Picture Show at Bloomingdale Court
324 W. Army Trail Road,
Bloomingdale,
IL
60108
324 W. Army Trail Road,
Bloomingdale,
IL
60108
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 40 comments
Function should be changed to movies: first run. My grandson works here and loves the place. All modernized with reasonably priced concessions and admissions.
Correction: December 15th, 1989 grand opening ad in photo section.
This theater is now showing films in 3D, which is remarkable for a second-run venue.
AEK,
Per your comment about Village Theatres, another person on this site said he believes that Village might have started out with good intentions but they had a lousy business plan.
It’s amazing that the Village North, North Riverside, and Bloomingdale Court made it out of Village alive and are doing well.
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This is great news that some of these old theaters can live on as a second run. It’d be cool if the old theaters that village ruined like Lincoln Village or other long shuttered vacant theaters could be reopened. Especially given our economy, I think second run places like this could be very profitable-
Just visited the newly renovated theatre yesterday and what is left from the Cineplex Odeon days is the “Now Showing” signs and the navy blue carpeting on the wall. What is gone is the zig-zag carpeting being replaced by tiles and new carpeting in the theaters, new seats in all theatres, new signage outside and the so-called “V” logo (in which Village Theatres took the original “C” from the Cineplex Odeon and make it into a “V”) has been replaced by the “Picture Show” logo. Bathrooms are clean as well as the theatres.
@Paul: You can find showtimes at www.movietickets.com and search for Picture Show @ Bloomingdale.
I’m glad to see that this place has re-opened. It looks like FunAsia really didn’t last very long. I wasn’t able to find a website for this theatre.
The new name is now called Picture Show at Bloomingdale.
That’s cool. I’ve heard good things about that chain.
And another late 80s CO is saved!
The Bloomingdale theatres will be reopened on August 28, 2009 under the Picture Show discount movie chain. Admission will be $1.75 all times, on Tuesday admission will be $1.00. I knew that this theatre will eventually run as a second-run theatre.
Per Yahoo Movies, FunAsia is now running this place and it’s known as “FunAsia Bloomingdale”.
Has Village Theatres reached the end of the line? They haven’t updated their website since July and it seems like other companies are running the Bloomingdale and the Lincoln Village.
I wonder what the ownership of this theatre is. The theatre still appears on the Village Entertainment website and is still showing first run films.
How the heck is this place hanging on?
Well, I clicked on the link to Village Theatres and received this “villagetheatres.com expired on 01/24/2008 and is pending renewal or deletion”
Big surprise, huh!
Tick, tick, tick…that’s time running out for Village Theatres!
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I called the Village showtimes line and it said that the following films are playing – Bee Movie 4:55 7:00 9:05, Beowulf 4:30 7:05 9:40, 30 Days of Night 5:10 7:35 10:05 Om Shanti Om (2 screens) 5:30 6:45 9:00 10:00 Bell (Tamil) 6:30 9:45 . So either they’re going to run mixed Eng/Ind with Village management remaining, or Village has bookings it still needs to run out. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the Des Plaines Theater. Funasia also seems to be running some shows at the Lincoln Village – perhaps they are intervening and that’s why it hasn’t closed yet?
Village Theatre’s website shows only THE BEE MOVIE playing here. Could it be the end of the road for the Bloomingdale Court (or for that matter, Village Entertainment)?
Village has not updated its website since September 21, 2007. What’s that all about?
I went here yesterday to take some photos of it before it closed. Not really worth going. Its entrance is like a storefront in the strip mall—blink and you miss it. And yes, Village did slice the Cineplex-Odeon logo in half and rotate it 90 degrees to make it a “V”.
This theatre was built circa 1990 and was one of the last of the so-called strip-mall theatres. It would be easy to mistake this place for an old General Cinemas Theatre as such. But it was built for Cineplex-Odeon and I’m told it has the standard C-O touches inside such as the zig-zags on the wall. After 1990, C-O realized that the “cookie-cutter, no-frills mall cinemas were dated and began using a new design such as the three ICE theatres (the Lawndale, 61st and Western and Chatham), the Hodgkins/Quarry, and to a lesser extent, the 600 North Michigan. Those theatres were blue with yellow lettering and the C-O logo was on a spire. Plus, C-O realized customers wanted amenities by then.
I’ve never been to a movie here, so I cannot comment on how the place is on the inside. But it is not easy to find in the strip mall if you don’t know what you’re looking for. The box office is covered with curtains and has a sign instructing would-be patrons to buy tickets at the candy counter (This was also done at Golf Glen). There’s no real reason to go here unless the movie you want to see isn’t playing at the new Stratford Square (Century Theatres) or unless you are realy interested in this 1980s cinema. As Cinemark Fan said, unless Village switches it to 2nd run, which it would do VERY well at, it’s days are numbered.
It’s still open. The phone number and the website both state which movies are currently playing.
I think this theatre is now CLOSED.
I did some research a few weeks ago, and when Village first became a chain circa 2000-2002, the company DID advertise its cinemas and did appear to be a legitimate chain and not a “crash-and-burn-operation”. The December 20, 2002 edition of The Chicago Tribune shows the following cinemas that Village advertised and the movies playing there:
HINSDALE: Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers
GLENWOOD: Two Weeks Notice, Wild Thornberry’s, & Lord of the Rings 2
BURNHAM PLAZA: Gangs of NY, Lord of the Rings 2, Drumline, Empire
BLOOMINGDALE: Gangs of NY, Two Weeks Notice, Lord of The Rings 2, Drumline, Star Trek Nemesis, Die Another Day.
STRATFORD: Wild Thornberry’s , Lord Of the Rings 2, Hot Chick, Harry Potter & the Chambers Secrets, Analyzze That.
WATER TOWER: Personal Velocity, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Emporer’s Club,Ararat.
BIOGRAPH: Analyze That, Two Weeks Notice, Gangs of New York.
VILLAGE: Gangs of NY, Rodger Dodger, Emporer’s Club, Man From Elysian Fields.
VILLAGE NORTH: Lord of the Rings 2, Drumline, Star Trek Nemesis.
GOLF GLEN: Two Weeks Notice, Gangs of NY, Wild Thornberry’s, Lord of the Rings 2, Harry Potter, and Analyze That.
Apparantly, Village Entertainment was promoting its cinemas and had decent bookings (although it still gets decent bookings). And Water Tower was showing art films! The questions are what happened and when did Village become a “crash-and-burn” operation?