PITTSBURGH, PA — The number of screens it has had over the years expanded and contracted, but for over six decades, the Cheswick Theatre has been entertaining patrons in the Alle-Kiski Valley area. The owner is reluctant to close it, but economic realities have left him no choice.

"I didn’t want to close it, but there is such a thing that when it starts costing you money, you have no other alternative.”

The closing of the four-screen Cheswick Theatre along the north side of Pittsburgh Street comes two years after its sister building, which had two screens, closed.

It’s another step toward the end of an era in the Alle-Kiski Valley in which movie lovers flocked to downtown neighborhood theaters in New Kensington, Vandergrift, Cheswick and Tarentum.

Read more at Pittsburgh Live.

BONITA SPRINGS, FL — The Regal Stadium 12, which closed in June, will re-open in as the Prado Cinema Cafe. The twelve screens will remain; new amenities will include leather seats, a grill menu, beer and wine availability, and wait service. The Prado’s other tenants hope the theater’s re-opening will increase traffic at the distressed shopping plaza.

Four months after Regal Stadium 12 shuttered its doors in Bonita Springs, a new movie theater has announced plans for a return to the big screen in full Hollywood style, with more bells and more whistles.

Cinema Cafe is expected to open in February in The Prado at Spring Creek on U.S. 41, featuring 12 screens, leather seats, beer and wine service, a grill menu and waiter service.

“The Prado Cinema Cafe will bring a long overdue, upgraded cinema experience with value-added services to the Lee County area, but at affordable, everyday prices,” said Doug Olson, sales and leasing specialist for LandQwest Commercial, who secured the deal.

More detail in the Naples News.

KANSAS CITY, MO — When the former Crown Center 6 closed two years ago, the space occupied by four of its former screening rooms was converted into a live theater venue. The remaining two screens will be re-opening soon as the Screenland Crown Center. The cinema will operate from Thursday through Sunday most of the time and feature independent, foreign, and documentary films.

That programming should distinguish it from the more commercial fare shown at AMC’s Mainstreet in the nearby Power & Light District.

“Our intent was to find an operator who would fit more into our entertainment strategy, something outside first-run, big-studio pictures,” said Rick Brown of Crown Center Redevelopment.

More details at the Kansas City Star.

SUMTER, SC — The three screens of the Sumter Value Cinema have gone dark. The theater, once known as the Movies 3, served this community located about forty miles east of Columbia.

"It’s good to have a place to go that doesn’t cost too much,” he said. “Especially in this economy.”

Leasure said he could bring five people and get drinks and popcorn for everyone for about $40.

“I’d spend $40 at the other place just to get in the door,” he said. “I don’t know what we’ll do now."

Read more in The Item.com.

CANBY, OR — This town, about twenty miles south of Portland, is looking forward to the opening of the Cinemagic Cinema 8. The town’s former Canby Theater closed decades ago. The theater is a major component of a downtown revitalization project in Canby. The owner of the Cinemagic Theaters, Chuck Nakvasil, also operates theaters in the greater Portland area and not long ago opened a 7-screen cinema in Scappoose, to the north of the City of Roses.

Canby Cinema 8, the city of Canby and Canby Urban Renewal Agency will celebrate the opening of Canby’s new theater on Friday, Oct. 30 at 5:30 p.m. with a public dedication of the Northeast Second Avenue and public parking lot project followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the cinema.

The public-private partnership project has been in the works for three-and-a-half years as a revitalization project for Canby’s historic downtown. The Canby Urban Renewal Agency has invested $1.9 million in a new streetscape and a 150-space public parking lot that will serve the downtown area.

Read more about the Canby opening in the Canby Herald.

LOS ANGELES, CA — It’s been many years since a new theater opened in downtown Los Angeles, but the the Regal Stadium 14 opens this week on W. Olympic Boulevard as part of AEG’s L.A. Live complex. All screening rooms feature digital projection and four are 3D capable. Seating capacities in the auditoriums range from 140 to 800; the largest has a balcony and a 75 x 38 ft. screen and can be operated separately from the other screens using a separate entrance which is intended to appeal to studios as place to launch the opening of high profile films.

The premiere house, located on the ground floor, was designed specifically to accommodate film debuts, AEG officials said. It features stadium seating, a balcony and a 75-by-38-foot screen. It is accessible from a separate lobby adjacent to the main entrance and has a concession stand separate from the rest of the complex. It can be completely sectioned off for events while other auditoriums operate normally, said Roth during a recent tour of the facility.

Russ Nunley, vice president of marketing and communications for the Regal Entertainment Group, said that the one-stop-shopping quality of L.A. Live could also make it ideal for premieres.

“The location lends itself to that celebrity spotlight, with the neighboring clubs and amenities,” he said. “It really is a unique location that can host all of the activities related to a red-carpet event."

More information and pictures at LA Downtown News.

CLARKSVILLE, IN — The 10-screen GreenTree Mall bargain cinema operated by Cinemark was shuttered as of October 18. Cinemark had closed the nearby Greentree 4 some years previously.

While the theater has lost customers to newer Great Escape theaters in the area, it still had a following with families and students looking to see movies at discounted prices a few months after their initial release.

Ticket prices range from $1 to $2, depending on matinees and weekend show times. On Tuesdays, moviegoers in a group of three or more paid 50 cents each.

More details in the Courier-Journal.

According to their respective chains’ websites, both the Phoenix Theaters’ Union Station 9 and the Nova Cinemas’ Theatres of Georgetown at the Factory Stores of America center in Georgetown, KY have both closed. The Union Station 9 was opened in 1988 by AMC as part of the rejuvenation project at the station and was spun of to the Phoenix circuit after the AMC/Loew’s merger. The closing had appeared imminent over the last several months.

The 7-screen Theatres of Georgetown only operated for a few years and is apparently a victim of the recession, according to this brief item at Kentucky.com.

Citizens of Hope Mills, NC near Fayettville, recently hailed the opening of the new Millstone 14 cinema, the latest unit in the Charlotte-based Stone Theaters circuit. The town had not had a theater in many years. In Secaucus, NJ, Chicago-based Kerasotes has opened its first location on the East Coast, the Showplace 14.

Read more in the Fayette Observer and at nj.com.

RUTLAND, VT — All ten of Cinema North’s current theaters were shut down as of October 13. The theaters operate under the Movieplex name and include one theater in both Vermont and Massachusetts, and eight in New York state.

Some news reports indicated that the closings were temporary, but at least one claimed that the chain was filing for bankruptcy.

A sign on the front of the cinema’s doors in North Adams also says it’s “temporarily closed.” All information was wiped from the corporation’s Web site late Tuesday morning. Calls to its headquarters Tuesday have gone unanswered. The Rutland Herald reported that an employee in the corporation’s headquarters said the owners would be not be releasing any information on Tuesday.

North Adams theater manager Scott Ingalls told the Berkshire News Network on Tuesday morning that the closure means the loss of 15 to 20 full- and part-time jobs, including his and a full-time projectionist.

Read more in iBerkshires and in the Rutland Herald.