Copley Place Cinemas
100 Huntington Avenue,
Boston,
MA
02116
100 Huntington Avenue,
Boston,
MA
02116
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 134 comments
Yes, but it burned down in 1986. We’re talking about a (never-executed) plan from more than 30 years ago.
Is this the Orson Wells they are refer to, expanding to Downtown Boston?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles_Cinema
First I’ve heard of the Orson Welles plan to expand into Boston. Do you know anything more about this?
Original accouncemnt from Boxoffice Magazine July 1982:
Boston -Sack Theatres have firmed plans for a nine-screen plex in Boston to show foreign product.
A September, 1983, opening is planned for the plex, to be built in the Copley Place commercial development by Urban Investments and Development with Sack’s 15-year lease carrying an option for a 10-year renewal.
The nine theatres will seat from 50 to 200. In addition, the plex will contain an espresso bar.
How the Sack plan will affect the Orson Wells plex, Cambridge, Mass., plan to build a foreign film outlet in downtown Boston is yet to be determined.
If my memory serves me correctly, this is where I saw the title: “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.” It was the last time I ever stepped into that cinema.
This opened on February 17th, 1984. Its grand opening ad has been posted here.
Having just been to Boston for the first time, I’m surprised that someone (Landmark, Angelika, Sundance) didn’t grab this site, gut it and reformat as a 5 or 6 screen complex, given it’s location by Prudential Center, Copley Place and all the hotels, restaurants etc in the area. Seems like the perfect location, right in the middle between the AMC Loews Boston Common and the Regal Fenway. If they had combined some of the cinemas and made them larger with larger screens, sound systems etc,this may have made a great little multiplex. Found it odd that this hadn’t happened given the location.
Yes, it was really small. I saw Napolian Dynamight there. I think it was one of the last movies they showed there.
this might have been posted,Could have missed it ,but “THE BOSTONIANS” with Christopher Reeve had the premiere here.It broke all house records at the time over the weekend.
Several comments above mentioned the Institute of Contemporary Art, its temporary use of one screen at Copley Place, and the ICA’s old theatre on Boylston Street. In 2006, the ICA moved to a beautiful new building on Fan Pier, including a steeply raked theatre used for both live performances and movies. I’ve added it to CinemaTreasures, as the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater at the ICA.
I was an assistant manager at Copley Place back in 1988 (I also worked at the Nick from ‘87-'88 and was briefly an assistant manager there in '89). Sad to hear it had closed (I’ve been living overseas for years), even though it wasn’t much of a venue. We used to do most of the press and trade screenings in the city at the time… even had an armed guard there the day we had the press screening of “The Last Temptation of Christ”. Nicholas Cage also showed up for the premiere of “Vampire’s Kiss” during the BFF that year (we snuck him in through the back entrance from the parking garage).
I remember when this opened when I was in law school. Typical 1980s cubbyhole shoebox auditoriums without much rake, plain seats, small screens, and not impressive sound.
Well alright.
A crappy cinema that showed good films.
It lasted 21 years — that’s reasonably long.
The Sacks Copley Place Theatre had theatres that were rather like large TV rooms, with large-sized TV’s in them. I remember seeing “Shoah” and some other movies there, but it certainly didn’t last that long.
My first visit here was on February 20, 1984 shortly after the place opened. I wrote that it was the ‘new’ Sack Copley Place and that I saw the “Where’s Boston?” slide show, Fellini’s And the Ship Sails On, and Diane Kurys' Entre Nous.
“BTW…Sack had the best company intro trailer… when the graphic “patron” sat in the seat and thus turned into the “S” of Sack Theaters… music, short and sweet… too cool.”
Wow – that DOES bring back memories!
I’m going to be doing a video series in a bar, on the site of one of the former Sack Theaters. That clip would be a magnificent way of opening the showings. Anyone know of a copy of the Sack trailer anywhere? I’ve hit YouTube & the like with no luck.
Please, if someone comes across it anywhere online post a link, I think a lot of folks would get a kick out of it.
When I saw the page for Copley Place, I realized that I had basically forgotten it ever existed. I’ve been working in the Prudential Center since August, and walking through Copley Place (which I had not done in many years) I almost forgot it was the same place where as a child I had seen a revival of Pinocchio with my aunt and eaten many times in the in food court with my parents. My how things have changed in this area since they built the shops here at the Prudential Center!
That’s an interesting article from the Herald, paticularly with regard to Boston being a gateway city for wealthy people from overseas. They consider U.S. prices a bargain. Anyway, it’s clear that the Copley Place Cinemas didn’t have a chance with Simon’s present strategy. And as the article also observed, Chilis' days are probably numbered as well.
The mall is getting rid of everything that isn’t ridiculously upscale. See the article in today’s Herald.
A couple of the comments above mentioned Brentano’s bookstore, originally Lauriat’s, which was in the corridor leading to the cinema. The bookstore will close on January 26. Since Borders just opened a large new store a few blocks away, and Borders owns Brentano’s, this one had become redundant anyway.
Apparently the theatre was getting tired and unless it was always packed, Simon figured they would get more money for the space from Barneys, a high-end store. A mall usually gets percentage-rent: a percentage of the gross revenue plus a rental fee per square foot.
Ron: You’re right. It’s fairly recent. They own fifteen properties in Massachusetts, according to their web site.
Simon owns Copley Place now, but I don’t think they owned it when it opened in 1984.
I didn’t know Simon owned Copley Place. They also own the South Shore Plaza, among many others. I would have thought that having the theater would bring in more business for the retail stores and restaurants and extend the hours people would visit. In addition to the SS Plaza, I’m familiar with Palm Beach Mall in West Palm Beach, FL. also Simon-owned. Like C Place, both these shopping centers had movie theaters at one time, but no more. Maybe they don’t generate enough revenue to pay the rents Simon charges. In WPB, they demolished the theater, and the site remains a vacant lot at this writing. At SSP, they transformed the theater (the original GCC Braintree) into a retail store (Circuit City).