Regal Riviera Stadium 8

510 South Gay Street,
Knoxville, TN 37902

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Related Websites

Regal Entertainment Group (Official)

Additional Info

Operated by: Regal Cinemas

Firms: TK Architects

Functions: Movies (First Run)

Phone Numbers: Box Office: 865.522.5160

Nearby Theaters

Regal Riviera Stadium 8

The all new Regal Riviera Stadium 8 stands on the site of the long lost, jazz-era Riviera Theatre. There are approximately 2000 seats divided between the eight auditoriums. Regal’s Riviera opened on August 31, 2007, and is the first new downtown cinema in Knoxville since the Roxy Theatre was built in the 1930’s. Regal partnered with the city of Knoxville to finance the roughly twelve million dollar facility.

With two “golden age” theatres on the same street (the Tennessee q.v. and the Bijou q.v.), both absolute jewels of their type, unfavorable comparisons between them and this new facility are going to be difficult to avoid.

In the new Regal Riviera, the architects have made conscious references to movie palace style. To be charitable, we hope the designer’s hand was constrained by budget here, not lack of talent. The E.I.F.S. facade aspiring to Rapp & Rapp grandure achieves an effect more like a teenager in a powder blue tux: we can squirm at the naive attempt at formality and still be proud of the kid. It really is a genuine joy to have a movie theatre in downtown again, even if it looks a little silly trying so hard and so unsuccessfully to imitate its elders. Certainly the Regal Riviera has more joie d'vivre than Chattanooga’s unfortunate Carmike Bijou parking garage/bus station/movie theatre built in the last decade.

The new Riviera has a heavy, E.I.F.S. marquee without changeable letter boards. The marquee’s underside is faced with pressed-tin ceiling panels looking suspiciously Victorian on a vaguely (let me emphasize the word vaguely) neo-Baroque building. There is a handsome little vertical sign based on the design of the old Riviera’s. This new one has blue/white LED lights cascading upward (!) making it look a bit like a bubbling test tube. A new alley has been created to provide a walkway from Gay Street to State Street and the large State Street Garage where free parking (with purchase of a movie ticket) is available. Triple escalators assist with the elevation change down to State Street.

Possibly most surprising and most disappointing is that the main facade has been set back from the sidewalk about five feet. The side walls project to the traditional building line creating a facade in antis and hiding the vertical sign from view except when standing on the opposite side of Gay Street. It is reported in the local paper that this was a zoning requirement, but if so, a variance should have been forthcoming for such a prominent building.

Knoxville is the home of Regal Cinemas and the new Regal Riviera Stadium 8 provides a fine new theatre serving the downtown, south Knoxville and near east sides. If the architecture is less than stellar, the effort to further strengthen an area that was until quite recently blighted, more than makes up for the building’s aesthetic shortcomings.

Contributed by Will Dunklin

Recent comments (view all 16 comments)

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on February 4, 2010 at 6:15 pm

I will have to check this one out.I did not think anybody built new theatres in a downtown area anymore,good luck to them.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on February 6, 2010 at 3:19 am

Check out GASTON MALL Theatre.I wonder if you ever talked a projectionist into doing what that operator did for us late one night.

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on February 9, 2010 at 1:15 am

What listing is Gaston Mall under I will look it up.

Will Dunklin
Will Dunklin on February 9, 2010 at 6:28 pm

Gastonia NC. Good way for a projectionist to get fired.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on February 18, 2010 at 4:09 am

Yeah, Will you are probably right,but we did it late after the last feature, sipping a few cold ones,and we did place it in a trailer that most likely was trashed after National Screen service got it back.,

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on February 18, 2010 at 5:48 am

Used to have a few cold ones with booth man during the last showing.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on March 8, 2010 at 3:42 am

Well, doggone it,lets get this theatre its own page.It doesn’t need to be tied to a lousy 8 plex.far too much history.

Will Dunklin
Will Dunklin on March 8, 2010 at 3:18 pm

The original Riviera’s page is

/theaters/16357/

JackCoursey
JackCoursey on October 24, 2010 at 2:40 am

A great cinema! Interior and exterior photos from 2010:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

greenth1ng
greenth1ng on April 9, 2015 at 7:34 pm

Seating capacities at this theater:

  • Theater 1 – 204 seats

  • Theater 2 – 202 seats

  • Theater 3 – 391 seats

  • Theater 4 – 274 seats

  • Theater 5 – 262 seats

  • Theater 6 – 346 seats

  • Theater 7 – 109 seats

  • Theater 8 – 148 seats

Theaters 1, 2, 3, 6, & 8 are equipped to show 3D.

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