The Cine 10 started life as the ultra-modern Cine 1-2-3-4 in 1972. The theater was located behind the Northway Mall in Colonie and was the Albany area's top-grossing theater for a good number of years. It was built by SBC Theaters, and was similar in style and architecture to their Cinema City in Hartford, CT (now Bow Tie Cinema City), the Cine 8 in Enfield, CT (demolished), and the Cine Greece in Greece, NY. Originally, theaters 1 and 2 seated roughly 400 each, and 3 and 4 seated roughly 250 each. The houses all featured red rocker-recliner chairs, red wall drapes, and floating curved screens with no maskings. In the mid 70's, two more screens were added, along with two more illuminated blue numbers onto the existing sign, reading "CINE 1-2-3-4-5-6". The two new screens sat roughly 200 each.
A few years later, two more screens were added next to 5 and 6, seating roughly 200 each. Two more numbers went onto the facade, reading "CINE 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8". SBC sold their chain to Hoyt's around 1990, and sometime either just before or after, theaters 1 and 2 were split, and the numbers 2 through 8 were pulled off the facade, replaced with a single "0", thus the sign read "CINE 10".
Major competition came in 1984 in the newly-built Crossgates Mall 12, opened by Cinema Centers Corporation. The new mall is located under two miles away from the Northway Mall, which by this time could have been classified as a 'dead mall'. Hoyt's also bought Cinema Centers around the same time they purchased SBC, so they owned both theaters. In the late 90's, the Crossgates Mall underwent a massive expansion, and Hoyt's opened a new stadium-seated 18-plex in another part of the mall, giving them 30 screens in two complexes at Crossgates. At this time, the Cine 10 became "ALL SEATS $2.99" and showed subrun movies. The attendance rebounded, but once the lease ran up, Hoyt's closed up shop at the Cine 10, in the year 2000.
The theater sat, gutted, vacant, and somewhat boarded up, for years. It was demolished in May, 2007, along with a former adjacent department store building, for a Lowe's Home Center.
Contributed by Joe Masher
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