UA The Movies Hayward 6

24800 Hesperian Boulevard,
Hayward, CA 94545

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Robert L. Lippert Theatres Inc., United Artists Theater Circuit Inc.

Architects: Vincent Robert Bonfanti

Functions: Church

Previous Names: Hayward 6 Cinemas, Hayward Cinema 5

Nearby Theaters

UA The Movies Hayward 6

The Hayward 6 Cinemas was opened by Robert L. Lippert Theatres Inc. (Affiliate Theaters) on November 13, 1976. It was located near Hayward’s Southland Mall. For a while it was operating with 5-screens.

By 1983 it was operated by United Artists. Competition from nearby multiplexes with stadium seating helped bring its demise in August 2002. It became a church named Heart of the Bay Christian Center.

Contributed by scottfavareille

Recent comments (view all 22 comments)

grimbasement
grimbasement on December 15, 2006 at 10:19 am

This theater holds a a special memory for me. My mom and I literally scraped together enough change to take me to see E.T. there. I was too young to be embarrassed but old enough to remember how poor we were and what a sacrifice it was to see a movie.

celaniasdawn
celaniasdawn on April 4, 2011 at 4:53 pm

Went and saw a movie there late evening once and never went there again. Halfway during the movie it went off focus and after 5 minutes, I went to the lobby and no one was around. The snack bar was closed, the door to the projection booth was open, so i went in there and went upstairs and the projectionist was asleep. I woke the guy up and he fixed the picture back. Then later, this couple sat in the last row and got on their cell phones and started talking to people. I got up and walked up to them and told them to take it out to the lobby, turned out they were employees working there! I immediately asked for the manager, I really went off on him. I demanded a refund and got it. I wrote a letter of complaint to United Artists, and they never responded to me. No wonder that theater closed.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on April 4, 2011 at 5:01 pm

Another reason I am so glad I got of the Theatre business in 1983 after almost ten years.Guys like me are gone; that is guys like balconyclosed CAN’T ENJOY A DECENT FILM!!!!!!

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on April 4, 2011 at 5:07 pm

That is why Gals like Balconyclosed…Just in case it ain’t a guy.Okay.

Rudy
Rudy on August 7, 2015 at 2:37 pm

I remember seeing Independence Day in that old theater back in 96 during it’s theatrical run. Starship Troopers in 1997 with my dad and my cousins. It’s funny how my dad took us to see this flick due to the violence and some sexuality which is tame today. The Relic in 96 also and Deep Impact in 1998. Awesome time in at this movie theater as a kid. I think I might of saw SideKicks with Chuck Norris and the late Jonathan Bandis back in 93 in this same theater.

jwmovies
jwmovies on March 27, 2022 at 7:35 pm

I saw The Wiz here in November ‘78! It was 5 screens then. 3 shoebox on one side and 1 shoebox and a larger theatre on the other side. Later the restrooms became 2 cinemas and #1 and #2 became 1 for a total of 6 screens. Actually a nice theater comparison to UA Berkeley (yuck!).

Trolleyguy
Trolleyguy on March 28, 2022 at 7:38 am

the building is currently being used as an Armed Forces recruiting center.

Scott Neff
Scott Neff on March 30, 2022 at 10:30 am

Ron - thanks for posting this ad. I was always pretty sure that this opened with six screens and always figured the five screen confusion came from the GCC Southland up the street.

However, I think it opened as a UA. Festival operated the Festival 6 (later 9), also up the street.

Scott Neff
Scott Neff on April 7, 2022 at 11:43 am

Looking through various ads available through Newspapers.com it does appear that though this opened as a six screen theatre in 1976, sometime around November 1977 it began appearing as Hayward Cinema 5. Wasn’t until around spring 1988 that it returns to six screens.

Looking at the footprint of the building it doesn’t seem likely they added/removed part of the structure so my guess is that they needed an auditorium with larger capacity and knocked down a wall to make five screens, and likely put it back up later when having more screens outweighed having more seats.

Also, this began appearing in the International Motion Picture Almanac as a UA theater in 1983.

Eric
Eric on December 29, 2024 at 1:42 pm

Indeed this theatre was originally opened as a 6-screen theatre, with 6 identical shoe box auditoriums side by side along the backside of the theatre. There were storefront/restaurant spaces on the front side of the building on each side of the lobby and entrance into the theatre.

In Septmeber-October 1977, in an unusual move for theatres at the time, two of the shoeboxes (#5 & #6) had the wall between them removed, creating one large wide auditorium (newly created #5), changing this theatre from the HAYWARD 6 to the HAYWARD 5. Newspaper ads detailing the “enlargement of one of their screens” have been uploaded to the photos section.

In 1988, the theatre underwent some additional changes. The original #1 & #2 shoeboxes also had the wall removed between them, creating another large wide auditorium, bringing the original shoebox auditorium count down to 4 screens. But then in addition, the storefront/restaurant spaces were converted into two new auditoriums, bringing the theatre back to a 6-plex, re-named UA THE MOVIES HAYWARD 6. The lobby was also remodeled at this time, removing the center concession stand that had split the lobby down the center, with the original set up of shoeboxes #1-3 on one side of the concession stand and lobby, and shoeboxes #4-6 (later #4-5) on the other. The concession stand was relocated to the right side of the lobby.

The theatre was very poorly run in the 1990’s with many many problems as noted by other comments. There were always problems with the projection, sound, cracked lenses, movies not starting on time or not starting at all, dirty auditoriums, shady staff, etc.

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