UA Towne East 4

Aaron Wechter developed the Towne East Plaza in 1978 anchored by a Gibson’s Discount Center. Fast growing Cinemark Theatres decided the time was right to come back to the El Paso market. LeRoy Mitchell’s Texas Cinema Corporation once owned the Montwood Three and he came back on November 2, 1979 with the Towne East Cinema 4. Cinemark would be competing on the same turf as General Cinemas and Plitt Southern - continuing the legacy of Interstate Theatres locations - which controlled many of the screens in town.

The opening films were “Apocalypse Now”, “The In-Laws”, “The Double McMuffin” and “Breaking Away”. The theatre was considered a flex design and could be expanded with little down time to a six-screen house. Cinemark’s run did not last long as on March 12, 1980, Plitt Theaters bought out the Cinemark locations of that era becoming the Plitt Towne East IV Theatres.

In 1981, Commonwealth Theatres of Kansas City took over four cinemas in town and followed up that purchase of the Plitt Town East IV (it lost the “e” late in 1980) effective on May 14, 1982. Commonwealth decided to reposition the venue as a discount, subrun $1 house the next year (and brought back the “e” in Towne).

In January of 1988, United Artists joined forces with Commonwealth with the venue becoming the UA Commonwealth Towne East Theatres. That branding ended on June 2, 1989 with the venue becoming the UA Town East Theatres. UA began closing aging twin, triplex and quad locations from the late-1980’s in the mid-1990’s. The circuit would drop the Vista Hills 4 and University Quad in 1990, the Country Club Twin in 1992, and the Northgate Mall Twin in 1993 leaving it with just the Bassett and the Towne East.

The Towne East finally left the building on April 21, 1997 with “Star Wars”, “Dante’s Peak!, "Dangerous Ground”, and “101 Dalmations”. Two months later Cinemark hit the jackpot in the megaplex era opening its 20-screen Tinseltown USA, a dominant player in El Paso for decades.

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