Eastgate was not an initial replacement for East Towne. Marcus owned and operated both for several years after building Eastgate and sold it to another company, where it was operated as a budget cinema until eventually closing.
From what I hear, the Sun Prairie site is under development and will be the likely home of the new theatre. It is unlikely they will maintain the name “The Crossings” since that was partially based on the original street the complex was supposed to be built near.
I worked at this theatre for 8 years and I am happy to answer questions about it.
This theatre is 18 screens… 17 plus the IMAX. When Kerasotes renamed it, they were clearly confused. The original name was Star Cinema-Fitchburg.
Theatre was constructed and opened for business in December 1999 as a 14 screen theatre with 12 station concession stand and 6 station box office. We ran exclusively Christie projectors with 4 THX certified auditoriums and half of them running DTS and the other half running Dolby Digital sound systems. The only significant change to the look of this building is the carpeting and hallways, which were changed to match the scheme in the IMAX addition. Street sign was also changed when IMAX was built. Mural above the concession stand was painted by a family member of the ownership, Mark Adamany of Rockford, IL.
I don’t remember the exact date (December 2006?) we added the IMAX addition, but it was opened with 3 additional 150 seat auditoriums to accommodate long first-runs and an additional 8 station concession stand and set of bathrooms. Was previously owned and operated by the Adamany family of AGT Enterprises in Prairie Du Chien, who still own and operate their original location there.
Kerasotes is obviously now AMC at the end of the month, so this information will be changing.
Haha nice description. Please note that the following construction timetable roughly mirrors Eastgate on the other side of town, besides the obvious lack of an UltraScreen over there.
As many of these photos indicate, the nightclub function of this theatre has been terminated following some shootings and other issues with violence. It is now mainly a music venue, which I visited last year. Not bad and at least they’ve maintained the marquee.
Also, this theatre used to have 70mm capability in the Palace, which was removed as part of the stadium seating retrofit. And I’m pretty sure the projectors are the original ones from when each auditorium was built! :)
I worked at this theatre for 4 years… let me clear up at least one obvious misconception. NO part of this building is only 10 years old anymore except the front facade. The original 4 screens were built in 1984 (Palace, Roxy, Ritz and Rialto). Shortly thereafter, the next 2 screens were built (Odeon and Bijou). Still in the 80s, the final four theatres down that wing were added, along with an additional vending stand and advance ticket office.
Into the early 90s I believe, the addition was built to create the right hallway and the next four theatres were built, along with the island-style concession stand and “larger” lobby and box office that included an additional set of restrooms. It was a 14-plex when I started and the first project completed was the stadium seating retrofit, which took down two auditoriums at a time and lasted about a year or so. This significantly decreased seating, as our largest (Palace) went from 455 capacity to just over 300. In 1998 or so, the final two auditoriums were built and named Orpheum and Majestic as a tribute to the remaining movie palaces left in Madison. These auditoriums are THX certified, back when people cared about that. Now I believe they have the capability to run digital cinema and interlock for film. At that point the outer building was painted from orange to the current pink color to recreate some art-deco styling.
The theatre has it’s charm I guess… you can still see an exterior wall in one of the old storage rooms and it seems much larger than it is because all the auditoriums are on one side of the hallway. It definitely lacks the large, airy feeling of newer multiplexes. However, Marcus stopped putting any real money into this building years ago. People accept it because there are no other real options on that side of Madison. Personally, I find the seats in the original 14 auditoriums unbearable and in the newer two only marginally better. Besides the facade, I’m pretty sure NOTHING has changed about this building in 10 years, regardless of need.
Couple more clarifications I noticed.
Eastgate was not an initial replacement for East Towne. Marcus owned and operated both for several years after building Eastgate and sold it to another company, where it was operated as a budget cinema until eventually closing.
From what I hear, the Sun Prairie site is under development and will be the likely home of the new theatre. It is unlikely they will maintain the name “The Crossings” since that was partially based on the original street the complex was supposed to be built near.
I worked at this theatre for 8 years and I am happy to answer questions about it.
This theatre is 18 screens… 17 plus the IMAX. When Kerasotes renamed it, they were clearly confused. The original name was Star Cinema-Fitchburg.
Theatre was constructed and opened for business in December 1999 as a 14 screen theatre with 12 station concession stand and 6 station box office. We ran exclusively Christie projectors with 4 THX certified auditoriums and half of them running DTS and the other half running Dolby Digital sound systems. The only significant change to the look of this building is the carpeting and hallways, which were changed to match the scheme in the IMAX addition. Street sign was also changed when IMAX was built. Mural above the concession stand was painted by a family member of the ownership, Mark Adamany of Rockford, IL.
I don’t remember the exact date (December 2006?) we added the IMAX addition, but it was opened with 3 additional 150 seat auditoriums to accommodate long first-runs and an additional 8 station concession stand and set of bathrooms. Was previously owned and operated by the Adamany family of AGT Enterprises in Prairie Du Chien, who still own and operate their original location there.
Kerasotes is obviously now AMC at the end of the month, so this information will be changing.
Haha nice description. Please note that the following construction timetable roughly mirrors Eastgate on the other side of town, besides the obvious lack of an UltraScreen over there.
As many of these photos indicate, the nightclub function of this theatre has been terminated following some shootings and other issues with violence. It is now mainly a music venue, which I visited last year. Not bad and at least they’ve maintained the marquee.
Also, this theatre used to have 70mm capability in the Palace, which was removed as part of the stadium seating retrofit. And I’m pretty sure the projectors are the original ones from when each auditorium was built! :)
I worked at this theatre for 4 years… let me clear up at least one obvious misconception. NO part of this building is only 10 years old anymore except the front facade. The original 4 screens were built in 1984 (Palace, Roxy, Ritz and Rialto). Shortly thereafter, the next 2 screens were built (Odeon and Bijou). Still in the 80s, the final four theatres down that wing were added, along with an additional vending stand and advance ticket office.
Into the early 90s I believe, the addition was built to create the right hallway and the next four theatres were built, along with the island-style concession stand and “larger” lobby and box office that included an additional set of restrooms. It was a 14-plex when I started and the first project completed was the stadium seating retrofit, which took down two auditoriums at a time and lasted about a year or so. This significantly decreased seating, as our largest (Palace) went from 455 capacity to just over 300. In 1998 or so, the final two auditoriums were built and named Orpheum and Majestic as a tribute to the remaining movie palaces left in Madison. These auditoriums are THX certified, back when people cared about that. Now I believe they have the capability to run digital cinema and interlock for film. At that point the outer building was painted from orange to the current pink color to recreate some art-deco styling.
The theatre has it’s charm I guess… you can still see an exterior wall in one of the old storage rooms and it seems much larger than it is because all the auditoriums are on one side of the hallway. It definitely lacks the large, airy feeling of newer multiplexes. However, Marcus stopped putting any real money into this building years ago. People accept it because there are no other real options on that side of Madison. Personally, I find the seats in the original 14 auditoriums unbearable and in the newer two only marginally better. Besides the facade, I’m pretty sure NOTHING has changed about this building in 10 years, regardless of need.