Barrington Square Theaters
2330 W. Higgins Road,
Hoffman Estates,
IL
60169
2330 W. Higgins Road,
Hoffman Estates,
IL
60169
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing all 11 comments
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
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.
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.
Here is a June 1982 ad from the Daily Herald:
http://tinyurl.com/pvg3mv
Here is a small ad from the Daily Herald dated 1/1/80:
http://tinyurl.com/345xfb
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.
This was THE spot to be if you were a teen in the 80’s. Every Staurday, it was like John Hughes was filming a brat-pack movie there!!! There was also a record store there that was very popular then, I can’t remember the name anymore…
This and the Ogden 6, which is still open, were the Chicagoland Area’s first 6-screen multiplexes. They were also AMC’s first inroads into the area. I once dated someone from this area and we would stop at Garibaldi’s, which was in the same mall.
Sometime during the 1980s, this theatre showed a mix of first and second run films. The admission charge for the first run films was cheaper than what Plitt/Cineplex-Odious (I mean Cineplex-Odeon) charged.
I saw some good movies here. As I recall the auditoriums were long and narrow. Of the 6 screens, I think only two auditoriums were equipped with Dolby sound. Very popular date-night movie spot.
Can’t belive they had to demolish it. I had a lot of memories of it when I was younger. I saw at least twenty movies there or more. This used to be such a busy shoping center, but now it’s so empty. At least there is AMC Theaters down the street on Barrington Road. More expensive though.
I just noticed that this place has disappeared this month. I took my kids to a car show that was held in the parking lot and I decided to take a walk by the place. I could not believe it was gone, I had a lot of good time there back in high school in the late ‘80s.