Regal Fenway Stadium 11

Look at the comments for the Circle. Back in January there were news articles about the Circle possibly closing and being sold to a housing developer. Hasn’t happened yet, though.

An article in today’s Boston Globe suggests Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements (Showcase Cinemas) as the most likely buyer.

They’ve been in our suburbs for decades, and own the Circle Cinemas which straddle the Boston-Brookline boundary. But they have never had a location in the central city.

According to today’s Variety, the Fenway is slated to be sold:

“As the result of an antitrust review of the AMC and Loews merger, which was announced in June and is expected to close early next year, the exhibs will sell 10 theaters in six cities.
The exhibexhib bizbiz is closely monitored by antitrust officials so that one chain does not, in effect, have a monopoly on movies in any particular market. Because Loews and AMC had competitive theaters in several distribdistrib zones, some sell-off was expected (Daily Variety, June 22).

After unloading the 10 theaters — five each from AMC and Loews, comprising 93 screens total — the merged company will be left with 437 locations and 5,843 screens in the U.S., making it the second-largest chain after Regal, which has 6,264 screens…[the list of sites to be sold include] the AMC Fenway 13 in Boston and the Loews Meridian 16 in Seattle."

For years and years General Cinemas home office was in Boston at 500 Boylston Street. They didn’t move out to Newton/Chestnut Hill until about 1975.

The Landmark Center, which contains this theatre as well as retail and office space, is on the National Register of Historic Places. This redevelopment of an old Sears warehouse won several preservation awards. Some links to pages by Bruner/Cott, the developer:

Landmark Center
Landmark Center: text description
Links to interior, exterior, and construction photos

As popular – and as justly popular – an addition the Fenway 13 proved to be to Boston’s moviegoing scene, its opening contributed to a considerable degree to the decline and closing of the relatively nearby Cheri Theatre. The Cheri, which became more of a destination venue for moviegoers as more and more film venues within the city were shuttered in the ‘80s and '90s, and a showcase for blockbuster flicks, suddenly found itself fighting with its new booking zone partner for product – and, in turn, for audiences. The final nail in the Cheri’s coffin was the opening of the 19-screen, all-stadium seating Loews Boston Common Theatre on July 20, 2001. The Cheri became a discount house – and increasingly an afterthought to both Loews, the chain which operated it, and the film-seeking public – and closed its doors for good in November 2001; its space is currently occupied by the Kings bowling alley and a Jasper White’s Summer Shack restaurant. (Meanwhile, another fellow zone mate closed its doors – the Nickelodeon, once the top arthouse in Boston, which Loews cut loose as part of its bankruptcy reorganization in February of 2001; the building which housed the Nickelodeon was subsequently demolished by Boston University, its landlord, in the spring of 2003; B.U. is currently constructing a Life Sciences and Engineering building on the property.)