By the way, I walked past the former Copley Place Cinemas tonight, and workers were already busy taking the place apart. One of them was putting black paint over the box office windows and the theatre doors. Another was carting speakers out through a service door. I tried to wander around looking, but eventually got shooed out.
I bet that within another week, shoppers in the mall won’t even see that a cinema used to be here.
And I was slightly wrong about the location of the never-built Loews Kenmore Square multiplex — which was also supposed to have 11 screens. It would have replaced the former Howard Johnson’s hotel on Commonwealth Avenue. After the cinema plans died, Boston University turned this hotel into a dormitory.
Redford’s proposed Sundance Cinema, which he wanted to build in partnership with General Cinema, would have replaced a parking garage on Lansdowne Street. It would have been 8 stories tall and contained 11 screens, as well as a film library, restaurant, and two bars. The neighborhood favored it, and so did the mayor, but financing apparently did not work out and the project died in September 1999.
It’s too bad — Boston would really have benefited from this.
Someone I know from another (unrelated) bulletin board saw my comments here, and sent me this:
“I was one of the former managers of the Copley Loews Cinema! Just found it interesting that you were commenting on its closure. Unfortunate for Boston, the site will be the last stand for art-house movies. The war between Loews and Simon Malls [owner of the Copley Place mall] is finally over. The design was never changed or updated, because Simon has wanted that property back for over 5 to 6 years! They wanted Loews to discontinue showing regular-mainstream movies due to issues with the nearby Roxbury neighborhood. Too many fights, too many police calls. They had Loews sign an agreement that only family or art-sy movies would be shown and that no ‘urban’ movies woudl ever play again.
“Loews responded by building the Commons complex, which ranks as one of the biggest complexes in the US. (That’s another nightmare, in itself, as one of their biggest money losers on the East Coast due to property issues with evacuations on all too regular basis caused by the gym and the residences smoke detectors setting off building fire alarms for the entire Millenium Tower) Loews knew the end was near with lease with Simons. Most of the [Copley] cinemas were mice infested due to Chili’s and the food court above it.
“There are many other stories that I could tell you, but basically, it was a fun job, I got to deal with the Boston theater critics on a regular basis, including David Brudnoy! And because the location and the art-house films, when local celebrities were staying in the hotels that surround the two malls, we had a bevy of stars checking out the films, on a regular basis. …if you have any questions about it…feel free to ask.”
I believe Robert Redford wanted to build his multiplex on Landsdowne Street, and Loews was going to build theirs on a vacant lot owned by BU, across from the post office. But I’m not sure.
(That vacant lot would still be a great place for a cinema.)
Loews filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 15, 2001, so the early 90s closings were unrelated. But the Nickelodeon closing was a direct and immediate result of the bankruptcy.
Loews was going to build a multiplex in Kenmore Square, and another at the ‘Crosstown Center’ on Mass. Ave. in the South End, near Boston City Hospital. When Loews went into bankruptcy, these plans died.
Robert Redford wanted to build a Sundance Cinema multiplex near Kenmore Square, and that didn’t happen either.
The Brattle is primarily a revival house, with a calendar published well in advance. They do squeeze in a few week-long first runs, but there is absolutely no flexibility in the schedule to accommodate any film that suddenly takes off and develops a following.
The Coolidge is better described as a two-screen movie theatre with an additional 45-seat video-only screening room.
AMC Fenway and Loews Boston Common aren’t on this site yet. I’ve been meaning to add both of them, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Both have stadium seating.
Interesting – Lion King is the first show in Boston’s Opera House after Clear Channel restored and reopened it last year. It has been playing for six months and departs next month.
For the first time in many decades, Boston will have no commercial movie screens dedicated to the offbeat, the independent, or the foreign film. At various times, the Beacon Hill, the Kenmore Square, the Park Square, the Exeter Street, the Nickelodeon, and the Copley Place have given these films a home.
Now they have nowhere to go, except out of the city — to the Brattle or Landmark’s Kendall Square in Cambridge, the Coolidge Corner in Brookline, or the West Newton Cinema.
I happened to walk through the Copley Place mall tonight and noticed this sign on the cinema marquee:
CLOSING JAN 30TH THANK-YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE
Once this closes…
only two movie theatres will still exist entirely within Boston city limits: AMC Fenway (13 screens) and Loews Boston Common (19 screens). Both of these are less than five years old.
no movie theatres will remain in the Back Bay, a neighborhood that had at least six when I first moved to Boston in the 1970s.
Loews will no longer have any of the Boston city theatres that it inherited from Sack and USACinemas. In greater Boston, only two former Sack or USACinemas theatres will still be operating under Loews ownership: Harvard Square in Cambridge, and Assembly Square in Somerville.
There are the last movies to be shown on the eleven Copley Place screens, January 28-30:
A Very Long Engagement
Ray
Kinsey
Racing Stripes
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Being Julia
Finding Neverland
Spanglish
Closer
The Woodsman (2 shows only)
National Treasure (3 shows only)
The Incredibles (matinees only)
The Assassination of Richard Nixon (evenings only)
From a Boston Globe article published on June 27, 2004:
Fred McLennan, an expert on Boston theaters who was a projectionist at the Keith and later the Savoy, credits the late Ben Sack, who took over many of the downtown theaters, with saving the Savoy. “They were actually boarding it up when he bought it in 1965,” McLennan says.
(This article also says that the Savoy was split into two theatres in 1971.)
From a Boston Globe article published on June 5, 1995:
Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston bought the Savoy in 1978 and renamed it. Caldwell and company produced 12 seasons in the hall, some of them spectacular.
But the Opera Company’s finances have historically been a shambles, and its lack of money for maintenance showed in the beautiful building, which deteriorated throughout the 1980s.
Caldwell’s company produced its last local opera, “The Balcony,” at the Opera House in 1990. The last performance, by Yanni, took place in May 1991. The following year, the building was seriously vandalized. Boston Edison shut off the utilities, and the building became so decrepit it came close to being condemned.
Here is a history of the Sack / USACinemas / Loews chain in Boston and Cambridge, from 1984 to the present day. All of this is from the Boston Globe and Herald online archives, supplemented by my own memory. Where relevant, I’ve included openings and closings of competing theatres.
February 1984: Sack Theatres opens the 9-screen Copley Place. Elsewhere in Boston, it already owns the Charles (3 screens), Beacon Hill (3), Pi Alley (2), Cinema 57 (2), Paris (1), and Cheri (3).
The only other movie theatres in central Boston, except for a few porn and kung-fu cinemas in the Combat Zone, are the Exeter Street (1 screen) and the Nickelodeon (5), both of which are considered art houses.
July 1984: The Exeter Street Theatre closes, leaving only the Nickelodeon to compete with Sack in the Boston market.
December 1985: Sack Theatres changes its name to USACinemas.
Mid-May 1986: USACinemas buys the Nickelodeon. It now owns every movie screen in central Boston, other than the aforementioned porno and kung-fu theatres.
Late May 1986: The Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge (3 screens) burns down and never reopens.
August 1986: Off the Wall Cinema (1 screen) closes in Cambridge.
November 1986: USACinemas buys the Harvard Square Theatre (3 screens at the time, I think) and the Janus Cinema (1 screen). It now owns every screen in Cambridge except for the single-screen Brattle, which is mainly a revival house.
August 1987: USACinemas closes the Pi Alley.
March 1988: Loews buys USACinemas.
Spring 1990: Entertainment Cinemas opens the 10-screen Fresh Pond Cinema in Cambridge.
December 1990: Loews buys the Fresh Pond Cinema, quickly eliminating a competitive threat to its Cambridge near-monopoly.
November 1992: Loews closes the Beacon Hill.
March 1993: Loews closes the Paris.
October 1994: Loews closes the Charles.
September 1995: Landmark’s Kendall Square Cinemas (9 screens) opens to general acclaim. It is the first real competitor to Loews in Cambridge since 1986.
May 1996: Loews closes the Cinema 57.
October 1998: Loews closes the Janus.
June 2000: General Cinema opens the Fenway 13, the first new movie theatre in Boston since the Copley Place, and the first competitor to Sack/USACinemas/Loews in Boston since 1986.
February 2001: Loews closes the Nickelodeon.
July 2001: Loews opens the Boston Common (19 screens). The Cheri becomes a $5 second-run house.
November 2001: Loews closes the Cheri. This leaves only three cinemas in central Boston: Loews Boston Common, Loews Copley Place, and General Cinema Fenway.
The Beacon Hill also booked art and foreign films in 1982, and I think this policy lasted until the Copley Place opened in February 1984. I’ve posted more about this on the Beacon Hill page.
The Paris closed less than four months after the Beacon Hill closed.
USACinemas (which had formerly been called Sack Theatres) bought the Nickelodeon Cinemas in May 1986. After that transaction, USACinemas owned every movie screen in central Boston, with the exception of a few X-rated and martial-arts theatres in the Combat Zone.
Loews bought USACinemas in March 1988. Their Boston monopoly lasted until the General Cinema Fenway (now AMC Fenway) opened in June 2000.
Regarding the Beacon Hill as an art house, I believe this policy ran from 1982 until the Copley Place opened in 1984. I posted a comment about it on the Beacon Hill page.
Yes, I remember the Art Cinema, though I certainly never went inside. It was across Tremont Street from the Saxon/Majestic. It had a marquee that was always blank! After it closed, a group wanted to turn it into an independent twin theatre called the Mercator Cinema, but they abandoned their plans for reasons I don’t know. I believe the Limelight Stage and Studios now occupy that space.
According to a Boston Globe article published on May 21, 1982, Sack Theatres (re)instituted an art and foreign film booking policy at the Beacon Hill on February 26, 1982, starting with Das Boot, followed by Garde a Vue and Christiane F.. On the day the article was published, the theatre was showing The Atomic Cafe, Smash Palace, and Roommates.
I believe this policy lasted until Sack opened the Copley Place in February 1984.
Why did the Back Lot close?
By the way, I walked past the former Copley Place Cinemas tonight, and workers were already busy taking the place apart. One of them was putting black paint over the box office windows and the theatre doors. Another was carting speakers out through a service door. I tried to wander around looking, but eventually got shooed out.
I bet that within another week, shoppers in the mall won’t even see that a cinema used to be here.
And I was slightly wrong about the location of the never-built Loews Kenmore Square multiplex — which was also supposed to have 11 screens. It would have replaced the former Howard Johnson’s hotel on Commonwealth Avenue. After the cinema plans died, Boston University turned this hotel into a dormitory.
Redford’s proposed Sundance Cinema, which he wanted to build in partnership with General Cinema, would have replaced a parking garage on Lansdowne Street. It would have been 8 stories tall and contained 11 screens, as well as a film library, restaurant, and two bars. The neighborhood favored it, and so did the mayor, but financing apparently did not work out and the project died in September 1999.
It’s too bad — Boston would really have benefited from this.
Someone I know from another (unrelated) bulletin board saw my comments here, and sent me this:
“I was one of the former managers of the Copley Loews Cinema! Just found it interesting that you were commenting on its closure. Unfortunate for Boston, the site will be the last stand for art-house movies. The war between Loews and Simon Malls [owner of the Copley Place mall] is finally over. The design was never changed or updated, because Simon has wanted that property back for over 5 to 6 years! They wanted Loews to discontinue showing regular-mainstream movies due to issues with the nearby Roxbury neighborhood. Too many fights, too many police calls. They had Loews sign an agreement that only family or art-sy movies would be shown and that no ‘urban’ movies woudl ever play again.
“Loews responded by building the Commons complex, which ranks as one of the biggest complexes in the US. (That’s another nightmare, in itself, as one of their biggest money losers on the East Coast due to property issues with evacuations on all too regular basis caused by the gym and the residences smoke detectors setting off building fire alarms for the entire Millenium Tower) Loews knew the end was near with lease with Simons. Most of the [Copley] cinemas were mice infested due to Chili’s and the food court above it.
“There are many other stories that I could tell you, but basically, it was a fun job, I got to deal with the Boston theater critics on a regular basis, including David Brudnoy! And because the location and the art-house films, when local celebrities were staying in the hotels that surround the two malls, we had a bevy of stars checking out the films, on a regular basis. …if you have any questions about it…feel free to ask.”
So, Brockton over a few years went from having 10+ screens to having none at all? Where do people go to movies now in that area?
I believe Robert Redford wanted to build his multiplex on Landsdowne Street, and Loews was going to build theirs on a vacant lot owned by BU, across from the post office. But I’m not sure.
(That vacant lot would still be a great place for a cinema.)
Loews filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 15, 2001, so the early 90s closings were unrelated. But the Nickelodeon closing was a direct and immediate result of the bankruptcy.
Loews was going to build a multiplex in Kenmore Square, and another at the ‘Crosstown Center’ on Mass. Ave. in the South End, near Boston City Hospital. When Loews went into bankruptcy, these plans died.
Robert Redford wanted to build a Sundance Cinema multiplex near Kenmore Square, and that didn’t happen either.
The Brattle is primarily a revival house, with a calendar published well in advance. They do squeeze in a few week-long first runs, but there is absolutely no flexibility in the schedule to accommodate any film that suddenly takes off and develops a following.
The Coolidge is better described as a two-screen movie theatre with an additional 45-seat video-only screening room.
AMC Fenway and Loews Boston Common aren’t on this site yet. I’ve been meaning to add both of them, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Both have stadium seating.
actually it was Sack Theatres (not Sacks, not Saks)
Interesting – Lion King is the first show in Boston’s Opera House after Clear Channel restored and reopened it last year. It has been playing for six months and departs next month.
And, I should add:
For the first time in many decades, Boston will have no commercial movie screens dedicated to the offbeat, the independent, or the foreign film. At various times, the Beacon Hill, the Kenmore Square, the Park Square, the Exeter Street, the Nickelodeon, and the Copley Place have given these films a home.
Now they have nowhere to go, except out of the city — to the Brattle or Landmark’s Kendall Square in Cambridge, the Coolidge Corner in Brookline, or the West Newton Cinema.
I happened to walk through the Copley Place mall tonight and noticed this sign on the cinema marquee:
CLOSING JAN 30TH THANK-YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE
Once this closes…
only two movie theatres will still exist entirely within Boston city limits: AMC Fenway (13 screens) and Loews Boston Common (19 screens). Both of these are less than five years old.
no movie theatres will remain in the Back Bay, a neighborhood that had at least six when I first moved to Boston in the 1970s.
Loews will no longer have any of the Boston city theatres that it inherited from Sack and USACinemas. In greater Boston, only two former Sack or USACinemas theatres will still be operating under Loews ownership: Harvard Square in Cambridge, and Assembly Square in Somerville.
There are the last movies to be shown on the eleven Copley Place screens, January 28-30:
A Very Long Engagement
Ray
Kinsey
Racing Stripes
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Being Julia
Finding Neverland
Spanglish
Closer
The Woodsman (2 shows only)
National Treasure (3 shows only)
The Incredibles (matinees only)
The Assassination of Richard Nixon (evenings only)
From a Boston Globe article published on June 27, 2004:
Fred McLennan, an expert on Boston theaters who was a projectionist at the Keith and later the Savoy, credits the late Ben Sack, who took over many of the downtown theaters, with saving the Savoy. “They were actually boarding it up when he bought it in 1965,” McLennan says.
(This article also says that the Savoy was split into two theatres in 1971.)
From a Boston Globe article published on June 5, 1995:
Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston bought the Savoy in 1978 and renamed it. Caldwell and company produced 12 seasons in the hall, some of them spectacular.
But the Opera Company’s finances have historically been a shambles, and its lack of money for maintenance showed in the beautiful building, which deteriorated throughout the 1980s.
Caldwell’s company produced its last local opera, “The Balcony,” at the Opera House in 1990. The last performance, by Yanni, took place in May 1991. The following year, the building was seriously vandalized. Boston Edison shut off the utilities, and the building became so decrepit it came close to being condemned.
Are you sure this was demolished? I thought it reopened as the independent Hollywood Hits Theatre which is still operating today.
Do you mean the former ‘Sack Cinema City’ in Danvers, which is now the Hollywood Hits Theatre?
For those interested, I’ve posted on the Copley Place Cinemas page some Sack –> USACinemas –> Loews history for Boston and Cambridge.
Here is a history of the Sack / USACinemas / Loews chain in Boston and Cambridge, from 1984 to the present day. All of this is from the Boston Globe and Herald online archives, supplemented by my own memory. Where relevant, I’ve included openings and closings of competing theatres.
February 1984: Sack Theatres opens the 9-screen Copley Place. Elsewhere in Boston, it already owns the Charles (3 screens), Beacon Hill (3), Pi Alley (2), Cinema 57 (2), Paris (1), and Cheri (3).
The only other movie theatres in central Boston, except for a few porn and kung-fu cinemas in the Combat Zone, are the Exeter Street (1 screen) and the Nickelodeon (5), both of which are considered art houses.
July 1984: The Exeter Street Theatre closes, leaving only the Nickelodeon to compete with Sack in the Boston market.
December 1985: Sack Theatres changes its name to USACinemas.
Mid-May 1986: USACinemas buys the Nickelodeon. It now owns every movie screen in central Boston, other than the aforementioned porno and kung-fu theatres.
Late May 1986: The Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge (3 screens) burns down and never reopens.
August 1986: Off the Wall Cinema (1 screen) closes in Cambridge.
November 1986: USACinemas buys the Harvard Square Theatre (3 screens at the time, I think) and the Janus Cinema (1 screen). It now owns every screen in Cambridge except for the single-screen Brattle, which is mainly a revival house.
August 1987: USACinemas closes the Pi Alley.
March 1988: Loews buys USACinemas.
Spring 1990: Entertainment Cinemas opens the 10-screen Fresh Pond Cinema in Cambridge.
December 1990: Loews buys the Fresh Pond Cinema, quickly eliminating a competitive threat to its Cambridge near-monopoly.
November 1992: Loews closes the Beacon Hill.
March 1993: Loews closes the Paris.
October 1994: Loews closes the Charles.
September 1995: Landmark’s Kendall Square Cinemas (9 screens) opens to general acclaim. It is the first real competitor to Loews in Cambridge since 1986.
May 1996: Loews closes the Cinema 57.
October 1998: Loews closes the Janus.
June 2000: General Cinema opens the Fenway 13, the first new movie theatre in Boston since the Copley Place, and the first competitor to Sack/USACinemas/Loews in Boston since 1986.
February 2001: Loews closes the Nickelodeon.
July 2001: Loews opens the Boston Common (19 screens). The Cheri becomes a $5 second-run house.
November 2001: Loews closes the Cheri. This leaves only three cinemas in central Boston: Loews Boston Common, Loews Copley Place, and General Cinema Fenway.
USACinemas (which was formerly called Sack Theatres) bought the Harvard Square and the Janus Cinema in November 1986.
Loews bought USACinemas in March 1988.
USACinemas (which was formerly called Sack Theatres) bought the Harvard Square and the Janus Cinema in November 1986.
Loews bought USACinemas in March 1988.
The Beacon Hill also booked art and foreign films in 1982, and I think this policy lasted until the Copley Place opened in February 1984. I’ve posted more about this on the Beacon Hill page.
The Paris closed less than four months after the Beacon Hill closed.
USACinemas (which had formerly been called Sack Theatres) bought the Nickelodeon Cinemas in May 1986. After that transaction, USACinemas owned every movie screen in central Boston, with the exception of a few X-rated and martial-arts theatres in the Combat Zone.
Loews bought USACinemas in March 1988. Their Boston monopoly lasted until the General Cinema Fenway (now AMC Fenway) opened in June 2000.
Regarding the Beacon Hill as an art house, I believe this policy ran from 1982 until the Copley Place opened in 1984. I posted a comment about it on the Beacon Hill page.
Yes, I remember the Art Cinema, though I certainly never went inside. It was across Tremont Street from the Saxon/Majestic. It had a marquee that was always blank! After it closed, a group wanted to turn it into an independent twin theatre called the Mercator Cinema, but they abandoned their plans for reasons I don’t know. I believe the Limelight Stage and Studios now occupy that space.
According to a Boston Globe article published on May 21, 1982, Sack Theatres (re)instituted an art and foreign film booking policy at the Beacon Hill on February 26, 1982, starting with Das Boot, followed by Garde a Vue and Christiane F.. On the day the article was published, the theatre was showing The Atomic Cafe, Smash Palace, and Roommates.
I believe this policy lasted until Sack opened the Copley Place in February 1984.