Barrington Square Theaters

2330 W. Higgins Road,
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: AMC Theatres, Classic Cinemas

Nearby Theaters

BARRINGTON SQUARE 6 Theatres, Hoffmann Estates, Illinois (1984)

This sixplex opened on December 14, 1979, at the Barrington Square shopping center in Hoffman Estates, on Higgins Road. Originally it was part of the AMC Theaters chain and was their second six-screen theatre to open in the Chicagoland area after the Ogden 6 Theatres in Naperville. Seating in the auditoriums were for a total of 2,000, with the smallest auditorium seating 259 and the largest seating 375. At opening, admission price was $3.00 for adults and $1.50 for children. In its last few years, it was run by Classic Cinemas.

The Barrington Square closed in October 2000, and was demolished a few months later, as part of a complete reconstruction of the shopping center, which was built in the early-1970s.

Contributed by Bryan

Recent comments (view all 15 comments)

elizarenn
elizarenn on September 24, 2005 at 2:28 pm

The record store was Flip Side (next door to Garibaldi’s Pizza). I worked at Flip Side in the late ‘80s and did my share of hanging out in Barrington Square.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on August 4, 2007 at 1:09 am

Here is a small ad from the Daily Herald dated 1/1/80:
http://tinyurl.com/345xfb

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on May 10, 2009 at 1:57 pm

Here is a June 1982 ad from the Daily Herald:
http://tinyurl.com/pvg3mv

joesampson
joesampson on June 23, 2009 at 7:28 pm

I was there many times though for some reason the only 2 movies I can remember seeing are Fright Night and Saturn 3. Oh well. That June 1982 ad is more memerable as I saw Blade Runner at Randhurst, with NO air conditioning. It was rough.

saxonalumni
saxonalumni on February 24, 2010 at 4:20 pm

We used to “do the cruise” through the parking lot in the 80’s. If you wanted to show off your car or run into some cool people, this was the place to be. Movies were only $1.00. And it didn’t matter what was playing. It was mostly a makeout spot. Then we’d go to Garibaldi’s or McDonalds racing in shopping carts and acting like the inmature teens that we were. You just don’t see kids acting like that anymore. I’m so glad to have been a part of that history. I have some wonderful and wild memories of good ol' Barrington Square.

RodGraves
RodGraves on July 7, 2010 at 9:32 pm

Rod Graves here. I was a Manager at this theatre for a few years. I am looking for past co-workers of mine, during the days I worked there. Please contact me at

rivest266
rivest266 on June 20, 2012 at 6:40 pm

This opened on December 14th, 1979. Grand opening ad posted here.

DAL
DAL on June 22, 2012 at 1:23 pm

Map location is incorrect. The theatre and shopping center were on the north side of Higgins Road just east of Barrington Road (west of the incorrect location).

LouRugani
LouRugani on September 9, 2012 at 11:30 am

(December 10, 1979, Northwest Herald) Six-screen movie complex opens in Hoffman Friday by Thomas J. Moore, Herald business writer

The Northwest suburbs will have six new movie theaters — all under one roof — by the end of the week when the Barrington Square 6 Theatres in Hoffman Estates opens Friday. The six-screen movie complex in the Barrington Square Mall at Higgins and Barrington roads will bring to nine the number of new movie houses opened locally this year. Two of the others are at Woodfield Shopping Center in Schaumburg and one at Randhurst Shopping Center in Mount Prospect. THE BARRINGTON Square operation is owned by American Multi Cinema of Kansas City, Mo., and is the firm’s second entry in the Chicago area movie market. The company also owns the Ogden 6 Theatres in Naperville. American opened the first multi-auditorium theater in the country in Kansas City in July 1962. It operates 526 theaters in 78 cities now, including two in Buffalo and Toledo with eight separate auditoriums each. The company’s Hoffman Estates and Naperville theaters offer the most screens under one roof in the Chicago area, with six each. The Barrington Square 6 Theatres are of varying sizes, according to manager Paul Kalas. The smallest seats 250 persons while the largest contains 375 seats. Kalas said the theater complex is capable of showing the same movie in two adjoining theaters using the same copy of the film. He said the projector system is set up to run the same film with only a 30 second-time lag between what the viewers see on the separate screens. THE OPENING of the theater complex also will increase the number of commercial movie screens in Hoffman Estates to nine, but Kalas said he thinks the market is sufficient to support them all. The Century theater in the village has three auditoriums. Kalas said he expects Barrington Square to draw from Schaumburg, which has its own four-theater complex as well as Hoffman Estates and Hanover Park. The Tradewinds Cinemas in Hanover Park has two screens. He said Barrington Square will also draw customers from areas north and west of Hoffman Estates where there are fewer theaters. Kalas said the six theaters here will be competing for the same first run movies that the other nearby theaters want. Barrington Square 6 Theatres' main attraction, aside from the greater choice it can offer, is that it will try to match or beat the lowest admission and concession prices among competing theaters, Kalas said. He said the regular admission price will be $3 for adults and students and $1.50 for children. During the grand opening Friday and Saturday, everyone will be admitted for the regular children’s price, he said.

JonPutnam
JonPutnam on May 17, 2021 at 1:36 pm

I only went to this theater two times - but in the same week! Barrington Square was one of the few Chicago-area theaters that showed the dark comedy “Heathers” during its initial 1989 run. I liked the movie so much that I went back again a few days later.

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