University 8
Maple Road and Alberta Drive,
Amherst,
NY
14221
Maple Road and Alberta Drive,
Amherst,
NY
14221
2 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: AMC Theatres, General Cinema Corp.
Previous Names: University Cinema I, II, III, IV
Nearby Theaters
Opened with 4-screens on July 17 1981, this GCC theater was located on the opposite side of Sweet Home Middle School from the still existing AMC Maple Ridge 8. On May 24, 1985 it was expanded to eight screens. I believe AMC ran this for a few years after GCC went bankrupt in 2000. The theatre eventually closed on March 22, 2004 and has since been demolished for commercial development.
My main memory of this theatre is when it ran “The Godfather” for one week in 1997 on the 25th anniversary of its original release. That afforded me the opportunity to see that classic on the big screen.
Contributed by
Jim Jones
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
I believe this one closed as an AMC, Maple Ridge has a distinctively GCC ticket taker box (is that what you call one of those), likely inherited from this theater. When AMC took over GCC they also got Walden Galloria (closed, reopened, closed again, and rebuilt by Regal) and McKinnely Mall 6 (a pretty successful location from the crowds I see there, AMC didn’t renew the lease, probably for fear of the Regal 18-plex down the road, Dipson however is able to score good first run bookings at McKinnely, and they split new releases with Regal, they also have two 3-D projectors, Regal only has one).
Maple Ridge is AMC’s last remaining Buffalo theater, although they have plenty of megaplexes across the boarder in Onterio. I have to wonder if they waiting out a lease, Maple Ridge itself seems to okay business being next door to UB.
AMC did run this theater at the end. Having two theaters so close to each other was a situation that was not going to last very long. AMC also used to run the Holiday 6 and the Como 8 (two of my favorites back in the day), but closed both in the 1990’s. The Regal chain beat AMC to the punch in building stadium seating megaplexes in the Buffalo area in the late 1990’s. The result being AMC no longer has much of a presence in the Buffalo area. As mentioned above, the Maple Ridge 8 draws its audience from the UB student base and the lack of a Regal theater in the immediate vicinity keeps it a viable operation.
Interesting point about the ticket booth. It could be a relic from the University 8. The Movieland 8 used to be a GCC theater and has the same type of ticket booth. If you are really into theater nostalgia, you can find the old GCC & AMC pre movie bumpers on YouTube.
I’m also going to speculate some of the seats from here ended up at Dipson’s Bativia Mall (GCC style seats with the Pepsi logo scraped off – from when GCC switched over to coke right before AMC took them over).
This was a big deal in the town when this opened in August of 81. I was there the first day and they had banners and balloons and pomp. I wound up seeing Endless Love that first day because like most 16 year olds of that era I thought Brooke Shields was a babe. Needless to say the movie horrified me.
This became my primary theater, taking over from the neighboring Boulevard General Cinema. I went a couple times in the early 2000s when AMC had taken over but by then I was pretty much going to the Regal and Market Arcade as I was a Buffalo City resident then.
Does anyone know the year in which this was renovated into an 8-plex? (Or did it have eight screens from Day One?)
This opened with four screens on July 17th, 1981. Grand opening ad posted.
Eight screens on May 24th, 1985. Another ad posted
Closed March 22nd, 2004, by AMC.