Palace East Theatre
2220 W. Chesterfield Boulevard,
Springfield,
MO
65807
2220 W. Chesterfield Boulevard,
Springfield,
MO
65807
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 16 comments
This is where TikTok person Bailey use to work at between 2012-2017, he creates TikTok videos about this stories of working at this theater. His TikTok name is @movie-daddy
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8v686NJ/
This opened on December 8th, 1995. Its grand opening ad can be found in the photo section.
The Premiere Palace closed on June 8, 2017: http://www.bigscreen.com/j/Springfield-MO-Premiere-Palace-Closed/4669
This theatre is scheduled to be closed and is not a part of the sale of Warren Theatres to Regal. http://www.kansas.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/carrie-rengers/article151485057.html
My theory on the ‘east’ part of the name originally, is that Warren built this Palace east of Wichita and the Palace ‘West’ is west of Springfield. Then again, maybe it just designated the side of town the theater is on. It seems like the Palace in Wichita was a second-run theater pretty much from the beginning, like Springfield. But they both had THX, which was unheard of for a second run house. After the magnificent first-run theaters were built in Wichita, all the competition faded away and now the entire city is Warren.
I believe Mr. Warren’s father once owned theaters in Wichita, so obviously the town is special to him. I was surprised to see him expand to Moore, OK. The Oklahoma City area has a lot of theaters, so I don’t know how that town got so lucky. There are many towns in Kansas that could benefit from a Warren theater including Lawrence, Topeka and Manhattan. We were all looking forward to the Warren theater for Kansas City, KS at the Speedway, but that ended up being built by Phoenix and is nothing too special.
Since Warren is already successful in Springfield, it would seem a reasonable location for a first-run Warren theater, but I don’t think expansion is one of his priorities. I worked for Dickinson years ago in Kansas, and remember when they opened their Town and Country 6 in Springfield. There were a lot of theaters in town back then, but it was their pride and joy at the time, and I believe it was their first six-plex. Nowadays, it seems like towns are either massively overscreened, with several new theaters and lots of competition, or woefully underscreened with one aging, neglected, outdated property. I know the expense of constructing a new movie theater in 2015 is incredibly high, but I think the bean counters at some chains are missing an opportunity. It is sad to see the number of towns in Kansas and Missouri (and other states) that have no theaters at all anymore, so I suppose a town can be grateful if they have one that is still open.
Why is this called the Palace East on this website? Even Warren Theaters own website doesn’t call it that (just the Palace). An inside joke maybe?
I’ve read about that. All digital AND THX. I don’t really see there being more of those coming though, due to the recession and Warren not being a major player in the exhibitor game.
And I actually got the idea that the Wichita theatre was treated better. They seem to get the better bookings (for example, Fox titles actually get play there) plus they’re better with the midnight series and they even have a classics series on Wednesdays. Here in Springfield it seems that half the movies don’t get run, the midnight series seems to be smaller and there is no classics series yet. If given the opportunity, I’d rather pay $2.50 to watch The Godfather or Citizen Kane or Raging Bull instead of Eagle Eye or Beverly Hills Chihuahua. But at least we got the Gillioz booking classics sometimes.
I’ll have you all know that there is a Palace West in Wichita that is in terrible condition, operated under the Warren Name as well, it has the same seating capacity, setup; but has been open since 1989. The Palace in Springfield has a great crew that is trying to create a better moviegoing environment. All I know is, if Mr. Warren was to build one of his luxurious monsters like the one in Moore, Oklahoma he just built, no competitor would be able to withstand it. His luxury theatres are such a force to be reckoned with, I believe for one, Dickinson AND Hollywood would definitely shut their doors, and Wehrenberg would be crippled.
I accidentally left out 28 Weeks Later (in THX).
Films I’ve Seen At The Grindhouse (aka The Palace):
Dunston Checks In
Tom and Huck
Happy Gilmore
Oliver and Company
D3: The Mighty Ducks
For Richer Or Poorer
Mouse Hunt (in THX)
Mr. Magoo
The Borrowers
Krippendorff’s Tribe
Mulan (in THX)
10 Things I Hate About You
Never Been Kissed
The Bourne Identity (in THX)
Star Wars Episode II (in THX)
Chicago
Biker Boyz
View From The Top
The Core
What A Girl Wants
Malibu’s Most Wanted
Hollywood Homicide
Love Actually
Gothika
The Missing
Honey
Love Don’t Cost A Thing
Stuck On You
Mona Lisa Smile (in THX)
Cold Mountain (in THX)
House Of Sand and Fog
Torque
The Butterfly Effect (in THX)
The Big Bounce
You Got Served
Twisted
Dawn Of The Dead
Taking Lives
Johnson Family Vacation
The Whole Ten Yards
Little Black Book
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Alfie
Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason
Darkness
Elektra
Coach Carter
In Good Company
Constantine
The Interpreter
The Honeymooners
Herbie: Fully Loaded
Bewitched
Two For The Money
Prime
The Weather Man (in THX)
Jarhead
Derailed
Rumor Has It
Last Holiday
Annapolis
The Pink Panther (in THX)
Eight Below (in THX)
Take The Lead
The Sentinel
Garfield: A Tail Of Two Kitties
Monster House
The Ant Bully
Barnyard
Beerfest
The Last Kiss
School For Scoundrels
A Good Year
Stranger Than Fiction
Apocalypto
The Holiday
Charlotte’s Web
Freedom Writers
Breach
300
Shooter
Perfect Stranger (in THX)
In The Land Of Women
Spider-Man 3
Shaun Of The Dead (special show, in THX)
Gone Baby Gone
Dan In Real Life
The Goonies (special show)
The Golden Compass (in THX)
P.S. I Love You
The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything
Never Back Down
The Terminator (special show, in THX)
The Warren chain cares more about the Wichita theatre than this theatre. That would explain how they get exclusive films, better maintained, better run, etc, etc.
It’s too bad this theater has been allowed to get rundown. The “strange things” you mentioned — would that have anything to do with the theater being next door to government subsidized housing? Just a thought. The owner, Warren Theaters, built several state-of-the-art multiplexes in Wichita that are considered some of the best in the whole country. Why they didn’t make the Palace one of those is anybody’s guess. For years they planned on building one in the new development at the Kansas Speedway in KCK, but backed out due to political and financial issues. Springfield desperately needs a state of the art theater. The Campbell 16 ain’t it. Maybe the College Station project will deliver, if it’s ever built.
The theatre opened on December 8th, 1995. The opening attractions were Mortal Kombat (in THX), Clueless (in THX), Never Talk To Strangers, A Walk In The Clouds, A Kid In King Arthur’s Court, The Scarlet Letter, How To Make An American Quilt and The Big Green.
I’ve been here many times since 1996, when I saw Dunston Checks In (that same year, seeing Happy Gilmore at age five, a film I picked, was a great memory). In the later years, the theatre has gotten dirty and unkempt, but it’s still a good deal and still gets lots of business (despite going to a showing of The Weather Man last night in a THX auditorium and seeing only nine people, me and my mom included). There are also strange things about it, such as children with their parents very late at night, projection problems during a couple of crappy movies recently (Bewitched and Prime) and despite its good business, how it works with a skeleton crew half the time. But hey, it’s the Palace!
The price has now gone up to $2.50. Still a good bargain compared to other theaters in town.
I was one of the first employees of the Palace. It actually opened in late 1995. It has never been a first run theatre. It has shown second run movies since the day it opened. Trust me, I was there. And some of the auditoriums have THX sound and always have. The thing that set the Palace apart from other theatres at the time it opened was that it did not run previews before the movie. These days they do show previews.
It is a very comfortable theatre. The seats recline a little and there is a cupholder on each arm of the seats.