900 North Michigan Theaters

Aaron, the 900 N. Michigan theaters closed about a year ago, and I thought I read somewhere that a fitness center was opening in the building. The 600 N. Michigan Theaters are still open. Its size and a large megaplex opening downtown (the River East 21) last year were a couple of reasons why this theater was closed (the McClurg Court, just down the street from the River East, was shuttered for similar reasons).

The 900 N Michigan theater was a twin located on the bottom level of the 900 North Shopping Center. Both theaters were rather large and held around 600 each. They played a mixture of first run, exclusive first run, and art films. I saw such films as "Cobb", "Best in Show", and "Adaptation" in their exclusive showings at 900 North. There were rumblings for about a year before the theater closed that it was in danger. The manager told me it was a week to week operation. The theatre closed in February of 2003 with "Adaptation" as its final booking which was on both screens.

The space was converted to an Equinox health club in 2004. Competition from the megaplex closed four smaller theaters along Michigan--McClurg, 900 North, Water Tower, and the Fine Arts (further south). Rumors have surrounded the Esquire for a while, as it sits on prime real estate.
.pc

These were nice, modern theaters when they fist opened. I saw a lot of big Hollywood films here. Sound and projection were for the time state-of-the-art (DTS and 70mm). After a couple of years, they started becoming run-down. The location was great. Decor was cookie-cutter Cineplex Odeon: mauve was the predominant color-scheme.

It is interesting that back when Sony-Loews and Cineplex Odeon merged, this was one of the theatres that was to be divested. The theatre was supposed to have been sold to the ill-fated Meridien Theatres chain (which lasted about 2 years). The owners of the building didn't think that Meridien had the financial means for this property--it is in the "high-rent district" of Chicago--thus the sale was never consummated.

The United States Department of Justice did take Loews-Cineplex to court because of this failure to divest the theatre. I found the following from doing a Google search:

"The 900 North Michigan Avenue theatre is a two screen site located a few blocks from the 600 Michigan Avenue location. Because of its small size and unusual location (in the basement of a very upscale multi-use development), this theatre historically has had lower revenues than the 600 North Michigan location. When Loews presented Meredian as the potential purchaser for this theatre in February, 1999, the landlord consented to an assignment of the lease to Meredian. However, because the landlord had refused to consent to the assignment of the 600 North Michigan lease to Meredian, Meredian's banker declined to finance an independent purchase of 900 North Michigan."--from the USDOJ website on the lawsuit.

It all eventually became a moot point anyways. Even though the theatre remained with Loews, it was closed in 2003 and converted to a health club. There are those who say that Cineplex-Odeon opened up this theatre in response to getting booted out of the nearby Esquire (in favor of Sony-Loews)and that C-O was going to apply the Esquire name on this theatre.

Saw "Snow Falling on Cedars" here. I liked this theater, it was kind of a hidden gem on the Mag Mile. I guess having two screens just didn't cut it.