Bricktown Square Cinema
6420 W. Fullerton Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60707
6420 W. Fullerton Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60707
5 people
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Kerasotes has had a listing on their upcoming projects page showing a 14-screen at Armitage and Grand for a while now.
I heard a rumor that Keresotes will build a multiplex near the corner of Grand/Central.
Was this theatre demolished and replaced with a new structure? Or did the gym move into the existing structure?
Per Jayne’s comment above, the Brickyard Mall went under because Penney’s, K-Mart, and Wards all closed within a matter of months of each other. No mall can withstand the loss of all three of its anchors. The Jewel Food Store survived, however, and a new shopping center was built with “big box” stores like Target.
I saw “Internal Affairs”, “Born on the Fourth Of July”, and “Parenthood” here. When this place opened up, it seemed like THE place to see movies. Advance ticketing. Acceptance of credit cards. But like the Burnham Plaza Theatre, which opened at about the same time (and is scheduled to close), it became an example of how NOT to run a theatre.
My family and I went to see “Back to the Future II” at the Bricktown Theater the same year it opened up, and I saw a couple others there through the next two or three years. After 1993 or so, the clientele visiting the theater, as mentioned, really took a downward turn and I wasn’t even allowed to go to the mall next door (I was in high school at the time). It was the only movie theater that was really close to our house, the Norridge Theaters being the second closest.
This theater was beautiful inside when they first opened, but the criminal element killed it. Stories of cars being stolen in the parking lot and people being hit over the head. Too many scary people hanging around. That’s what killed the Brickyard Mall too. The neighborhood was okay, but you just didn’t feel safe around there.
The first films that I have seen at The Bricktown Square was “Strictly Business” and “JFK” in 1991. The last one was “A Few Good Men” in 1992. The theater closed in 2000 because Meridan Theaters failed to pay taxes to run these theaters in the City of Chicago. Once they paid the taxes some had reopened but the Bricktown Square remained closed.
There is now A gym where this theater once sat.