Picture Show at Main Place Mall
2800 N. Main Street,
Santa Ana,
CA
92701
2800 N. Main Street,
Santa Ana,
CA
92701
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 36 comments
A chronology of Orange County’s 70mm presentation history has recently been published. MainPlace is mentioned numerous times.
Some random features/info:
There is a large conference room located off of the projection booth for the four smaller auditoriums. During the theatre’s AMC years this room was utilized for management seminars and regional meetings. The room also had a small cubicle situated in the corner which the regional marketing director worked out of.
The projection booth for the two larger auditoriums features two adjacent rooms which were the AMC regional manager’s office and an office for regional administrative staff/auditors. In the early 1990’s AMC merged regional offices into a larger division office (located in Century City) and the former regional offices were basically subjugated to storage. This space was later utilized as a home base for the Block 30 management team during the Block’s construction/pre-opening.
There is a spacious storage room located off of the utility corridor that runs behind the two large auditoriums. AMC utilized this room to store defunct equipment, paperwork, and misc marketing materials from the regional days. Even in the late 90’s, long after the regional offices had closed, the room was still piled from floor to ceiling with regional garbage.
During the megaplex/stadium seating boom of the late 90’s plans were drawn up to add auditoriums and upgrade facilities. However, this plan was quickly dropped once the Block project was lined up. After the Block opened AMC sought to convert Mainplace to discount bookings, but the mall didn’t feel that fit with their image at the time (obviously this changed a few years later). So, AMC finished out their lease as a pseudo art house, with occasional children’s films and studio test screenings (auditorium #5 was equipped to run work prints of films and was frequently booked by Disney for audience tests).
My favorite memory of this theatre was when I saw Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ.” It was an AMC then and this was one of the very few theaters in the area willing to screen the film. Side Note: I made a student film at the time that dealt with the protests the film was getting during its initial release. Somewhere in a closet I have footage of the theater’s exterior marquee, which listed the film’s title.
Can remember seeing “Bugsy” here in 1991 & “Rob Roy” in ‘95.
September 25th, 1987 grand opening ads posted.
I saw BIG at this theater during the summer of 1988. It was nice and new. The layout was a little different. It was an AMC, I believe.
“The Rocketeer” was presented at the AMC Mainplace in 70mm 6-Track THX Dolby Stereo SR beginning on Friday June 21, 1991 (the film’s nationwide release date).
Opened by AMC on September 25, 1987.
The mangers are useless there I tried to contact one and they didnt respond. Luckily, one of the ushers was there to resolve my problem. I am a recent customer and everytime I go I always see the managers with long faces like if they hate their jobs. And thats not how a manager should be protayed. They should get new management because they are not reliable and they do not know how to do their job. I also wanted to point out that one of the concessionist has to work on her attitude, she was really rude to me when i asked her information involving a movie. But some positives are the theaters in good condition, who would of thought you can enjoy a movie at a friendly environment for only two dollars. And also the young men at the podim are very polite, and friendly.They always greet me with a big smile and a warm hello. It seems like these young men enjoy their jobs which is always a positive. The managers should be more like them. I would love these young men to work for my in my corporation.
Interesting name.
Picture Show Entertainment has scheduled a 10/20/06 opening for the theatre. The second concession stand has been torn out and the area has been converted in to a rental/party room. They’ve also replaced the auditorium wall coverings, replaced projection/sound equipment, cleaned the complex, and fixed minor cosmetic issues.
The Mainplace 6 is slated to reopen in the Fall of 2006 by a company called Picture Show Entertainment.
He closed Mainplace 6? No sir, it was shutdown.
Im sure someone will snag up MainPlace again. It has competition, but book kids films and it still does good business being in the mall. It makes me sad to see this theatre close.
That is the most interesting name for a theater. Any pictures?
Mr. Blood closed MainPlace 6 last week. He is focusing on the Village Theatre and is looking for investors to keep the Village open.
Lavelle which GCC houses did you work?
What in the world are you talking about? You know who i am because i mentioned the owner? I dont know if you saw what i posted but i made an assumption. There was no truth behind anything i said. I simply responded in the way i did cause it sounded like you were boasting. If you werent then i apologize. As for real names, i have no idea who you are, where your from, what type of person you are and i could rather careless. The post was not meant to be an insult but you obviously jumped to that conclusion right off the bat. I stated my intentions for my post and thats that.
sounds to me as if you would like me to mention other people, now i’m wondering what your motivation is, also considering that you have not did anything else on this webstie but post in response to my initial post. Makes me feel like I know exactly who you are given that you mentioned the owner, and you tried to be vague and choose your words carefully. Hey buddy if you want the spotlight and you don’t want me making it seem like a one man show, and also make it seem as if I’m wanting a raise, then do this please. Do the things that I have done, shut your mouth and go on with your life. Nobody is holding you back from doing things yourself. Now based on what I have done, it should be appreciated, given that all this is taking place at a minimum wage rate of pay, without holiday pay, and without overtime pay. one rate of pay no matter what day you work or how many hours. So please give me a F'n break. To anyone else who reads this and don’t know what’s going on I deeply apologize, it’s frustrating to have false accusations being brought upon me. I will speak no more of this.
oh yeah I’ve used my real name, so what’s yours?
I’m going to respond once and leave this alone because I’m really affended. The employees there have been running the show, I simply complimented it with a little bit of passion and experience. others have done things to try and make it better, but again I have only been there a month so I’m just commenting on what I have done so far to “try” and improve things “a little bit”. I’m sorry that it seems like you have some anamosity (spell check) for this place, I"m not trying to bring in business, or take “all” the credit for another thing other than what “I” have done and brought to the table. and for the record I have spoken to the owner which is never there. I"m there mostly as much as i can be 90 hours within the past two weeks. I’m not a manager because I don’t want to be worked to death, I have a life outside of this place that I"m trying to buuild up right now. This is simply my passion that I’ve had since childhood. I never asked or wanted a raise so to speak, but admiration. It would have been nice if it were offered. Just the act of offereing shows that you appreciate what others are doing for you. I apologize if you mis understood me. But sheesh, I was jsut trying to spread the word about the improvements but also notate that I see what people have been saying about the owner.
Take what you will of this response, but keep in mind what it is that I was trying get across to you all.
P.S. I did apologize to you, wether i was wrong or not. (that’s also called customer service).
I’m going to respond once and leave this alone because I’m really affended. The employees there have been running the show, I simply complimented it with a little bit of passion and experience. others have done things to try and make it better, but again I have only been there a month so I’m just commenting on what I have done so far to “try” and improve things “a little bit”. I’m sorry that it seems like you have some anamosity (spell check) for this place, I"m not trying to bring in business, or take “all” the credit for another thing other than what “I” have done and brought to the table. and for the record I have spoken to the owner which is never there. I"m there mostly as much as i can be 90 hours within the past two weeks. I’m not a manager because I don’t want to be worked to death, I have a life outside of this place that I"m trying to buuild up right now. This is simply my passion that I’ve had since childhood. I never asked or wanted a raise so to speak, but admiration. It would have been nice if it were offered. Just the act of offereing shows that you appreciate what others are doing for you. I apologize if you mis understood me. But sheesh, I was jsut trying to spread the word about the improvements but also notate that I see what people have been saying about the owner.
Take what you will of this response, but keep in mind what it is that I was trying get across to you all.
P.S. I did apologize to you, wether i was wrong or not. (that’s also called customer service).
Not to be rude, or reign on you parade “Lavelle”, but you make this sound like its a 1 man show. Do you do everything there? I in no way mean to make this sound like a rude post, but i have a pet peeve for people who going about boasting about things like they’ve done it all themselves. And if you did do this all by yourself, why arent you manageing, instead of being a projectionist. Why not speak to the owner personally, and go into detail of the items you have been able to improve. Talk him into coming down and go through it with him if you truly want a raise or a thank you. From previous posts it sounds like the owners never there, therefore you cant expect him to realize the full capacity of your work, if he hasnt seen it with his own eyes. Please respond back, id like to chat more about thios.
lots of mispelled words i know, please forgive the crudeness of the response.
hey guys I’m a new projectionist, i’ve been in the biz for about 5 yrs. I have personally made alot of improvements in the month that i have been there. just tot let you know the improvements that i have made were all done by my inner passion for the business and showmanship. I’m an audiophile, and i love movies, and the joy people get back from it. when i first walked into the theatre iwas looking for a job and was basically hired the same day, inside man opening weekend. I’m used to having a tech take care of all of theproblems that i used to have in my past jobs, AMC GCC Regal. but here there was no tech and sooo much room for improvement. I’m only getting paid min. wage but I’m getting so much more back with being able to fix and adjust things that desperately needed it. and the more important positive to me personally will be if people walk away from watching their movie suprised at the quality. this is what i have fixed so far retuned, fixed, and realigned the sdds, and dolby stereo, retuned the cp 50 (old huh?) added subs to the bug houses number 5 and 6, rewired amps the correct way, hooked up surround sound or should i say wired up the surround to work properly with analog or sdds, removed some of the old 70mm rollers and sprockets that were causing the film to develop scratches, and eating up the analog soundtrack, fined tuned the picture on screen in all of the houses to have a perfect box/square picture with no shadow,
this is just some examples of what i have done without the proper tools, and resources that would have made this alot easier, like for instance 5 and 6 didn’t have subs there weren’t even wired up for subs, so i had to find a way to run two pair of speaker wire all the way to the sound rack and get four subs which i borrowed from the other screens without sacrficing their Bass Effect, i had to go behing these screens with little no air and dust filled crawl spaces and i’m pretty sure i have some diseases now just from doing this. and again the owner has not told me thank you for doing these things that you don’t have to do. or given me a raise or a bonus. but it’s okay you know why because when guys watch your movie here and your suprised that it sounds this good andthe picture looks this good, and you feel like your at the block 30 then that is the satisfaction for me. to this day i just finished after a month of retooling the entire projection approach, and i'am pleased to report that the changes shouls be noticeable. i removed the 70mm stuff because i want to cancel all possiblities of someone else scratching the prints because of lack of experience with 70mm projectors. Well i hope you guys come by soon becuase what i have done is all that i can humanly possible fix. now with the film presentation out of the way i have started work on the theater presentation, fixing aisle lights, changing light bulbs, adding numbers to the auditoriums, trying to rebuild a relationship with the studios promotions dept. os i can decorate the theatre with more newer signs and standees/posters. more lighting? we’ve called the electrician nothing i can personally do about that. I want to make this place better for you guys and for myself because of personal nestolgia of days gine by at amc, and gcc. I work weekends and weeknights if want happen to drop by and want to talk to me, my names Lavelle. later guys.