house. After the magnificent first-run theaters were built in Wichita, all the competition faded away and now the entire city is Warren.
I believe Mr. Warren’s father once owned theaters in Wichita, so obviously the town is special to him. I was surprised to see him expand to Moore, OK. The Oklahoma City area has a lot of theaters, so I don’t know how that town got so lucky. There are many towns in Kansas that could benefit from a Warren theater including Lawrence, Topeka and Manhattan. We were all looking forward to the Warren theater for Kansas City, KS at the Speedway, but that ended up being built by Phoenix and is nothing too special.
Since Warren is already successful in Springfield, it would seem a reasonable location for a first-run Warren theater, but I don’t think expansion is one of his priorities. I worked for Dickinson years ago in Kansas, and remember when they opened their Town and Country 6 in Springfield. There were a lot of theaters in town back then, but it was their pride and joy at the time, and I believe it was their first six-plex. Nowadays, it seems like towns are either massively overscreened, with several new theaters and lots of competition, or woefully underscreened with one aging, neglected, outdated property. I know the expense of constructing a new movie theater in 2015 is incredibly high, but I think the bean counters at some chains are missing an opportunity. It is sad to see the number of towns in Kansas and Missouri (and other states) that have no theaters at all anymore, so I suppose a town can be grateful if they have one that is still open.
This theatre is scheduled to be closed and is not a part of the sale of Warren Theatres to Regal. http://www.kansas.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/carrie-rengers/article151485057.html
The Premiere Palace closed on June 8, 2017: http://www.bigscreen.com/j/Springfield-MO-Premiere-Palace-Closed/4669
This opened on December 8th, 1995. Its grand opening ad can be found in the photo section.
This is where TikTok person Bailey use to work at between 2012-2017, he creates TikTok videos about this stories of working at this theater. His TikTok name is @movie-daddy
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8v686NJ/