Movieland 8 Theatres
200 Thruway Plaza Drive,
Cheektowaga,
NY
14225
200 Thruway Plaza Drive,
Cheektowaga,
NY
14225
2 people
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This theater building was previously occupied by Thruway Cinema 8 which was last operated by Dipson Theatres. That theater closed in 2002.
Movieland 8 Theatres moved to this location in 2004.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
This theatre was originally a GCC complex, which opened as a 3-plex. General Cinema closed this theatre in the early 90’s during the conversion of Thruway Mall into Thruway Plaza. This was GCC’s primary theatre in Buffalo’s eastern suburbs for many years until they inexplicably bought the very nearby Walden Galleria 12 from Hoyts in 1990. The funny thing is with the gutting/demolition of the Galleria 12 last year this theatre actually outlived its replacement.
Theater was converted to an 8 screen in the mid 1980’s.
As far as inexplicably buying the WG cinemas, I suspect it had to do with the Thruway plaza not longer drawing customers at a rate that they would like. That said, I did prefer Thruway Cinemas to the Walden Galleria Cinemas. That may explain why Regal is readdressing their position at the Galleria Mall.
When it reopened as Movieland, it was as a second run theater. At about this time, the Appletree AMC second run house closed. (Also fairly close to the Galleria, 3 movie houses in 5 miles or so.)
The AppleTree 6 (former AMC Como Park Mall 8) closed at the same time because the owners of the AppleTree Business Park did not renew JMG Entertainment’s lease for the theatre (they wanted a more business park appropriate tennant for the space). JMG then leased and opened this theatre as a replacement, so to speak.
On the Western New York Heritage Press website they have a short article on the Thruway Plaza. View link
No mention of the theatre, but then, it is a bit far from the plaza/mall proper. The article states that it’s initial competition came from the Seneca Mall in 1969, which itself was razed in the early 1990’s. (With rumors of a multiplex being built there, but those plans never materialized.) SO much for the 125 years ….
This theater was originally a 3 screen GCC theater which was soon expanded to 8 theaters.
This was one of the more popular theaters in the Buffalo area until the building of the galleria mall just a couple miles away.
Around 1990 GCC purchased the Galleria theaters and now there were two GCC theaters with a total of 20 screens within 2 miles of each other. The Thruway Plaza GCC was relegated to playing the least popular movies or receiving them after Walden Galleria need to make room for newer movies. The GCC Thruway site was a ghost town, not visible from any street, an empty plaza nearby (with Wal Mart going up), a roller rink next door where shootings happened on weekends all led to the demise of this GCC theater.
Around 2000, the local chain Dispon reopened this site as a combination first run/dollar theater. Dipson performed extensive improvements, carpeting, concession area, lighting, parking lot, etc.. The shooting plagued roller rink was gone and replaced by a box store, wal mart was built and people were visiting the plaza once again. The theater should have been a success but Dipson did a poor job of running the theater as it quickly became dirty and run down and terribly understaffed. After a little more than a year, Dipson closed the theater and it sat empty once again.
After sitting empty for a couple years the former owners of a local dollar theater reopened this site as Movieland 8. After all these years the old GCC autograph wall remains in place and theater on many weekends has a line stretching out the door down the walkway. It is a busy and popular theater. It would be nice if the theater spent some time cleaning the place. The rest rooms are often pretty poor, the theater floor sticky and the projection underlit. However, it is still a popular theater that should have a long life.
GCC closed GCC Thruway around 2000
2002 Dipson
2004 Movieland
GCC itself died around 2000, its assets being bought by AMC.
Going to this theater is almost like going back in time to experience what theaters were like in the 1970’s – including the $2 specials on Weds. Well run with helpful employees, overall a good place to check out a movie you may have missed on the first run.