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Union Station Movie Theaters To Close
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
September 17, 2008 at 7:44 am
WASHINGTON, DC — After a 20 year run the terminal located Union Station 9 will be closing.
Opened in 1988 as part of the renovation of the station, the Union Station 9’s theaters are named after the classic old movie palaces that once dotted the District — the Roxy, Palace, Orpheum, Penn and so on. But there was nothing classic about the look or experience of the Union Station multiplex, which, because of its location at the crossroads between the affluent and impoverished parts of town, became a symbol of the very different moviegoing cultures in this country.
Read the full story in the Washington Post.
Comments (8)
Not surprised its closing, from the details of the article, it sounds as if it was very poorly operated.
I’ve been right by it when I was young visiting DC with my dad since my uncle Tom and Mike lived and worked not too far from Union Station. I didn’t know it was no longer an AMC and now a Phoenix theater.
What a jerk journalist. Probably hasn’t seen a movie there since AMC had the place. Phoenix made some great improvements.
http://movie-theatre.org/usa/dc/dcm.pdf has the grand opening announcement ad
I have to agree with you Scott on this one. Though I haven’t seen a film here in years, it would not be fair to say that the place had horrible exhibition. The Grand Theater, which is the only THX cert one of the bunch, never disappointed me with the movies I’ve seen there. The other one two auditoriums down (name escapes me) was pretty good as well. No curtains but the neon signs depicting the names of grand DC theaters of yesteryear are a nice touch unseen in other AMC venues in this area.
Granted, the area is not in the best part of town and there are sometimes riff raff urbanite customers that need to be taught proper theater etiquette. With the opening of the Regal Gallery Place, its a given this place took a hit. Perhaps they should have counterprogrammed and not just show the same films here as everywhere else. Lower prices maybe? Touted their superior Grand Theater sound set up?
Oh another thing is they only validate two hours of free parking. Depending on who is at the ticket booth, they’ll give you 10-15 minutes of grace or charge you after the 2 hours is up. It gets dicey if you don’t know you’re going to pay for that parking after shelling out $20 for a pair of tickets, too.
This theatre was no longer THX Certified, at the time of closing.
The last of the grand movie houses in DC…..The Union Station 9 Cinemas. Also want to add to this the theatres owned by Cineplex Odeon/K-B Theatres….
Which was the K-B Cinema, The Fine Arts, Odeon Circle,
and Tenley Square. Not to mention the Key Theatre near Georgetown.
The Avalon and the Uptown are grand movie houses that should be patronized by anybody who loves real cinema treasures.