Regal Fenway Stadium 13

The AMC Fenway 13 formally opened its doors for business on June 23, 2000; among its initial offerings were 'Chicken Run' and 'Me, Myself, and Irene'.

As popular - and as justly popular - an addition the Fenway 13 proved to be to Boston's moviegoing scene, its opening contributed to a considerable degree to the decline and closing of the relatively nearby Cheri Theatre. The Cheri, which became more of a destination venue for moviegoers as more and more film venues within the city were shuttered in the '80s and '90s, and a showcase for blockbuster flicks, suddenly found itself fighting with its new booking zone partner for product - and, in turn, for audiences. The final nail in the Cheri's coffin was the opening of the 19-screen, all-stadium seating Loews Boston Common Theatre on July 20, 2001. The Cheri became a discount house - and increasingly an afterthought to both Loews, the chain which operated it, and the film-seeking public - and closed its doors for good in November 2001; its space is currently occupied by the Kings bowling alley and a Jasper White's Summer Shack restaurant. (Meanwhile, another fellow zone mate closed its doors - the Nickelodeon, once the top arthouse in Boston, which Loews cut loose as part of its bankruptcy reorganization in February of 2001; the building which housed the Nickelodeon was subsequently demolished by Boston University, its landlord, in the spring of 2003; B.U. is currently constructing a Life Sciences and Engineering building on the property.)

For some history of how Boston came to have only two movie theatres, both opened within the last five years, see the extensive comments on the Copley Place Cinemas page.

The Landmark Center, which contains this theatre as well as retail and office space, is on the National Register of Historic Places. This redevelopment of an old Sears warehouse won several preservation awards. Some links to pages by Bruner/Cott, the developer:

Landmark Center
Landmark Center: text description
Links to interior, exterior, and construction photos

Although General Cinema had its headquarters in neighboring Newton, this was the chain's first foray into Boston city limits since closing or selling the Paramount in the early 1970s.

For years and years General Cinemas home office was in Boston at 500 Boylston Street. They didn't move out to Newton/Chestnut Hill until about 1975.

The former 500 Boylston Street building was demolished in the late 1980s and replaced by a new development with the same street address.

According to today's Variety, the Fenway is slated to be sold:

"As the result of an antitrust review of the AMC and Loews merger, which was announced in June and is expected to close early next year, the exhibs will sell 10 theaters in six cities.
The exhibexhib bizbiz is closely monitored by antitrust officials so that one chain does not, in effect, have a monopoly on movies in any particular market. Because Loews and AMC had competitive theaters in several distribdistrib zones, some sell-off was expected (Daily Variety, June 22).

After unloading the 10 theaters -- five each from AMC and Loews, comprising 93 screens total -- the merged company will be left with 437 locations and 5,843 screens in the U.S., making it the second-largest chain after Regal, which has 6,264 screens...[the list of sites to be sold include] the AMC Fenway 13 in Boston and the Loews Meridian 16 in Seattle."

Thanks for posting that. Here's the official press release listing all of the theatres to be sold. Five will be sold by each chain. AMC Fenway 13 is the only one in New England. The other nine are in NYC, DC, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, and San Francisco.

An article in today's Boston Globe suggests Sumner Redstone's National Amusements (Showcase Cinemas) as the most likely buyer.

They've been in our suburbs for decades, and own the Circle Cinemas which straddle the Boston-Brookline boundary. But they have never had a location in the central city.

That would be quite a shocker. Are the Redstones selling the Circle, or going to use it as a moveover house?

Look at the comments for the Circle. Back in January there were news articles about the Circle possibly closing and being sold to a housing developer. Hasn't happened yet, though.

I understand Regal is buying Fenway. That would be their first in the Boston area, I believe.

Regal has theatres in the far exurbs of Boston, places called Bellingham and Berlin and Kingston and Westboro. I'd hate to see them invade the city.

Regal has theatres in the far exurbs of Boston, places called Bellingham and Berlin and Kingston and Westboro. I'd hate to see them invade the city.

Why?

Because everything I've ever read about them here at CinemaTreasures, or at CinemaTour, is awful. Sounds like they bombard the audience with 20 minutes of unwanted loud commercials before each show. We don't need that here in Boston.

I agree with you. However, I get that everytime I visit an AMC or Showcase too. Seems like the theatre owner's just don't understand what turns off the customer.

Today's Boston Globe reports that Regal is buying the Fenway 13, effective this Friday.

I stopped by the theatre today and talked to some employees. They said it would close early tomorrow evening so that they could change the signage.

Yeah, its been 9 months of just waiting for this to happen. I worked at the Fenway with AMC, and I'll be staying on with Regal. I've been impressed with this building since I first visited it, and transferred there when the opportunity came with AMC. Both GCC and AMC did a great job with this theatre, winning Best of Boston several times even with the more amenity-laden Boston Common Theatre nearby. Its a shame, I liked AMC, but we will see if Regal can continue the tradition. Best of Boston went to the Commons this year, but I suspect that was due to the anticipation of this sale to finally go through, there were many logistical issues.

I should add that the theatre will be closed on Sept 14th in order to facilitate some training of employees.

Take pictures of the place so you can remember what it was. Whatever Regal is paying for it is probably the last money that will be put into it - they'll run it into the ground same as they have done with their theatres in New York.

Today's Boston Globe ad for AMC Fenway just says:

CLOSED TODAY!
OPENS TOMORROW AS REGAL CINEMAS!

Also, yesterday's ad had no showtimes after 7:50 pm.

It's been open a little over six years, and it's already on its third owner.

I did take pictures of the place with all the signage still up. I hope this place doesn't get run into the ground as I'll be staying on with Regal for now. Never thought that one theatre would change hands so many times. I'll be in today, and will post later on what changes are like.

Let's hope your experience is better than this guy in Seattle.

Haha, that definitely provided a needed chuckle. I hope my experience is better than that, I know AMC, even being all corporate , wasn't quite like that....

Ah well....Best of luck to the REGAL Fenway 13.

I'm still kind of surprised that Redstone didn't snatch this up. I guess that the Circle is going to stick around a little while longer.

According to their ad in today's Boston Herald, Regal Entertainment is calling this cinema the "Fenway Stadium 13".

but in the Globe, it's the "Regal Fenway 13". The Globe ad still includes the website www.moviewatcher.com which is obviously wrong.

When I try to phone the theatre, it just rings, no answer.

Let's wait another day or two before renaming it here at CinemaTreasures.

I would personally rather not rename it. It is officially called the Regal Fenway Stadium 13. There is no interactive voice recording, yet. Regal is actually putting money into the theatre, but crew morale is pretty low right now. It doesn't seem "fun" anymore, but we'll see what happens when the bigwigs leave.

CinemaTreasures generally prefers to call theatres by their current name. I'm just trying to figure out what it is. The Globe ad doesn't include the word Stadium in the name.

I think changing it to simply "Fenway 13" covers all the bases on this one. They can list "Regal" under the chain info.

Like Joen05 said, the official name is "Regal Fenway Stadium 13".

Regal's own ads (which appeared in last weekend's Boston Herald) called it the "Fenway Stadium 13". In a similar vein, Regal took over the E-Walk in Times Square, NYC also last week and it is now referred in ads as the "Regal E-walk Stadium 13". It was previously known as the E-Walk 13 or just the E-Walk when Loews (and later AMC) had it.

I guess Regal likes to put the "stadium" in there to differentiate from it's conventional seating theatres.

I concur with dwodweyla though, if only for the sake of clarity.

Regal is putting money in to the theater? Are they re-paint/wall paper everything to coordinate with the Regal colors like they did at Union Square and at Brass Mill Center in Waterbury, CT? I can't imagine this theater is run down, General Cinema built theaters in such a way that I don't think they ever looked run down, I imagine its simular to Clifton Commons in New Jersey, which is still in great shape and AMC (which hasn't really put any money in to remodeling theaters) only installed new carpeting in theaters.

I love that at this point in Boston the AMC Theatre has "LOEWS" signage on it, and the Regal Cinema has an "AMC THEATRES" sign on it!

Regal recently added a couple plasma screens into the lobby, I noticed some other screen type thing being built in the lobby today. The concession stand is another thing Regal wants to redo. Apparently the building is "extremely run down" according to Regal standards. Will keep you guys posted on other changes.

Any news on how this is doing since Regal took over? Are they getting any of the good pictures or is AMC hogging them all over at the Boston Commons?

Nope, still getting all the 1st runs (for the most part). Actually got quite a few for '300' this past weekend.. outgrossed the Commons apparently. :-P

Just wanted to let everyone know that our review of the Regal Fenway 13 is up on our website, part of our Summer Tour to Boston-area theaters we've never visited before. We found it to be a rather pleasant and accomodating place. Although I was a bit surprised to see that the giant AMC signage is STILL in place nearly a year after Regal took over...
You can read the review at http://popcornnroses.typepad.com/popcorn_n_roses/2007/05/pnr_metro_bosto.html

Just wanted to let everyone know that our review of the Regal Fenway 13 is now up on our website. It's the first in a series of reviews focusing on Boston-area theaters we've never been to before. We found it to be a pleasant and enjoyable experience, although the fact that the giant AMC sign is still up nearly a year after Regal took over was interesting...
You can read the review at http://popcornnroses.typepad.com/popcorn_n_roses/2007/05/pnr_metro_bosto.html

Not all General Cinema's were built so they didn't get run down. I bet the reason the ones in the Boston area were nice is because that's where the home office was. Another reason is most of GC 's old theatres are closed and mostly only the new ones are still open.

I know of some that were dumps. One of the biggest dumps was the Har Mar 11 in Roseville,Mn. Har Mar had a 3 and 8 plex and the 8 was built by GC and the 3 by Mann. It was poorly maintained for years along with the Northtown 4 in Blaine,Mn.The Shelard Park 5 in St.Louis Park,Mn. wasn't much of a theatre either. The Greenwood Park1-4 in Greenwood,In ( Indianapolis ) was in need of repairs. It was later closed along with Greenwood 5-7 for the new Greenwood 14 about a year before AMC took over GC.

General Cinema had some nice theatres as well. When the started building a bunch of megaplexes some of those were nice. The Southtown in Bloomington,Mn. was a nice one they got from Mann.

Sometime in the fall of 2007, they finally took down the "AMC" sign out front and replaced it with a "REGAL" sign.
For all the doom and gloom in this thread, I can report I have seen many movies at the Fenway, and the experience has been nothing but good. Theaters 12 and 13 are among the biggest screens I have ever seen, and the picture and sound are consistently good. YES, the pre-show commercials are loud and annoying, but just turn to your date and ignore them if you can. The bathrooms are plentiful and they have paper towels!

In the Boston Herald of January 14, 2008 there is a review written by Jed Gottlieb of the live feed from the Metropolitan Opera House in NY of Verdi's "Macbeth" which was presented in one of the auditoriums at the Regal Fenway at 130PM on Sat. Jan. 12th. Tickets were $22 and the show sold out in advance so that there were hopeful ticket-buyers hanging out in front, just like at live events. Gottlieb liked the performance but didn't care for the intermission camera-work showing stagehands changing the sets; he thought that it worked against the make-believe. There were subtitles in English. The next performance at the Fenway will be on Feb. 16. The shows are live-via-satellite.

Does anyone here know if there is a Cheap/Matinee day on this theater? Or any promotions? In Worcester Big Y Supermarkets have a thing that you can buy tickets for 7 something and use them when ever you want on Showcase and Cinema de Lux. (http://www.bigy.com/coins/coins_showcase_cinemas.php)

This is not a Showcase theatre, it is Regal.

I know that this is Regal, that is why I am asking if anyone knows any promotions or discounts on this theater.

I don't know if here are any promotions unique to this Regal Theater but Regal offers (on its website) two types of "VIP Tickets". The cheaper one is valid after a film's opening period (usually about two weeks) and the more expensive one is valid anytime. These tickets are also available through AAA and possibly through other sources such as those "Entertainment" books.

Now that the Circle Cinemas have closed, this is one of only two remaining movie theatres within Boston city limits. (The other one is AMC Loews Boston Common.)

A small fire in the Regal Fenway a couple of days ago resulted in the sprinklers activating. Then no one could figure out how to turn them off. There was flooding and water damage to the complex which houses the cinema.

Regal website

Here is a 2008 photo.