Barrington Square Theaters

2330 W. Higgins Road,
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169

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JonPutnam
JonPutnam on May 17, 2021 at 2:36 pm

I only went to this theater two times - but in the same week! Barrington Square was one of the few Chicago-area theaters that showed the dark comedy “Heathers” during its initial 1989 run. I liked the movie so much that I went back again a few days later.

LouRugani
LouRugani on September 9, 2012 at 12:30 pm

(December 10, 1979, Northwest Herald) Six-screen movie complex opens in Hoffman Friday by Thomas J. Moore, Herald business writer

The Northwest suburbs will have six new movie theaters — all under one roof — by the end of the week when the Barrington Square 6 Theatres in Hoffman Estates opens Friday. The six-screen movie complex in the Barrington Square Mall at Higgins and Barrington roads will bring to nine the number of new movie houses opened locally this year. Two of the others are at Woodfield Shopping Center in Schaumburg and one at Randhurst Shopping Center in Mount Prospect. THE BARRINGTON Square operation is owned by American Multi Cinema of Kansas City, Mo., and is the firm’s second entry in the Chicago area movie market. The company also owns the Ogden 6 Theatres in Naperville. American opened the first multi-auditorium theater in the country in Kansas City in July 1962. It operates 526 theaters in 78 cities now, including two in Buffalo and Toledo with eight separate auditoriums each. The company’s Hoffman Estates and Naperville theaters offer the most screens under one roof in the Chicago area, with six each. The Barrington Square 6 Theatres are of varying sizes, according to manager Paul Kalas. The smallest seats 250 persons while the largest contains 375 seats. Kalas said the theater complex is capable of showing the same movie in two adjoining theaters using the same copy of the film. He said the projector system is set up to run the same film with only a 30 second-time lag between what the viewers see on the separate screens. THE OPENING of the theater complex also will increase the number of commercial movie screens in Hoffman Estates to nine, but Kalas said he thinks the market is sufficient to support them all. The Century theater in the village has three auditoriums. Kalas said he expects Barrington Square to draw from Schaumburg, which has its own four-theater complex as well as Hoffman Estates and Hanover Park. The Tradewinds Cinemas in Hanover Park has two screens. He said Barrington Square will also draw customers from areas north and west of Hoffman Estates where there are fewer theaters. Kalas said the six theaters here will be competing for the same first run movies that the other nearby theaters want. Barrington Square 6 Theatres' main attraction, aside from the greater choice it can offer, is that it will try to match or beat the lowest admission and concession prices among competing theaters, Kalas said. He said the regular admission price will be $3 for adults and students and $1.50 for children. During the grand opening Friday and Saturday, everyone will be admitted for the regular children’s price, he said.

DAL
DAL on June 22, 2012 at 2:23 pm

Map location is incorrect. The theatre and shopping center were on the north side of Higgins Road just east of Barrington Road (west of the incorrect location).

rivest266
rivest266 on June 20, 2012 at 7:40 pm

This opened on December 14th, 1979. Grand opening ad posted here.

RodGraves
RodGraves on July 7, 2010 at 10:32 pm

Rod Graves here. I was a Manager at this theatre for a few years. I am looking for past co-workers of mine, during the days I worked there. Please contact me at

saxonalumni
saxonalumni on February 24, 2010 at 5:20 pm

We used to “do the cruise” through the parking lot in the 80’s. If you wanted to show off your car or run into some cool people, this was the place to be. Movies were only $1.00. And it didn’t matter what was playing. It was mostly a makeout spot. Then we’d go to Garibaldi’s or McDonalds racing in shopping carts and acting like the inmature teens that we were. You just don’t see kids acting like that anymore. I’m so glad to have been a part of that history. I have some wonderful and wild memories of good ol' Barrington Square.

joesampson
joesampson on June 23, 2009 at 8:28 pm

I was there many times though for some reason the only 2 movies I can remember seeing are Fright Night and Saturn 3. Oh well. That June 1982 ad is more memerable as I saw Blade Runner at Randhurst, with NO air conditioning. It was rough.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on May 10, 2009 at 2:57 pm

Here is a June 1982 ad from the Daily Herald:
http://tinyurl.com/pvg3mv

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on August 4, 2007 at 2:09 am

Here is a small ad from the Daily Herald dated 1/1/80:
http://tinyurl.com/345xfb

elizarenn
elizarenn on September 24, 2005 at 3:28 pm

The record store was Flip Side (next door to Garibaldi’s Pizza). I worked at Flip Side in the late ‘80s and did my share of hanging out in Barrington Square.

DuPageDude
DuPageDude on September 4, 2005 at 10:14 am

This was THE spot to be if you were a teen in the 80’s. Every Staurday, it was like John Hughes was filming a brat-pack movie there!!! There was also a record store there that was very popular then, I can’t remember the name anymore…

TRAINPHOTOS
TRAINPHOTOS on July 26, 2005 at 8:44 pm

This and the Ogden 6, which is still open, were the Chicagoland Area’s first 6-screen multiplexes. They were also AMC’s first inroads into the area. I once dated someone from this area and we would stop at Garibaldi’s, which was in the same mall.

Sometime during the 1980s, this theatre showed a mix of first and second run films. The admission charge for the first run films was cheaper than what Plitt/Cineplex-Odious (I mean Cineplex-Odeon) charged.

reiermann
reiermann on July 5, 2005 at 12:22 pm

I saw some good movies here. As I recall the auditoriums were long and narrow. Of the 6 screens, I think only two auditoriums were equipped with Dolby sound. Very popular date-night movie spot.

NinjaMurasaki
NinjaMurasaki on January 16, 2005 at 3:25 pm

Can’t belive they had to demolish it. I had a lot of memories of it when I was younger. I saw at least twenty movies there or more. This used to be such a busy shoping center, but now it’s so empty. At least there is AMC Theaters down the street on Barrington Road. More expensive though.

hpkid
hpkid on September 23, 2004 at 1:39 pm

I just noticed that this place has disappeared this month. I took my kids to a car show that was held in the parking lot and I decided to take a walk by the place. I could not believe it was gone, I had a lot of good time there back in high school in the late ‘80s.