Walden Galleria 12

Grand opening ad posted.

1990 newspaper article:

General Cinema buys Hoyts 26 Sep 1990, Wed The Buffalo News (Buffalo, New York) Newspapers.com

Thanks – I also assume Hoyts had a solid relationship with Pyramid as they were operators at their other malls but retreated from here. Regal picked up those locations and interestingly enough they won back this former Hoyts site. I guess I can’t fault Regal for the name, I sat in a slopped seating theater this weekend Rave bought from National Amusements and saw the pre-show slide reveal “Rave: The Ultimate Stadium Theaters” um no – they just bought some high quality non-stadium theaters, they need to change their marketing and deal with it.

As Paul mentioned, AMC of coarse still has Maple Ridge which is always clean and well run but a bit of a mystery: this type of 80’s era AMC were closed years ago, it’s rare to find AMC still running a theater that looks like this (it’s atmosphere is similar to Morristown, NJ’s Headquarters 10 which is now run by local chain Clearview Cinemas).

I’m not sure what AMC’s long term goals are in Buffalo, while Maple Ridge has a 3-D projector which would indicate a sign of confidence and long term stability (there are other AMCs that don’t have one) they also are now doing “weekday escape” pricing – all shows are $4.50, which might have other indications. I suppose it still does alright.

I secretly hope AMC allows it’s lease to expire and Dipson takes over Maple Ridge. Then again there is the possibility that one of the two theaters Regal is going to trade to AMC (as a result of the Kerasotes deal) could be in the Buffalo region (I’m thinking Elmwood or Niagara Falls), it certainly would avoid any DOJ conflict.

So it cut off the original edit, any way. :–/

Cinema was built before the stadium craze. Last movie I saw there was 12/31/99 when it was General Cinemas. It was not stadium then. I suspect Cinema Tour is wrong. They even have a photo of a room there, and it didn’t have stadium seating. While money could have been dumped into the place, I doubt it.

Did the original ever have stadium seating, I’ve seen it listed a few places as Walden Galleria Stadium 12? If so which operator retrofit it? If not CinemaTour is wrong.

Although it looked like there was very little chance that crews would be able to make the mall’s May 2008 opening date for the replacement theatre the last time I was at the Galleria (March 30th), the theatre was listed on Fandango earlier today- which makes me believe that they at least think that they can make May (possibly something like Memorial Day weekend). Keep in mind however the theatre Regal has (or had, as they appear to be near opening there as well) under construction in Albany (which is an upper floor build similar to this theatre) has been delayed nearly six months due to numerous construction and equipment issues.

Not sure, was there as early as October 19th and the mall still very prominately feature the theatre as “coming soon” to the second floor space originally planned for it. I read recently that the 13 screen theatre that Regal has under construction at Colonie Center in Albany had its opening pushed back from December to February in order to allow crews to complete construction on time, and from what I’ve seen this theatre appeared to be well ahead of the Galleria in terms of completion (as crews were just completing enclosing the second floor of the Galleria’s expansion in mid-October). I’m thinking you might be looking at March or April of 2008 at this point.

Sure seems to be taking an extraordinarily long time to get this new complex built, I wonder what the hold up is?? Thought it was supposed to ipen last spring?

Just to update some of the information above, the replacement theatre (the Stadium 16) will actually be new construction that has its mall entrance at the same place that the original anchor space (which was The Bon-Ton, and prior to that Bonwit Teller) had its second floor mall entrance, not built into the empty anchor space as originally implied by the local media (as this space has been fully demolished). Also, the Barnes and Noble slated to take over this theatre’s space will be at least partially new construction as this theatre has been at least partially demolished (a minimum of theatres 3 and 4 but up to and including theatres 1-7, it’s very difficult to tell exactly how far into the corner of the mall they demolished but there are still cross sections of sloped floor visible from outside the construction zone).

Even more curious about the Hoyts issue is they operated a small multiplex southwest of Buffalo for a few years in the mid 1990’s not of their design or construction.