Showcase Cinemas East
3455 William Penn Highway,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15235
3455 William Penn Highway,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15235
4 people
favorited this theater
This theater opened as a state-of-the-art quad on June 30, 1976. The opening day titles were “Silent Movie”, “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, “Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday”, and “W.C. Fields and Me”. All of the theaters were twinned and two more theaters were added during the 1980’s, bringing the total number of screens to ten.
For over two decades, this was the top-grossing moviehouse in the Pittsburgh area; however, in 2000 Destinta and Loews opened new, larger complexes nearby that caused Showcase’s business to decline for years and on September 12, 2004 Showcase East went out of business. It was demolished in late-2010.
Contributed by
71dude
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Recent comments (view all 30 comments)
meant to say:
“to SEE any theater close….”
Milanp,
I hate to see any cinema close. I’ve lived in the Shadyside/Squirrel Hill areas all my life (I’m in my early 30s) and I used to come here a lot. Even into my adulthood, my friends and I would always combine a shopping trip to Monroeville Mall with a movie, either here or at the mall cinemas.
As Rick Aubrey says above, Monroeville has nothing. Well movie-wise it doesn’t. I’m no expert, but I think a well run movie house could still do good business here, what with the mall, other nearby shopping, and restaurants. A new cinema at the mall might do really well.
Also the address above is incorrect. The Showcase wasn’t in Monroeville proper. It was in Wilkins Township, with a Pittsburgh mailing address. Its address should be:
3455 William Penn Hwy
Pittsburgh, PA 15235
Susan,
I lived in Pittsburgh from 1990-1995. I remember taking my then-girlfriend here, probably to see “Hand That Rocks the Cradle”. Even then, I remember this theatre being kind of “eh”.
“Star Wars” ran 42 weeks here during its original 1977-78 release, which I imagine is the long-run record for the theater. A Dolby sound system was installed for the engagement, one of four in the Redstone/National Amusements circuit to do so.
(For the Pittsburgh market, “Star Wars” ran a longer period of time – 59 weeks – at the downtown Bank Cinema I & II, though it didn’t open there until July 20, 1977, whereas Showcase Cinemas began theirs several weeks earlier on May 25.)
Demolished about a year ago. Now the site of a Sheetz, a regional convenience gas station, a hotel & a small strip mall.
This theatre was the only theatre in the area to show the controversial Santa slasher flick ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ back in 1982. The theatre reported numerous walkouts, as well as complaints and phone calls from concerned parents. This cinema had the movie playing on 3 screens. TriStar pulled the movie out of all cinemas after only two weeks of release, due to irate protests/picket lines and a huge dropoff in it’s 2nd weekend box office.
“Silent Night, Deadly Night” opened on Nov. 9, 1984 on one screen each at Showcase East, North and West and at three Cinemettes – Eastland, Fulton Mini and Village. The Cinemettes pulled it on Nov. 21 but the Showcases carried it through Nov. 29. Then it spent another week at Bellevue, Hampton, Hollywood and Penn Hills for a total of four weeks in the Pittsburgh area. It was doing better business than than the other Tri-Star Christmas ‘84 releases – “Supergirl”, “Runaway” and “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo”.
What really put this theatre on the map was they were the only theatre in Pittsburgh to play the original “Star Wars” movie in 1977 on a big screen. The Bank Cinema downtown later played this as well, but those theatres were smaller than the Showcase. The original Showcase had two big auditoriums and two small ones. I can recall going there in the summer of 1977 to see “Star Wars”. I remember standing in line for that movie for a long time, only to hear an usher come outside with a bull-horn and say “Single Seats Only”! I learned to come back earlier the next time.
The biggest problem this theatre had was the immediate area it was located. I spoke to a former employee of the Showcase West Cinema who told me the residents in the Wilkins Township area fought Showcase East “tooth and nail”. They prevented any further expansion of the original structure, so Redstone (the parent company) had to split the exisitng two big auditoriums into two in order to add more screens. Also, this theatre later lost money because the owners had to give the people who lived around it “lifetime” passes, to keep them happy. This perk was apparently taken advantage of too often.
Was the far-left theater quartered?
Yes, the far-left theater was quartered when they wanted to add more screens.