Loews Theatres 1905-2006 (AMC, GCC, etc.)

[Jeff]

Loews Theatres will cease operations as of January 26th, according to several sources. All Loews will be changed to AMC Theatres over the next few months.

Another theatre chain of years gone by is now history itself..

[Super S]

One has to wonder if there was too much name confusion with Lowe's Home Centers.

[jamcool]

Loew's was the original owner of MGM...until being forced by the feds to divest their studios in the 50s, as were Fox, Paramount, and Warner Bros

[dth1971]

Many Chicago movie theatres are still branded Loews and not yet AMC.

[MikeRa]

AMC still has theatres branded as Loews Theatres, Cineplex Odeon Theatres, Magic Johnson Theatres, and in Detroit and parts of the midwest, Star Theatres (The Detroit ones are from Loews, the others are from Kersotes)

Ironically, AMC also inherits the history of Loews Theatres, RKO Century Theatres [RKO Stanley Warner Theatres, Century Theates, Rugoff/Cinema 5 Theatres, Stanley Warner Theatres, RKO Theatres, Keith-Orpheum-Albee Theatres, and The Stanley Company of America], and Plitt Theatres [ABC/United Paramount Theatres] that were divested by MGM, RKO, Warner Brothers, and Paramount

[Brian Lutz]

Didn't AMC buy out General Cinema as well? I still know of a couple vacant former General Cinemas around here, including one 8-screen cineplex in Renton and a 3-screen theater that used to be part of Everett Mall, but eventually closed when a 16-screen Regal Cinema opened elsewhere in the mall. When they took down the sign, it left an incredibly clear labelscar as a result of the area around the sign being painted at some point. Haven't been around there in a while, but last time I checked it was still there, largely ignored. There were a couple of posts on the history of the former General Cinema over at Pleasant Family Shopping some time ago, but I'm too lazy to go look them up right now.



There's also at least a couple of theaters around here that still have leftover Cineplex Oedon signage, but that seems to be more a matter of them just being too lazy to bother changing the signs than anything, and everything inside the theater is basically AMC. They do retain some elements of incredibly tacky late Nineties Cineplex Odeon decor inside though.

[Ephrata1966]

When was that theater (pictured) built? And why did General Cinema always use that "Western" lettering? That seems so ironic considering you can't find a much more "urban" institution than GCC.

[Groceteria]

That was pretty much their standard signage, used in any number of locations, as can be seen from a quick Google image search or the earlier-referenced post from Pleasant Family Shopping.

[Brian Lutz]

The Wikipedia article for the mall says the theater opened in February of 1974:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Mall

[trainman]

Ironically, AMC also inherits the history of Loews Theatres, RKO Century Theatres [RKO Stanley Warner Theatres, Century Theates, Rugoff/Cinema 5 Theatres, Stanley Warner Theatres, RKO Theatres, Keith-Orpheum-Albee Theatres, and The Stanley Company of America]...

Not sure what's ironic about that -- but anyway, I presume that's a different Century Theaters than the current Century Theaters chain (which is now part of Cinemark)?

[MikeRa]

Ironically, AMC also inherits the history of Loews Theatres, RKO Century Theatres [RKO Stanley Warner Theatres, Century Theates, Rugoff/Cinema 5 Theatres, Stanley Warner Theatres, RKO Theatres, Keith-Orpheum-Albee Theatres, and The Stanley Company of America]...

Not sure what's ironic about that -- but anyway, I presume that's a different Century Theaters than the current Century Theaters chain (which is now part of Cinemark)?

Yes. It is a different Century Theatres chain. The one i'm referred to was a NYC/Long Island, NY-based chain that in 1981 acquired RKO Stanley Warner Theatres to become RKO Century Theatres. The best known example was the long-demolished Loews Cineplex/Cineplex Odeon Route 17 Triplex, in Paramus, NJ that had the "RKO Century's Paramus Theatre" name on its building right to the very end.