Puyallup Cinemas
1200 4th Avenue NW,
Puyallup,
WA
98371
1200 4th Avenue NW,
Puyallup,
WA
98371
3 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Act III Theatres, Regal Entertainment Group, Tom Moyer Luxury Theatres
Firms: WPH Architecture, Inc.
Nearby Theaters
Opened on August 12, 1983 and operated by the Tom Moyer Luxury Theatres chain. It was one of those quickly erected theatres of the 1980’s. It was taken over by Act III Theatres in 1990. In 1998 it was taken over by Regal. It became a second-run theatre in its later days. It was closed on September 9, 2004. Building was just sitting there empty for ages, now converted into a bar and retail use.
Contributed by
Kate DeWeese
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
At the time of closing, Regal Cinemas was operating it. It made money, but they did not want to operate any discount theaters.
Mark, no offense taken. Luxury Theatres were the worse thing to happen to motion pictures in the Pacific Northwest. The owner (Tom Moyer of Portland) was very cheap and had no love for the cinema. He was in the business for one reason only – to make money.
To illustrate how cheap he was, we were required to return burned out light bulbs (yes, even cheap 100 watt bulbs) to Portland BEFORE they would send a replacement to us. Managers ended up buying their own bulbs just to avoid this stupidity.
In the early 1980’s there was only one mentality coming from Luxury’s Portland offices – build and operate a theater as cheaply as possible. They were designed to get people (and their money) in and out as quickly as possible while spending as little of the company’s money as possible. True, this is how businesses operate – but Luxury took it to extremes.
Outside of the managers (who were usually quite young), we hired almost only high school kids at minimum wage and worked them as long as we could before they wised up and moved on to something better.
My worst job ever.
And today Tom Moyer has a net worth of 625 million dollars. He made his in the theater industry.
$625 Million??? Serious?
The stories I could tell about his frugality. But, I guess that’s why he has the money now. :)
Tom Moyer wanted to sell his chain to United Artists in 1988. View link
Quick update. The building (most of it, at least) is now a Goodwill store. Seems kind of fitting.
This opened on August 12th, 1983. Grand opening ads posted.
Uploaded a photo of the abandoned building. Per danibuckley, most of the building, the end where the original entrance was, is a Goodwill Store. The Big Whiskey Saloon occupies the rest.
Closed in either late-December 2004 or early-January 2005.
The Hi-Ho Shopping Center had been proposed as purportedly the town’s first such retail center in 1960, held its ground breaking on August 19, 1961, and launched in 1962. The project sprawled to the west in two different expansions. A 1979 opening called, informally, the KMart Plaza provided an opening for a theater. The center inked Tom Moyer’s Luxury Theatres for a new multiplex in 1980 with Fred Meyer’s superstore/grocery chain taking on the Hi-Ho as Fred Meyer’s Hi-Ho Shopping Center.
The very long-gestating cinema project came to fruition on August 12, 1983 in a theater promising the finest quality stereo cinematic projection with maximum sized screens. The talk may not have matched the buzz but so it went for Mr. Moyer. Act III Theatres of Portland acquired the Luxury brand in 1989 with the venue taking the nameplate in 1990. In October of 1998, ACT III was acquired by Regal Theatres (KKR) taking on the Regal Cinemas / Act III Puyallup Cinemas 6 briefly in October 1989 and the Act III disappearing not long thereafter. “Hi-Ho” was dropped from the center the next year.
Regal appears to have closed there quietly on September 9, 2004 with “Anchorman,” “Dodgeball,” “Little Black Book,” “Garfield,” and “Day After Tomorrow” with all advertising and listings ceasing thereafter. The space has been retrofitted for other purposes including a saloon.