Copley Place Cinemas

With the Copley Place Cinemas' imminent closing, hopefully Loews or another chain (Landmark, perhaps?) will attempt to fill the soon-to-be-existent art-house void within the city of Boston...

Wow, you weren't kidding - check out these house-counts: 120 - 100 - 55 - 150 - 150 - 45 - 67 - 67 - 67 - 75 - 132 - total 1028 seats - according to the Dec. 1999 Loews directory. It's amusing that the screening room in the home office seats more people than each of the five smallest, dare I say, 'theatres' at this location....

Initially this had 9 screens. It was later 'expanded' to 11.

The newspapers have been expecting this to close ever since Loews Boston Common opened. If it does go dark, Boston will have only two movie theaters wholly within city limits: Loews Boston Common and AMC Fenway.

On my trips to Boston I was always amazed that all of the city area theatres were gone. Does the above post mean that NONE of the great theatres survived at all?

At least not as functioning movie theatres, Robert. Most of the old movie palaces have either been demolished, are laying in rot (the Gayety on Washington Street, to name one), or, in some fortunate cases, restored and serving - or awaiting restoration to serve - as theatrical or performing arts venues (the Wang Center, the Opera House, and the Paramount, just to name a few).

Growing up in Boston in the '80s and '90s, most of the theatres I went to with regularity (the Beacon Hill, the Charles, the Cheri, the Cinema 57, the Nickelodeon, the Paris, and the Pi Alley) closed their doors. Meanwhile, living in Manhattan, most of my favorite smaller places in which to catch a flick (the Art Greenwich, the Murray Hill, the Regency, the Waverly - or, at least its operation as the Waverly) have done the same, essentially to make room for the newer, stadium-seating venues... guess it's just the evolution, as it is, of film exhibition in general...

Just to clarify something from my previous post - the Nickelodeon and Cheri both closed in 2001, the former in February and the latter in October of that year.

Very true but at least we have a few gems left like The Paris, Beekman and to an extent Cinema 1-2-3 and The Metro.

The Copley Place has long been the venue for the annual Boston Film Festival. Where would it move to in the event of the theatre's demise? Loew's Boston Common? The Kendall Square???...even though it is in Cambridge.
http://www.bostonfilmfestival.org/

This is what I recall of the old downtown and Back Bay Boston movie houses:

converted to live stages:
Orpheum - now used mostly for rock concerts
Music Hall - now Wang Center for the Performing Arts
Saxon - now Emerson College's Cutler Majestic Theatre
Savoy - now the Opera House, reopened this summer and currently featuring "The Lion King"
Cinema 57 - now Stuart Street Playhouse

demolished:
Pilgrim
State (Park)
EM Loew's West End Cinema
Nickelodeon

converted to other uses:
Paris - now a Walgreen's drugstore
Cheri - now a nightclub and bowling alley
Beacon Hill - now a Copy Cop
Pi Alley - some other retail use
Stuart - now a McDonald's
Charles - disappeared into Charles River Plaza redevelopment
Park Square - some other office or retail use
Kenmore Square - now Boston University Barnes & Noble bookstore

vacant, awaiting restoration:
Paramount
Modern (Mayflower)

vacant, awaiting possible demolition:
Publix (Gaiety)

vacant, awaiting some new tenant and use:
Exeter Street (which has been Conran's furniture store, Waterstone's bookstore, and offices of a dot-bomb called "idealab!")

Oops, I left out at least three

demolished:
Gary (Plymouth) - torn down to make way for State Transportation Building
Astor (Tremont) - site now occupied by Loews Boston Common multiplex cinema

converted to live stage:
Fenway - now Berklee Performance Center. (On Mass. Ave., not to be confused with the current AMC Fenway multiplex)

also, some tiny little Back Bay venues like the Pru Cinema, Cinema 733, and Garden Cinema simply disappeared and were replaced by restaurants or retail stores

I remember the Kendall Square Cinema co-hosted the Boston Film Festival for two, maybe three, years in the mid-'90s, Gerald. Perhaps with the closing of the Copley Place that will resume or maybe the Boston Common (which has served as festival co-host since 2001) will become the festival's lone home. (I long thought the BFF should emulate the NY Film Festival by screening a handful of prestige films at one or two prime venues - i.e., the Wang Center and, now that it's been restored, the Opera House - but that's another topic for another day... )

To me, it's sad (but not surprising) that the Copley Place is the last of the theaters inside city limits that I knew from living in Boston from 1986 (as a college student) to 1999. From the mid-90s on, all Boston had was the Copley Place, the Cheri, and the Nickelodeon. If it wasn't enough of a potential action blockbuster to play the Cheri, or arty enough for the Nickelodeon, the Copley Place is where it went. Which is why I saw most of my movies in Brighton and Chestnut Hill.

I know it's a harsh thing to say, but IMHO good riddance when the Copley Place closes. I can't believe that Loews played art films there after they closed the Nickelodeon.

I am happy that the Cheri has found new life :)

I wish Boston had a true art theatre to call its own.

As far as the Boston Film Festival, they already split it between the Copley and Boston Common, so I'd imagine that any closing of the Copley would mean it would be all at Boston Common.

I attended a meeting as a Loews manager in 2001 just as Boston Common was about to open where the president of the company told us that they were considering a renovation of Copley Place into less and better screens, to highlight art-house fare. Obviously, that plan did not come to fruition.

The Copley used to do incredible kids-show business on weekends, but all the popular stuff went to B.C.

As far as the Boston Film Festival, they already split it between the Copley and Boston Common, so I'd imagine that any closing of the Copley would mean it would be all at Boston Common.

I attended a meeting as a Loews manager in 2001 just as Boston Common was about to open where the president of the company told us that they were considering a renovation of Copley Place into less and better screens, to highlight art-house fare. Obviously, that plan did not come to fruition.

The Copley used to do incredible kids-show business on weekends, but all the popular stuff went to B.C.

Many thanks to everyone who posted here for so much good information. I must confess, I never found the Copley to have the charm or appeal of some venues in Boston. But at least it's a venue. So many have been lost. I saw TITANIC here in one of the auditoriums that slopes uphill toward the screen. I felt seasick (honest!). I also saw EVITA in another venue here that had almost no rake to the seating at all. Does anyone recall a small theater near the old North Station/Boston Garden that showed art house films in the sixties? I saw THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET there around 1965, one of my first trips in to the BiG City as a teenager. My impression was that the theater was quite small, almost a store front operation. Given its size, it was a likely candidate for conversion to a porn house.

Tom, the theatre near North Station must have been the West End Cinema, later the Pussycat, but I don't remember it being particularly small. When they were an art house, they had super programming. It is listed on Cinema Treasures. There was a hole-in-the-wall place near SOUTH Station, called the South Station Cinema. It showed (gay) porno in the late 60s, early '70s.

Gerald. Thanks for the reply. It must have been the West End, because I remember (at a distance) the Pussycat in that same location. They did indeed have good programming. "The Shop on Main Street" was great then and now. I don't know why I recall the theater being small--my faulty memory. The South Station Cinema is a fascinating bit of Boston film history. Was it somewhere between S. Station and Chinatown? Another quick question: How long was the Charles a Walter Reade theater? How did Sack get such control in Boston? Your knowledge is encyclopedic.

Besides the 'South Station Cinema' there was another porno house under the same ownership called the 'North Station Cinemas'. This was not the same venue as the West End/Pussycat and was located on one of the north-south streets (probably Friend or Portland).

Ron--Interesting they had one for each station. The names are so neutral. They don't sound like porn theaters. I'm an urban planner and have observed the fringe location phenomenon for these theaters. The South End of Boston did and may still have a high gay population which might account for the South Station Cinemas bookings I'd guess the North Station Cinema had straight porn, though the North Station area has had several gay bars over the years, which also gravitate to fringe locations. There's a journal article in all this somewhere.

Ron: Thanks for the comprehensive listing of the fate of Boston movie theaters past and present. I've archived it. I hope they can save the Gayety, though it sounds like the mayor has dug in his heels on that one. They'll eventually destroy the city in their attempts to save it.

Does anyone know what famous Bostonian ushered at a Loews Theatre in Boston? Thanks.

I know that Ben and Casey Affleck and Matt Damon worked for the Harvard Square Theatre and Janus Cinema, because when I worked there we found their pay stubs in the basement, and when they were at the Harvard Square for the "Good Will Hunting" premiere, they joked about working there.

Thank you very much, Ian!

For the first year and a half, one of the nine Copley Place screens belonged to Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art, which programmed it as the ICA Cinema.

In the fall of 1985, this programming moved out of Copley, to a small theatre within the ICA itself. The ICA seems to have stopped presenting film in recent years; I can't recall the last time I saw a notice about the ICA Cinema.

Later in the 1980s, I recall one of the screens being dedicated to the "Where's Boston" multimedia slide show, which introduced the city to tourists.

Ron, the ICA Cinema on Boylston Street, which probably merits its own listing, had the worst sight lines imaginable. Unless you sat in the very first row, you were doomed to having your view of the screen, and inevitably any subtitles, partially blocked by heads. This was a bad feature of their otherwise fantastic complete Pasolini retrospective.

Yeah, that brings back bad memories. Hopefully the new ICA on Fan Pier will have a better theatre!

The ICA only offers scattered film screenings these days, perhaps due to cost reasons. I saw a Chantal Akerman documentary on Mexican migrant workers there back in March of this year when I was in town visiting family for a few days and second Gerald's assessment of the ICA Cinema's nearly non-existant seating rake; if I wasn't sitting in the front row, reading the accompanying subtitles would have proven to be near-impossible. Stadium-seating (or some reasonable fascimile of it) at the new ICA Cinema on Fan Pier would be a great addition (as would be the return of a consistent film program, one on par with those offered by the Harvard Film Archive and Museum of Fine Arts).

I stopped by the theatre last night to ask how long it was likely to remain open. The employees told me they expect it to close at the end of March next year.

The last few times I've walked by this theatre, the ticket window (which faces out to the mall) was not open. Instead, a sign told people to go inside and buy tickets at the concession stand.

One curiosity about this cinema: it has NO marquee or advertising sign of any kind visible from the surrounding streets. You can walk all the way around the Copley Place mall-office-hotel complex without ever learning that it contains movie theatres.

Even when you're inside the mall, the cinema entrance and marquee are at the end of a side corridor, not visible from the main flow of pedestrian traffic.

Last film I saw there (Copley Place) was Polanski's 'Pirates' w/Walter Matthau, circa 1986. It was screened in a tiny place no larger than a classroom, and the seats in that one pointed up toward the screen, so you felt as if you were in an airplane taking off. It was so disappointing to see a premium release in that space, I never have returned. Good riddance, if they abandon that complex!

I moved this rant from the listings for The Paris Cinema.
The Copley Place Cinema closing?
Couldn't happen to a more deserving theatre.
Badly designed and done strictly so Sack Theatres (or whatever they were called at the time) could control the art house movies. When it opened it was widly reported that they had raised the price for art house films. distributors could get paid more for running there than traditional art houses in Boston. All part of the chain attempting to control the city. They all ready had the only regular theatres in town, so it was only art films & revival houses as alternatives.
Anyone remember the Beacon Hill triplex as an art house?

Yes, Sack built it. Sack later changed its name to 'USACinemas' and a few years afterwards was gobbled up by Loews.

On a separate note does anyone remember another art house in Copley Square called Famous Classics Cinema or something similar. It was very short lived but had an interesting history. Location was between the Paris and the fire station. It was supposed to have a full service bar inside it. Theatre as an art house lasted only a few months but before that it was a porn house regularly shut down for showing Deep Throat.

Yes, I remember it, though I never went there. It lasted only a year or so in the late 1970s. It was on the north side of Boylston Street, across from the Prudential Center.

Before that, when it was a porn house showing Deep Throat, it was called the Pru Cinema. I don't know what (if any) history it had before Deep Throat.

Thanks for the info on the Pru/Famous Classics Cinema. I also noticed someone wrote about the South Station Cinema. Now will anyone give info on the infamous 'Art Cinema' between the Commons and the current Cutler Majestic Theatre. When I worked at the Saxon I would pass the entrance which was as non descript a door as you'll ever see on any building. A tiny marquee with room for maybe 2-3 words was above the door and there was a long unused ticket booth outside. It was a gay porn theatre with an infamous reputation. For years and years you could not really tell if it was open or not.
Main reason for my interest is a proposal for its renovation I heard about years ago that would have featured a cafe/bar in its balcony. Just how big was this place, it looked like a hole in the wall from outside so I always assumed it was a tiny screening room.

Regarding the Beacon Hill as an art house, I believe this policy ran from 1982 until the Copley Place opened in 1984. I posted a comment about it on the Beacon Hill page.

Yes, I remember the Art Cinema, though I certainly never went inside. It was across Tremont Street from the Saxon/Majestic. It had a marquee that was always blank! After it closed, a group wanted to turn it into an independent twin theatre called the Mercator Cinema, but they abandoned their plans for reasons I don't know. I believe the Limelight Stage and Studios now occupy that space.

Here is a history of the Sack / USACinemas / Loews chain in Boston and Cambridge, from 1984 to the present day. All of this is from the Boston Globe and Herald online archives, supplemented by my own memory. Where relevant, I've included openings and closings of competing theatres.


February 1984: Sack Theatres opens the 9-screen Copley Place. Elsewhere in Boston, it already owns the Charles (3 screens), Beacon Hill (3), Pi Alley (2), Cinema 57 (2), Paris (1), and Cheri (3).
The only other movie theatres in central Boston, except for a few porn and kung-fu cinemas in the Combat Zone, are the Exeter Street (1 screen) and the Nickelodeon (5), both of which are considered art houses.

July 1984: The Exeter Street Theatre closes, leaving only the Nickelodeon to compete with Sack in the Boston market.

December 1985: Sack Theatres changes its name to USACinemas.

Mid-May 1986: USACinemas buys the Nickelodeon. It now owns every movie screen in central Boston, other than the aforementioned porno and kung-fu theatres.

Late May 1986: The Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge (3 screens) burns down and never reopens.

August 1986: Off the Wall Cinema (1 screen) closes in Cambridge.

November 1986: USACinemas buys the Harvard Square Theatre (3 screens at the time, I think) and the Janus Cinema (1 screen). It now owns every screen in Cambridge except for the single-screen Brattle, which is mainly a revival house.

August 1987: USACinemas closes the Pi Alley.

March 1988: Loews buys USACinemas.

Spring 1990: Entertainment Cinemas opens the 10-screen Fresh Pond Cinema in Cambridge.

December 1990: Loews buys the Fresh Pond Cinema, quickly eliminating a competitive threat to its Cambridge near-monopoly.

November 1992: Loews closes the Beacon Hill.

March 1993: Loews closes the Paris.

October 1994: Loews closes the Charles.

September 1995: Landmark's Kendall Square Cinemas (9 screens) opens to general acclaim. It is the first real competitor to Loews in Cambridge since 1986.

May 1996: Loews closes the Cinema 57.

October 1998: Loews closes the Janus.

June 2000: General Cinema opens the Fenway 13, the first new movie theatre in Boston since the Copley Place, and the first competitor to Sack/USACinemas/Loews in Boston since 1986.

February 2001: Loews closes the Nickelodeon.

July 2001: Loews opens the Boston Common (19 screens). The Cheri becomes a $5 second-run house.

November 2001: Loews closes the Cheri. This leaves only three cinemas in central Boston: Loews Boston Common, Loews Copley Place, and General Cinema Fenway.

Copley Place Cinema history footnote, a spokesman for Sack was interviewed about the rash of theatre twinning going on that were making theatres smaller & smaller. He made the statement that Sack was dedicted to not creating small cramped theatres, then the reporter brought up Copley Place which had been announced with its miniscule houses. The spokesman said something to the effect if properly designed there was no problem with small houses.
Sorry my memory fades a bit.

I happened to walk through the Copley Place mall tonight and noticed this sign on the cinema marquee:

CLOSING JAN 30TH THANK-YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE

Once this closes...

- only two movie theatres will still exist entirely within Boston city limits: AMC Fenway (13 screens) and Loews Boston Common (19 screens). Both of these are less than five years old.

- no movie theatres will remain in the Back Bay, a neighborhood that had at least six when I first moved to Boston in the 1970s.

- Loews will no longer have any of the Boston city theatres that it inherited from Sack and USACinemas. In greater Boston, only two former Sack or USACinemas theatres will still be operating under Loews ownership: Harvard Square in Cambridge, and Assembly Square in Somerville.

There are the last movies to be shown on the eleven Copley Place screens, January 28-30:

A Very Long Engagement
Ray
Kinsey
Racing Stripes
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Being Julia
Finding Neverland
Spanglish
Closer
The Woodsman (2 shows only)
National Treasure (3 shows only)
The Incredibles (matinees only)
The Assassination of Richard Nixon (evenings only)

And, I should add:

For the first time in many decades, Boston will have no commercial movie screens dedicated to the offbeat, the independent, or the foreign film. At various times, the Beacon Hill, the Kenmore Square, the Park Square, the Exeter Street, the Nickelodeon, and the Copley Place have given these films a home.

Now they have nowhere to go, except out of the city -- to the Brattle or Landmark's Kendall Square in Cambridge, the Coolidge Corner in Brookline, or the West Newton Cinema.

Yes, Ron, that is truly sad. Imagine a similar situation in New York, where all Manhattan residents could see such movies only in Brooklyn, Queens, or Westchester.

I can only second these sentiments. This is, after all, Boston, one of the country's major cities. What factors brought this about. The high cost of real estate. It makes me think of the Publix theater. When the auditorium was free from live performances, they could have run off-mainstream films.

An article from this past Saturday's Boston Herald, discussing the closing of the Loews Copley Place Cinemas:

Loews closing leaves art-film fans in the dark
By Mary Jo Palumbo
Saturday, January 29, 2005

The closing of Loews Copley Place tomorrow leaves Boston with just two downtown movie houses - both showcasing mainstream Hollywood films - and far fewer screens than many cities, according to industry experts.

``For specialty films, Boston is going to be severely underscreened,'' said David Kleiler, former director of the Coolidge Corner Theatre. ``There's a good chance that films with limited distributions won't get screened at all in Boston because of this.''

The 11-screen Loews theater, located in Copley Place for 21 years, will be replaced with upscale Manhattan retailer Barneys New York.

To be blunt, Loews Copley Place wasn't anyone's favorite movie house. The theaters were tiny and cramped. The screens were small, and the seats weren't raked. The theater never had a clear identity, showing a combination of family fare, second-run movies and independent films.

``It was one of the least-loved theaters in the Boston area,'' said Kleiler. ``But it was the only game in town. That's the shame. People in the Back Bay and the South End are very film savvy, and there's nothing to replace it.''

Loews Boston Common, which opened in 2001 with 19 theaters, and the AMC Fenway 13 feature stadium seating, digital sound, big screens, much better sightlines and fancy concession stands. But those screens are devoted to box-office hits, and neither theater appears to be considering a programming change in the wake of the Copley's closing.

Loews management would say little about whether programming at the Boston Common venue will change as a result.

``It was not a matter of Loews deciding to close the theater,'' said Loews spokesman John McCauley. ``Our lease was up and the landlord rented the space to Barneys.

``We have another great theater downtown - the Loews Boston Common - that gives people bigger opportunities to see movies.''

AMC Fenway also aims to continue its mainstream Hollywood fare.

``We strive to provide a variety of films that appeal to a diverse audience and that will continue,'' said AMC spokeswoman Pam Blase. ``We will continue to operate with that same goal in mind.''

Not long ago, Boston cinema buffs could choose from several downtown movie houses showing a range of fare, including the Charles, the Cheri, the Paris, the Nickelodeon and the Exeter Street theaters.

But that's changed in the past decade.

``Boston has long been underscreened,'' Loews Cineplex Entertainment President Travis Reid told the Herald when Loews opened its Boston Common theaters in 2001.

Boston's 32 downtown screens compare with about 63 in downtown Washington, D.C., a city comparable in size to Boston.

What the city needs, according to longtime Boston film booker George Mansour, is a new facility for non-mainstream films. ``It would be great to have a state-of-the-art complex for art films in the heart of the South End,'' said Mansour.

``It would be a tremendous plus for people in the city.''

...and another Boston Herald article about the closing of the Copley, from the day before (with a brief 4-1-1 to the journalist who wrote the article and her editor - it was Sacks Theatres, not 'Saks' and 'Loews Copley', not 'Copley Loews')...

Curtains: Art era's over: Barneys makes cinemas rubble
By Mary Jo Palumbo
Friday, January 28, 2005

The local art film scene will look a lot bleaker Sunday when Loews Copley Place shuts its doors after 21 years screening films.

The 11-screen theater is expected to be replaced by the upscale Manhattan retailer Barneys New York.

``The last show on Sunday night will be the last picture show at Copley,'' Loews spokeswoman Jane Lanouette said.

The move is a blow to foreign and independent movie buffs and to kids who flocked to the movie house to see family films.

``A cinema is always a vital thing to have in a neighborhood,'' said longtime Boston film booker George Mansour. ``This is the loss of a dedicated arthouse within the boundaries of Boston.''

The cinema opened in 1984 as a Saks theater with a brief run as an arthouse.

Bought by Loews in the early 1990s, the theater showed first-run commercial films with an emphasis on family fare for most of its 21-year existence.

When Loews Boston Common opened in 2001, the company decided to program alternative, independent films at the Copley so the two theaters wouldn't compete.

``It became an independent film house by default,'' Mansour said. ``The Copley began and ended with art films. It came full circle.''

The Loews Copley Place was one of the last small-screen multiplex theaters built before the revival of stadium theater seating, in which cinema complexes equipped theaters with improved sound and projection technology.

But that didn't stop people from attending the Copley Loews, which often had long lines and sold-out shows.

The theater was the last venue for nonmainstream fare in a city that once boasted a vibrant art film scene.

The Exeter Street Theater, once a popular venue for independent films, shut its doors in 1984. The Nickelodeon Cinema at Boston University, another favorite art film spot, closed in 2001.

Now Boston film buffs will have to cross the river to the Brattle or the Landmark Kendall Square cinemas in Cambridge or visit the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline.

``(Loews Copley) was a convenient place for people to go,'' Mansour said. ``As always, the movies make the house, and they had some wonderful movies there. It's too bad the theater is closing.''

actually it was Sack Theatres (not Sacks, not Saks)

After noting the demise of the Copley Place theater here, I went to look for the entry for the AMC Fenway on this site and found none; please correct me if I'm wrong. I've never been to that theater. How does it rate as a venue? Does it have stadium seating (does the new Lowes?) Perhaps someone who is familiar with it can create a listing. All I know is that it once was a Sears regional warehouse and that General Cinema did the original conversion within the last ten years, or so. Speaking of the late General Cinema, does AMC use any of their former corporate offices? Does anyone know if their former VP in charge of technical operations, John Norton, is still in the area. He was very, very knowledgable and a strong advocate of good sound and projection. The General Cinema group in its day took real pride in that. John encouraged GC to install some HPS-4000 sounds systems which, IMHO, are among the very best in the industry. Excellent clarity and definition in mid-range frequencies, particularly.

AMC Fenway and Loews Boston Common aren't on this site yet. I've been meaning to add both of them, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Both have stadium seating.

From today's Daily Variety:

BOSTON -- Indie and art film distribs who want a Boston playdate will find that it just became harder.
The Loews Copley Place 11-plex, which opened in 1984 and was the last downtown venue devoting any screens to off-Hollywood product, shuttered Sunday.

According to theater management, the decision was made by the landlord, who reportedly is eager to convert the space into a Barney's clothing store.

This leaves Boston with but two downtown theaters, the 19-screen Loews Boston Common and the 13-screen AMC Fenway, both of which showcase mainstream Hollywood titles.

Far afield

Beantown moviegoers hungering for movies like "Finding Neverland," "A Very Long Engagement" and the like will have to go to neighboring communities to see them, as neither downtown theater plans to change its booking policies.

Landmark's nine-screen Kendall Square in Cambridge has become a major artpic venue since it opened in 1995, but it's several blocks away from major retail or transit hubs.

Two other theaters have better locations but fewer booking opportunities: the one-screen Brattle in Cambridge and the three-screen Coolidge Corner in Brookline. The six-screen West Newton Theater is not accessible by the subway/trolley system but has developed a loyal arthouse audience among those who can drive there.

Boston has historically been considered underscreened, and it may get worse. National Amusements has the only other Boston theater, the six-screen Cleveland Circle that literally straddles the Boston/Brookline border. Unlike Fenway and Boston Common, it is an older theater without stadium-style seating. The company reportedly is considering selling the land to a developer for condominiums.

The Brattle is primarily a revival house, with a calendar published well in advance. They do squeeze in a few week-long first runs, but there is absolutely no flexibility in the schedule to accommodate any film that suddenly takes off and develops a following.

The Coolidge is better described as a two-screen movie theatre with an additional 45-seat video-only screening room.

The Kendall is a fine theater. Alas, it's a long, dreary walk from the Red Line through a barren wasteland made worse in extreme weather; and driving in there, at least from the South Shore, can be a real chore, even outside of the rush hour. The Kendall doesn't have stadium seating; but the screens are nicely proportioned and the rake of the auditoriums is better than most standard theaters. Regarding the departed Copley, I must confess, I won't miss those auditoriums that sloped downward from the screen. Gack.

While living in Boston in the mid-late 1990s, I remember reading every so often about either Loews or AMC (or maybe both?--the memory here is foggy) planning to build a multiplex in the South End. Whatever happened with that? The South End, if I remember correctly, was/is a crummy neighborhood, but wouldn't that be a different location than downtown/Fenway?

And good riddance to the Copley Place cinemas.

Loews was going to build a multiplex in Kenmore Square, and another at the 'Crosstown Center' on Mass. Ave. in the South End, near Boston City Hospital. When Loews went into bankruptcy, these plans died.

Robert Redford wanted to build a Sundance Cinema multiplex near Kenmore Square, and that didn't happen either.

Where could Robert Redford have possibly built the multiplex? Kenmore Square is totally jammed with buildings.

Is the bankruptcy the reason the reason all those cinemas closed one by one? It's sad especially that three of them died within a two year period. (1992-94)

I believe Robert Redford wanted to build his multiplex on Landsdowne Street, and Loews was going to build theirs on a vacant lot owned by BU, across from the post office. But I'm not sure.
(That vacant lot would still be a great place for a cinema.)

Loews filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 15, 2001, so the early 90s closings were unrelated. But the Nickelodeon closing was a direct and immediate result of the bankruptcy.

Hmmm...unless my memory is even worse than I imagined, I recall that on one side of Landsdowne Street is Fenway Park, on the other are four adjacent nightclubs that are doing very well. There are some industrial/business buildings at the top of the block. I wonder what he planned to demolish.

(Then again, knowing many Boston residents' aversion to nightlife of any kind...it wouldn't surprise me if they did lean on Redford to demolish the nightclubs.)

Someone I know from another (unrelated) bulletin board saw my comments here, and sent me this:

"I was one of the former managers of the Copley Loews Cinema! Just found it interesting that you were commenting on its closure. Unfortunate for Boston, the site will be the last stand for art-house movies. The war between Loews and Simon Malls [owner of the Copley Place mall] is finally over. The design was never changed or updated, because Simon has wanted that property back for over 5 to 6 years! They wanted Loews to discontinue showing regular-mainstream movies due to issues with the nearby Roxbury neighborhood. Too many fights, too many police calls. They had Loews sign an agreement that only family or art-sy movies would be shown and that no 'urban' movies woudl ever play again.

"Loews responded by building the Commons complex, which ranks as one of the biggest complexes in the US. (That's another nightmare, in itself, as one of their biggest money losers on the East Coast due to property issues with evacuations on all too regular basis caused by the gym and the residences smoke detectors setting off building fire alarms for the entire Millenium Tower) Loews knew the end was near with lease with Simons. Most of the [Copley] cinemas were mice infested due to Chili's and the food court above it.

"There are many other stories that I could tell you, but basically, it was a fun job, I got to deal with the Boston theater critics on a regular basis, including David Brudnoy! And because the location and the art-house films, when local celebrities were staying in the hotels that surround the two malls, we had a bevy of stars checking out the films, on a regular basis. ...if you have any questions about it...feel free to ask."

Redford's proposed Sundance Cinema, which he wanted to build in partnership with General Cinema, would have replaced a parking garage on Lansdowne Street. It would have been 8 stories tall and contained 11 screens, as well as a film library, restaurant, and two bars. The neighborhood favored it, and so did the mayor, but financing apparently did not work out and the project died in September 1999.

It's too bad -- Boston would really have benefited from this.

And I was slightly wrong about the location of the never-built Loews Kenmore Square multiplex -- which was also supposed to have 11 screens. It would have replaced the former Howard Johnson's hotel on Commonwealth Avenue. After the cinema plans died, Boston University turned this hotel into a dormitory.

By the way, I walked past the former Copley Place Cinemas tonight, and workers were already busy taking the place apart. One of them was putting black paint over the box office windows and the theatre doors. Another was carting speakers out through a service door. I tried to wander around looking, but eventually got shooed out.

I bet that within another week, shoppers in the mall won't even see that a cinema used to be here.

R. Newman wrote: <<I bet that within another week, shoppers in the mall won't even see that a cinema used to be here.>> It will be as though it never existed. Too bad about the loss of the Howard Johnson's site on Commonwealth; it might have made that area more pedestrian friendly and less institutional.

For Tom N and anyone else interested, I've added the AMC Fenway (formerly General Cinema Fenway) and the Loews Boston Common to this site.

I'm not sure these two are "cinema treasures" of any kind, but then neither was the Copley Place. In any event, they are all we have left in Boston now.

More from my correspondent who is a former manager of the Copley Place:

"Just wanted to tell you that a theater in Florida purchased the projectors, sound equipment, and most of the seats and stuff like that. I spoke to my former co-manager on Wednesday and he told me that the Florida company was gutting the theater this week, and expected to be done by today. Chris has his last days of management cleanup on Thursday, and was saying good bye to the building and Loews, as he also closed the Cheri, before being transferred over to Copley. From what was told to me, Loews did not offer the managers any transfer options over to the [Boston Common] complex without taking a lesser position.

"There is a very good chance that Loew's Fresh Pond will be closed before the end of the year. If it isn't a megaplex of some sort, the small theaters are being relinquished by the big chains.

"I left [Loews] in 2003. I didn't know that the parent owners that had just bought them out of bankruptcy sold it again to another financial holding company with European and Mexican interests. I know that when I worked for Loews, Fresh Pond was DEAD! Their numbers were abyssmal every night. I wouldn't doubt if they pruned it from the system. Look what they did in Danvers, they build the new cineplex, and then sold the old building to a company to open up as a theater immediately! I don't think Loews always thinks in a big picture type manner."

"The [Boston Common] complex is evident of that. They give out more refunds there than most of the northeast combined. When LA Fitness opened in the Tower, the steam in the saunas would set off the smoke detectors for quite sometime until they adjusted their locations. Each and every time that happened, the cinema had to be evacuated. Thats a huge loss! A power transformer blew out in the basement back in 2003. It took 4 days to be replaced...The entire weekend was lost. (Manny Ramirez sued Millenium for the loss of use of his home in the resident section.)"

And more from him...

"Loews had a no-fault clause and lost the entire weekend. They had an exclusive on a new movie that weekend, Deliver Us From Eva, and it was exclusive for Loews at that location [Boston Common], that weekend. The movie tanked and Loews was partly to blame. Loews & the distributor wanted Copley to take the prints, (which we did take their prints of Chicago and Narc), but Simons [owner of the Copley Place mall] refused to let us use the print of an urban-based movie with LL Cool J as the star!

My next story will be about our pick-pocket that hit the cinema up every Friday & Saturday, and would always be left free, because he was a snitch for the Boston Police Department, and they wouldn't do anything to him!"

Loews is the Keystone Cops of theater chains.

I can see another theatre or theatre chain having a use for the projectors and sound equipment from the Copley, but the seats? They were a close second to the size of the screens at the Copley on a scale of undesirability.

Meanwhile, with Loews apparently planning to close (I wouldn't expect them to open and operate an art house to replace the Copley; that would be akin to Carrot Top giving lessons in subtlety) the Fresh Pond (and, when I was living in the Boston area, there was constant word that the awful - but still-open - time-warp multiplex at Assembly Square in Somerville was on the chopping block) wouldn't it, um, make sense to maybe replace it with an all-stadium seating megaplex? Unless the people who aren't going to the Fresh Pond are giving their business to another Loews theatre in the area (and one with plenty of parking, supposedly, as that's about the only reason for anyone who doesn't live nearby to see a film at the Fresh Pond), it would be the height of stupidity for Loews to be conceding away all that business.

The only Loews theatres still operating in the Boston area:

Boston Common (19 screens)
Harvard Square, Cambridge (5)
Fresh Pond, Cambridge (10)
Assembly Square, Somerville (12, I think)
Liberty Tree Mall, Danvers (20)
The Loop, Methuen (lots of screens)

Of these, only Assembly Square and Harvard Square remain from the days of Sack Theatres or USACinemas.

Ron Newman wrote: "Of these, only Assembly Square and Harvard Square remain from the days of Sack Theatres or USACinemas." When you think of their omnipresence in the past, that's pretty amazing. Then again, though, if you add up all the screens at the Boston Common and Fenway, do those pretty much equal Sack/USA at their peak in the city of Boston? I note that the AMC Fenway has some rather big screens.

I walked into the mall again tonight. They've taken down the 'Loews Copley Place' sign, the marquee, and the lettering that said CLOSING JAN 30TH. They painted the box office windows and the glass doors solid black. They also put a couple of kiosks with black curtains on either side of the entrance, obscuring some (now-empty) movie poster cases on the walls behind them.

Tom N is correct. If you visited the mall today and didn't know it used to have a cinema, you'd never find it now.

Tom N: Perhaps, but since the Boston Common and the Fenway mostly show the same movies (and then sometimes on multiple screens), the result is a sharp drop in the number of different movies being shown at one time within the city of Boston.

Ron: You make a good point. The 'plexes often just multi-screen a mainstream blockbuster. A stand-alone art house theater would maintain art/indy/foreign programming. Just from an urban planning point of view, the city becomes far less diverse if we "mega-structure" everything with huge complexes like Copley Place or the Lowes Boston Common/Millenium Place/Ritz Carlton Towers. Even the Kendall is squirreled off in a desolate location more oriented to cars than a pedestrian streetscape.

It is just so very difficult for a non-major operator to build in Boston - not only finding the location, but also buying. building or leasing the space is so cost prohibitive.

The organization I work for would love to have 4-6 screens in the back bay or south end but don't really have 20 million dollars to spend opening a business that won't return the profit for many many years. If there was an already-existing theater that could be upgraded/expanded, that would be a different story, but there aren't (and you can't count the theater district's old theaters - none of them are viable or available).

I agree wholeheartdly that Boston needs such a place (or two) but it is hard to make it happen.

Ian, what about the RKO Boston? It was subdivided decades ago and has sat vacant since about 1991. It's obviously not generating any rent for the building's landlord. Could it be brought back as a cinema?

And if Loews closes Fresh Pond, would you consider taking it over?

Well, for us, we don't want to lease, but even barring that, the RKO Boston has little or no lobby space, no public facilities, no license as a theater, and would require so much in upgrades to bring it to code that it would be cost prohibitive, especially considering you could only put a couple of screens in. Plus Loews is across the street, making booking films a little... uncomfortable... to say the least.

As far as Fresh Pond, we would not want it, because it is too much of competition to us as is, their numbers are so-so and as far as I have heard, the only reason it might close is because their lease is up and the property owner wants to put in a Lowe's Home Improvement store, so it is doubtful they want the cinema to stay.

We'd rather it close than continue to eat away at our potential audiences.

I have also heard that they intend to build a new multiplex over at Assembly to replace the current theater, but that has been floating around for years. Originally Loews was going to build in the Gateway Center in Everett but the deal never happened when they went into Chapter 11.

I can see the newspaper headline already: "From Loews to Lowes".

If/when the Fresh Pond closes and there was no immediate in-zone replacement for its screens, Ian, would the Capitol switch to a first-run policy?

Tom N asked: "If you add up all the screens at the Boston Common and Fenway, do those pretty much equal Sack/USA at their peak in the city of Boston?"

In 1984, after Copley Place opened, Sack had 23 screens in Boston Proper*, Nickelodeon had 5 screens, and Exeter Street had one screen. I believe this was their high point. Although they later added one more screen at the Cheri and two more at the Copley Place, I think this happened only after they started closing their other theatres.

Now, Loews has 19 screens, AMC has 13, and that's it.

*Boston Proper meaning Beacon Hill, Downtown, Back Bay, and Kenmore/Fenway. It doesn't include Allston, Brighton, or other outlying neighborhoods.

We're still looking into it, crunching the numbers, but it is a definite possibility. Our biggest concern (believe it or not) is that we would scare away our regular customers there. But I personally would push for it.

Slightly correcting the above -- after Exeter closed and USACinemas bought the Nickelodeon, they had 28 screens. THAT was probably the high point.

According to Boston Globe newspaper archives, the Copley Place added its 10th and 11th screens some time in 1989. A March 23 article said the work would be done by Memorial Day of that year, but I don't know if that actually happened. The Cheri added its fourth screen in November 1989.

So, here are the numbers of screens in the city of Boston for Sack/USACinemas/Loews, from 1983 to the present. (Doing research before 1983 would require me to visit a library and look through old newspapers and microfilms, to find out facts such as when the Gary and Savoy closed, the Paris was bought, the Pi Alley was twinned, the Beacon Hill was triplexed, etc.)

[Sack]
Jan 1983: 7 theatres, 15 screens
May 1983: 6 theatres, 14 screens (Saxon closes)
Feb 1984: 7 theatres, 23 screens (Copley Place opens)
[USACinemas]
May 1986: 8 theatres, 28 screens (Nickelodeon bought)
Aug 1987: 7 theatres, 26 screens (Pi Alley closes)
[Loews]
End 1989: 7 theatres, 29 screens (two screens added to Copley Place, one to Cheri)
Nov 1992: 6 theatres, 26 screens (Beacon Hill closes)
Mar 1993: 5 theatres, 25 screens (Paris closes)
Oct 1994: 4 theatres, 22 screens (Charles closes)
May 1996: 3 theatres, 20 screens (Cinema 57 closes)
Feb 2001: 2 theatres, 15 screens (Nickelodeon closes)
Jul 2001: 3 theatres, 34 screens (Boston Common opens)
Nov 2001: 2 theatres, 30 screens (Cheri closes)
Jan 2005: 1 theatre, 19 screens (Copley Place closes)

Ron: The screen count has had its ups and downs. Thanks for doing the research.

I e-mailed the contact address for BostonFilmFestival.org and asked what would happen to the festival now that Copley Place is closed. He replied:

"Thank you for your interest in The Boston Film Festival.  This year's dates are September 9 - 18.  We will continue to use Loews Boston Common and are looking at other venues."

According to Boston Globe articles published at the time, the Sack Copley Place opened to the public on Monday, February 13, 1984 with a four-day festival of classic films, with admissions going to the non-profit Fund for the Arts. The 18 films were chosen by a poll of Sack Theatres patrons.

On Feburary 13 and 15, they showed Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Singin' in the Rain, Dr. Zhivago, The Philadelphia Story, The Wizard of Oz, Ben-Hur, and The Treasure of Sierra Madre.

On February 14 and 16, it was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, A Man for All Seasons, Dr. Strangelove, Lawrence of Arabia, Chariots of Fire, A Clockwork Orange, Rebel Without a Cause, The Godfather, and Godfather II.

The theatre opened for regular programming on Friday, February 17 with The Dresser, Entre Nous, And the Ship Sails On, Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?, Strange Invaders, The Good Fight (on the ICA Cinema's screen) and a Russian version of King Lear (on a screen designated for Peter Sellars' Boston Shakespeare Company). Yes, that's only seven films on nine screens, but that's what the Globe articles said.

Starting on February 29, Sellars and the Boston Shakespeare Company presented a program of American musicals made between 1929 and 1933. He intended to show 50 films, but the series ended prematurely on April 12, after only 21 films, due to poor ticket sales. The BSC's screen then reverted back to Sack for regular commercial use.

I took a walk through the Copley Place mall this evening. Most of the side corridor leading to the cinemas has now been boarded up and blocked off. Two narrow passages remain, one leading to Chili's restaurant, the other to Brentano's bookstore and the restrooms. Two of the four escalators in this corridor have also been closed.

Upstairs, the entire former food court is also closed and blocked off; only Au Bon Pain and a very lonely Legal Sea Foods remain open. So it looks like the new Barneys New York store will take up both floors.

I did find a side door that someone had left unlocked, so I briefly wandered into the former cinema lobby and opened the door to theatre #5. All the seats were still there, but the screen had been ripped. Since I wasn't sure how long I could stay there before getting caught (and possibly arrested), I didn't open the doors to any of the other cinemas.

Ron: Really interesting comments. I imagine they'll eventually sell the seats. The projectors and audio equipment will be sold or moved, for sure. General Cinema used to move their equipment around. So Boston is getting a Barneys. I'm glad Brentano's is still around. I thought they'd gone.

Brentano's is really Waldenbooks with a different sign out front. They replaced Lauriat's Books, a century-old local chain that went bankrupt and out of business a few years ago.

It's not clear to me that the bookstore will survive the construction period and the lack of cinema traffic, especially now that there's a huge Barnes & Noble next door in the Prudential Center. I also wouldn't be surprised to see this Legal Sea Foods location close, at least for a while. (They've got another one in the Pru.)

Growing up in the Boston area, I do recall Lauriats. The owners lived in my neighborhood and also owned a good deal of land in town which is now dotted--shoe-horned is a better term--with McMansions I guess Brentano's has changed from the one I knew. It's sure a sign of the times that a movie theater is turning into a Barney's.

I walked into the mall again this evening. Someone had left a door to the construction area unlocked, so I wandered around a bit. The whole interior of the cinema complex has been demolished. There are big piles of rubble where the cinemas and lobby were.

Ron: Interesting comments. Did you get a sense of the structure of the building there? I often wondered if there was a structural reason for the seating sloping up (rather than down)toward the screen in at least one of the auditoriums.

Not really, I didn't stay long enough. I was somewhere that I obviously didn't belong, and it didn't feel very safe to wander around, with rubble and vent pipes and the like all over the place.

I assume the new Barneys store will have a flat floor!

Ron: <<I assume the new Barneys store will have a flat floor!>> LOL! It just may seem to tilt when you see their prices. On a personal note, thanks for all the postings on this and other theaters. It's a real chronicle of the devastating changes in the Boston cinema scene in the last decade or so. Who'd've ever guessed so much would happen.

I'll second that 'thanks' to Ron - you have provided so many great links and comments, and are a big part of why this website is so fun and thorough, especially in the Boston area theaters. Where do you get the energy? Good work!

Today's Boston Globe and Herald both have official announcements that Barneys New York is coming to Copley Place. The store will be 46,000 square feet, two stories, opening in the spring of 2006.
Globe article
Herald article
(these links will probably work only for the next week or two)

As the Globe puts it, "Barneys cements the Back Bay mall's transformation into an ultraupscale destination."

I'm relieved to know that Copley Place has moved from being merely upscale to "ultraupscale," and that Boston has let its conservative, provincial past slip into the wake of history.

I visited the mall one more time tonight. The temporary walls around the construction zone have been painted bright red, with this lettering on them in white:

BARNEYS
NEW YORK
SPRING 2006
TASTE LUXURY HUMOR

Anyone know what Luxury Humor tastes like?

Ron: Hmmm. Not sure. But it's most likely "ultraupscale."

I had a chance, while in Boston last week, to peer in through a small crack to the right of the former entrance to the Copley Place Cinemas and, surprisingly and for what it's worth, there is one sign of what formerly occupied the space - where the 'sloping' floors of the auditoriums once were have been filled in with cement of a slightly different shade than that of the remainder of the floor.

I always wondered if they had reverse slope seating because they thought it was cool, or because they had to do it for structural reasons. T.

Earlier in this discussion, some people asked what would happen to the Boston Film Festival, which in past years has taken place primarily at the Copley Place.

Last week's Somerville Journal has an article on this year's festival. It will be split between Loews Boston Common and Loews Harvard Square theatres. It will also be shorter this year -- just seven days, September 9-15, instead of ten.

This link to the article will probably be good for only a few weeks: Diamond's not forever: Robin Dawson takes over the Boston Film Festival

Loews has hosted and supported the festival for many years, as did its predecessors Sack Theatres and USACinemas. I hope AMC will continue to keep it going after it takes over Loews.

This Last Comment of Ron's is kind of going towards the point that kind of revealed itself during the preceding comments... The beginning of the end of one of the Biggest Movie Cities I have ever seen, is when the ownership of the theaters went into the hands of the big Conglomerate "LOEWS". After BUYING and BUYING and BUYING all of its "competition". Probably leveraging itself into debt in a big way... becoming "too big for its own britches". When USA theaters bought out Mr. Sack (if I remember right, I am pretty sure it was an underhanded dirty trick too, if I remember right he came back from a vacation and didn't have a company anymore) It (USA cinemas) started the trend of creating the "monster" that ate itself.

It changed a "movie presenting" company (Sack theaters) into a "making money" company (USA theaters). And before all you capitalist jump down my throat... I think that "making money" is a good thing. Making money at doing something your good at is even a better thing. The Back Bay of Boston is/was a very savvy movie crowd. And Sack Theaters knew its patrons very well. Each Theater had a certain style of movie presented on its screens.

The Nickalodeon was the "Art house" that USA acquired to round out its theater chain... Copley was always the "upscale" movie house, in the hooty tooty marbled lobbied mall on the edge of Roxbury. (Its sad to hear that those "race problems" of the past still haven't really gone away.) The "Nick" used to have Premium Ice Cream from one of the local makers "Steves" or something off of Newberry street (Emack & Bolio's). Certainly something special that most theaters didn't offer. It was a unique experience, of course the movies were off beat as well. But there was an appreciation offered to its patrons. Then it got bought out... Movies became main stream, gone were the cool extras...

When I worked as a projectionist for the 57, the Cheri, Beacon Hill, and The Charles... all of the theaters were pretty worn out... none of them had "stadium seating" or much in the way of luxury. ALL of them were strung out as long as the dollars kept streaming in...keep the cattle rolling... absolutely NO reinvestment was ever done to any of these theaters. They were all PITS. Slowly they were dropped, torn down? Hell they should have been burnt down... they were all "worn out"!!

As times change and as the public grows into having "Home Cinema" set ups in their homes... the Theater Industry is going to have to drag their patrons out of their comfy couches and digital surround sound home screens. Dirty stinky rats infested movie houses aren't going to cut it. And that is just what those houses were at the end of their runs.

The movie industry can "milk" their businesses for all they can with out re-investing, updating, or thinking about their patrons. Gone are the "FOX THEATERS" the "MAJESTIC THEATERS", gone are the chandeliers and the customer service that comes with the price of the ticket. Now a days you get an empty cup thrown at you and are told to "Go fill it up at the Soda Station". That is if you can get waited on in the first place. Movies are given about as much attention.... sure you have your 4 or 5 huge budgeted special effects movies And of those, maybe those aren't copied formula from some other movie that made a bundle last year, or it doesnt have a number on the end of it... haha... (those were the days, that goddamn Stallone) There just is no mystique to the movie theater anymore.

Theaters are converted from Parking garages, or built like sheet metal polebarns. Its all about the greed. Lets see how little we can spend to make as much as we can... There is no work ethic or class in the movie business anymore. There is a line that has been crossed when you become "all about the money" and not about "the craft".

For Boston, that line was crossed when Mr. Sack came back from his vacation and didn't have a theater company anymore. His company was "built up" for the sole purpose of being "liquidated". USA theater executives favorite movie MUST have been "Wall Street". If I am not mistaken it was very close to that period in time (1987). To "part off" a company or a shell of a company anyway to "over-value" a company to "Take the money and RUN!!!". I really feel sorry for Boston, to be shown the carrot and have it snatched away by people who really don't have any business calling themselves "Movie Exhibiters".

BTW... I love this website... its reminds me that there was a time when movie exhibitors took pride in presenting a movie. I wish that the movie "The Majestic" had come out instead of "Wall Street". It showed us that there was once a "sense of pride" in doing ones job. That there was a joy in entertaining people. A joy that fills the soul like money can't. To be in a theater on an opening day of a big movie and "FEEL" the electricity in the anticipation of the patrons. We need a changing of the guard my friends, Its the Gordon Gekkos of this industry that have almost KILLED this industry. Bitch and moan about the lack of patronage in movie theaters and the decreasing numbers who visit the cinema... do you really wonder why?

Ben Sack actually lost control of Sack's Theatres in 1974, long before the consolidation of the industry began. His former right-hand man, A. Alan Friedberg (who had started as an usher at the old Beacon Hill Theatre) was the primary mover-and-shaker, if you will. Friedberg eventually built the chain up into USA Theatres and merged it with Loews in the late 80's, and he became chairman of Loews. He retired in the early 90's and that is when the new generation of Loews management stepped in and began closing so many Boston theaters.

Lost control in 1974... but when was he shown the door? I was working for the company, (thru the union), during that Sack to USA to Loews conversion. A very short time between the metamorphoses. What was it '86 to '91 from USA to Loews? When in '86 USA went on a buying spree through out the New England Territory? Ripe pickings for the Conglomerate. But over all though.. they sure messed up viewing movies in the downtown Back Bay area of Boston. I don't fault the Sack/USA people...Like I said, Capitalism is a wonderful thing, Build a wonderful chain of theaters.. sell it off to someone who really wants it... I fault the Loews Conglomerate that failed to "know" the area that they were exhibitors in. How do you "book" an area you don't know anything about. Numbers are easy to try and base an audience. But I definitely feel that the "Movie Patrons Soul" was raped when Loews took over the Boston area. Sack/USA theaters sure had a huge strangle hold on the area at the time.

BTW...Sack had the best company intro trailer... when the graphic "patron" sat in the seat and thus turned into the "S" of Sack Theaters... music, short and sweet... too cool.

Freidberg, upon the merger of USA and Loews, became the chairman of Loews and Bernie Meyerson was pushed into retirement. As chairman, Friedberg got the grosses every morning, and saw the bookings every Monday. Since he came out of the Boston theatres you would think he would have paid special attention to them. He could have 'educated' the Loews film department as far as what type of audience each of those theatres had, what types of films work where, etc., if he chose to. From what I've heard from people who worked for Loews during his tenure, and his 'leadership' led the home office across the river to Secaucus NJ because he didn't like New York City, and that's about it, no other memorable decisions came from his office.

Yea, Thanks for confirming everything I stated... For one, Alan"baby" didn't book the Back Bay, he hired someone to do that for him... and Anyway, it really looks like most of the venue "assassinations" took place after Freidberg was in retirement. It doesn't matter who booked the theaters, especially if the theaters weren't there to be booked in the first place. The whole process of "multiplexing" the Back Bay of Boston is what took away the whole purpose and meaning of this website... large scale single screen venues, that served the neighborhoods their movies. These Large Venues that created an "experience" of attending a movie on Opening Day. There is a "buzz" created in a lobby during an opening, when "hundreds" of people (not a couple dozen) anticipates screening a movie.

When you replace these venues with shoeboxes and poorly designed theaters (Copley Place)... your killing the lifeblood of your purpose in the movie business. ALL of these theaters The Cheri, The Paris, The Charles, The 57, should have been attended to. It certainly would have been cheaper to "Refurbish" the theaters then to buy premium downtown footage to stack a bunch of shoe boxes together. Maybe not, Maybe it wasn't "cost effective". All of these theaters were neglected for many years... the screens and sound looked great thanks to the expert tooling of Boston Light and Sound. But the actual venues were pretty boned out. Its just shows how the WHOLE exhibition biz just doesn't get it anymore. There are no more "Fox Theaters" or "Paramount Theater", I used to walk by the "Paramount Theater" everyday, FOR YEARS!!!! Just wondering what happened to such a grand place in the MIDDLE of the Center of downtown Boston. Abandoned, Boarded up, Left for dead.... (BRAVO EMERSON COLLEGE!!!)

They can "bitch and moan" about how the grosses aren't what they used to be... well, the movie experience they are providing, isn't what it used to be either. Its been cheapened and the experience of presenting a movie HAS to be re-evaluated if they still want to make a buck in the marketplace. Peoples nice big comfy couch with their surround sound Mega Screen home theater set ups is a really cool thing, but it will never replace attending a movie with several hundred of your closest strangers. "61 inch" Big screen TV's don't replace the "40 foot" silverscreen. Never have... never will.

Actually the 61" big screen TV "DOES" replace most of the screens at the Copley Place Theaters. Kind of my whole rant that is turning into a novel on this page.... sorry about that. But someone has to recognize and point out the cancer that is eating away a great heritage.

According to today's Boston Globe, Barneys New York will open on March 12 in the former location of the Copley Place cinemas.

The above comments about A. Alan Friedberg and the failure to maintain the Sack theaters remind me of the screening of "Dances With Wolves" that I attended in the large auditorium of the increasingly rundown Charles complex. A. Alan was seated a few seats in front of me at that screening, and I came close to telling him how disappointed I was to see the best auditorium in the city in such shoddy shape.

Early in this discussion I mentioned the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), which initially used one of the Copley Place Cinema screens.

Tomorrow, the ICA officially reopens to the public at its new home on Fan Pier. The new ICA includes a 325-seat 'Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater' that will present both films and live performances.

ICA Film Programs
ICA Performance series, which includes several silent films accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra

Once it's open for a while, we should create a new CinemaTreasures page for this new theatre.

Say what you will about Copley Place, but my wife and I miss it. It was nice to be able to pop down from our jobs upstairs in the Copley Office towers and see a movie on one or two occasions before heading home. We saw movies that no one else in Boston was running - even the Kendall Square, where all the small and eclectic movies usually go - and the theaters weren't great, but they were intimate and enjoyable. We saw Zatoichi there, and Kim saw Die Mommie Die there...where else could you see those in Boston?

The staff was also the friendliest of all the theaters in Boston that we've been to. You could even just drop into the Snack Bar when they were open and buy stuff - they didn't mind you weren't there to see a movie. A colleague of mine was always buying a huge bag of popcorn to have at her desk at work...

To replace it with a Barneys....YUCK!

Simon Malls and Loews made a big mistake when they canned the Copley theater...

I didn't know Simon owned Copley Place. They also own the South Shore Plaza, among many others. I would have thought that having the theater would bring in more business for the retail stores and restaurants and extend the hours people would visit. In addition to the SS Plaza, I'm familiar with Palm Beach Mall in West Palm Beach, FL. also Simon-owned. Like C Place, both these shopping centers had movie theaters at one time, but no more. Maybe they don't generate enough revenue to pay the rents Simon charges. In WPB, they demolished the theater, and the site remains a vacant lot at this writing. At SSP, they transformed the theater (the original GCC Braintree) into a retail store (Circuit City).

Simon owns Copley Place now, but I don't think they owned it when it opened in 1984.

Ron: You're right. It's fairly recent. They own fifteen properties in Massachusetts, according to their web site.

Apparently the theatre was getting tired and unless it was always packed, Simon figured they would get more money for the space from Barneys, a high-end store. A mall usually gets percentage-rent: a percentage of the gross revenue plus a rental fee per square foot.

The mall is getting rid of everything that isn't ridiculously upscale. See the article in today's Herald.

A couple of the comments above mentioned Brentano's bookstore, originally Lauriat's, which was in the corridor leading to the cinema. The bookstore will close on January 26. Since Borders just opened a large new store a few blocks away, and Borders owns Brentano's, this one had become redundant anyway.

That's an interesting article from the Herald, paticularly with regard to Boston being a gateway city for wealthy people from overseas. They consider U.S. prices a bargain. Anyway, it's clear that the Copley Place Cinemas didn't have a chance with Simon's present strategy. And as the article also observed, Chilis' days are probably numbered as well.

When I saw the page for Copley Place, I realized that I had basically forgotten it ever existed. I've been working in the Prudential Center since August, and walking through Copley Place (which I had not done in many years) I almost forgot it was the same place where as a child I had seen a revival of Pinocchio with my aunt and eaten many times in the in food court with my parents. My how things have changed in this area since they built the shops here at the Prudential Center!

"BTW...Sack had the best company intro trailer... when the graphic “patron” sat in the seat and thus turned into the “S” of Sack Theaters... music, short and sweet... too cool."

Wow – that DOES bring back memories!

I’m going to be doing a video series in a bar, on the site of one of the former Sack Theaters. That clip would be a magnificent way of opening the showings. Anyone know of a copy of the Sack trailer anywhere? I’ve hit YouTube & the like with no luck.

Please, if someone comes across it anywhere online post a link, I think a lot of folks would get a kick out of it.

My first visit here was on February 20, 1984 shortly after the place opened. I wrote that it was the 'new' Sack Copley Place and that I saw the "Where's Boston?" slide show, Fellini's And the Ship Sails On, and Diane Kurys' Entre Nous.

The Sacks Copley Place Theatre had theatres that were rather like large TV rooms, with large-sized TV's in them. I remember seeing "Shoah" and some other movies there, but it certainly didn't last that long.

It lasted 21 years -- that's reasonably long.