Lancaster Cinemas

3 screens on November 14th, 1984. Grand opening ad in the photo section.

The space, as of 2015, is a school for autistic children on the left, an optometrist in the center, and a Dollar General on the right.

They triplexed this cinema in 1983; I remember Purple Rain being one of the first shows in the new larger theatere that was built on the far left end. They halved what became the middle theater to make room for the larger one, and I always hated that middle one from then on, it was like watching a movie in a big hallway, as it no longer had a center aisle after that, just the two side aisles – very weird. Still, I spent a lot of time in 1984 and 1985 in this cinema – I lived just down the road at the Somerford Square apartment complex, and walked down to the theatre several times a week during the summer when I wasn’t working…

They ended up becoming a second run house sometime after Hoyts opened an 8 screen cinema at River Valley Mall in 1986; somehow though I always preferred Lancaster Cinema to Hoyts, though I saw plenty of shows at Hoyts as well…

Well, maybe not. Either it’s been torn down and the Dollar General is a new building, or Dollar General gutted the cinema building and repurposed it. I can’t really tell, so I guess the “closed” status stays. Anyone able to help here?