AMC Chestnut Hill 5
27 Boylston Street,
Chestnut Hill,
MA
02167
27 Boylston Street,
Chestnut Hill,
MA
02167
8 people
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General Cinema opened the GCC Chestnut Hill Cinema I & II on Christmas Day 1975 with “Lucky Lady” at Screen 1 and “The Man Who Would Be King” at Screen 2. In December 1979, both auditoriums split and became a quad. A few months later in June 1980, Screen #2 was split again (but this time it created narrow rooms), and became a five-screen theater. In May 1989, Screen #1 became the official THX auditorium in the theater. General Cinema operated the GCC Chestnut Hill 5 until being taken over by AMC after GCC’s defunction in 2002.
The theatre division building was moved across the street to 1280 Boylston St. The Flutie Pass address was the new location for the Framingham GCC when Shoppers World closed. The new location bordered Natick, which was Doug Flutie’s hometown. Doug was honored and made a speech at the grand reopening. There were a couple of Film buyer offices in the back of that new Framingham theatre, which is now an AMC. Stan may be wrong about an error in showtimes, as they may have had a second print used the 2nd auditorium for an additional show, at a better time. (the other feature only being shown one time, that is.) That was a frequent occurrence at Chestnut Hill, thus the way we got such great grosses with the small seating capacity.
StanMalone: this was the home office from when it opened until when they merged with Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and became Harcourt General. Once that happened the theatre division moved to an office building across the street, the address was 12-something (4 digits) Boylston. The Flutie Pass theatre came along in the final chapter of the GCC story. Maybe certain departments were relocated over there, but the HQ remained opposite the C.H. Cinema til the end.
22 Flutie Pass is in Framingham, not Chestnut Hill or Newton. It is currently the address of an AMC theatre.
Regarding the ad that Rivest was kind enough to provide, I noticed that they managed to get the showtimes wrong from day one. Lucky Lady was a 2 hour movie and the evening showtimes are listed as 7:30 and 9:15. Probably meant 9:45. I am sure all of us who were managers, projectionists or both have plenty of horror stories related to mistakes like this.
As for this location, the GCC address that we mailed all of our paperwork to was 22 Flutie Pass which referred to Doug Flutie’s game wining heave against Miami. Could the GCC offices mentioned in the overview be at this location with a different address? I see on the map that this is very close to Boston College so that would seem to make sense.
It’s still vacant being used as a construction office essentially, there was a temp art exhibit in it over the summer http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/deborah-kass-craig-martin-outdoor-art-mall-chestnut-hill-florida/?_r=0
Back in the day, when this theatre was nearing completion, we were having a managers meeting in the Cleveland division and it was pointed out that GCC Prexy Mr. Smith (as Variety referred to him once or twice), was heavily involved in the build-out of this theatre. In addition to the layout, he picked out the finishes, resulting in the decor appearing a little more up-market than ordinary General Cinemas. Someone in authority told us, with a bit of sarcasm, that Mr. Smith has picked gold-plated flush handles for the toilets and urinals.
Now that the N.A. Super Lux is open at the other end of the parking lot, what has become of this former General Cinema? Has it been demolished, or stripped out and occupied by some retail operation? Any current photos?
December 25th, 1975 grand opening ad uploaded here.
@Ron – it’ll be a new concept “Showcase Super Lux” – which I think might be all dinning, reserved seating, etc like iPic (Gold Class) – so the 6-screens makes sense for a high end luxury theater. I wish National had further developed The Bridge brand, although it probably didn’t make sense outside of urban areas – the Philly location was pretty awesome and ahead of its time.
A short article on Patch.com last September says Davio’s will open up a 250-seat Italian restaurant to be attached to the new National Amusements cinema at Chestnut Hill. There will be entrances both from the lobby and from outside. By the way, WS Development is rebuilding the mall. The company was behind Dedham’s Legacy Place, which also explains the partnership with National Amusements.
From a quick drive-by, I’d guess June…?
Any indication of when the new replacement (National Amusements) cinema will open?
This theatre officially closed on Thursday January 17, 2013.
Nei8ther article officially said the AMC was going to close. I foresee it becoming an art house.
That new National Amusements multiplex will be small by current standards — just 6 screens. It will be a ‘Cinema de Lux’.
According to this article, this theater will be closed and a new theater to be operated by National Amusements will be built as part of the major renovations being made to the shopping center.
I love this theatre, I try to go in once a week. It’s got character, love the popcorn and there isn’t any rif raf like the other larger theatres.
The developer of the Chestnut Hill Shopping Center is talking about closing this theatre and building a new one in the recently-vacated Macy’s space: Chestnut Hill Shopping Center looks to add restaurants, new retail
Hi – sorry to post after all this time, just found this and I must say… wow. I work at Chestnut Hill 5, in fact just wrapping up my projection training next week. These pictures are amazing – the place is barely recognizable today. Far from the days when it was cutting edge, we are one of the smaller cinemas in this market and the budget reflects the neglect the company pays us. As for the concession per capita average, you can’t even buy a small drink for $4, and that’s an interesting definition of “small” (sizes are actually “large”, “larger”, “small bathtub”). We still have most of the same Christie projectors – except for our one digital cinema. We have received 3 more digital screens and are awaiting installation, but best estimates put installation around May. We have such a small daily count the company doesn’t care about the dark lobby, aging equipment or second-hand films – today we got less than 100 people. But despite the extra work it takes to keep the old cinema in guest-worthy condition, I couldn’t think of a place I’d like to work more. My co-workers are great, I absolutely love the popcorn and most of all,the experience is one of a kind.
Thanks.
Hey, it’s been a long time since anyone posted anything here! I think I should turn the replies notification back on.
Yes, the photos look like they came from an Annual Report.
KEN MC, It is a GCC theatre in you pictures,I can see the GCC logo.One i knew Quite well.
O.K.
That candy stand is Chestnut Hill, not sure about the sign. I seem to remember that it had the “CINEMA” in red neon letters above the attraction board. When I saw it the theatre was still relatively new and only had 2 screens. Maybe they changed the signage after it was reconfigured into a 5-plex. “dwodeyla” will know, as he worked there at one time. We will await his opinion.