Shochiku Central Theater

50sSNIPES on August 25, 2025 at 5:53 pm

Corrections: The Shochiku Central Theater actually first opened with four theaters in one building, with two screens having the same Shochiku Central name, but having different formats.

According to an article released by the Hekikai Cinema’s website, there are four theaters located at the same address in one building. Two of the theaters were named the Shochiku Central Theater, which one auditorium screens foreign films and the other auditorium screens Japanese films distributed by Shochiku. Spencer Tracy’s “The Mountain” was the first film screened inside the foreign auditorium. The third and fourth screens were named Ginza Toho Theater, which screened Toho films, and the Shochiku Meigaza Theater, which screened classic films.

Around 1966, one of the two Shochiku Central Theater auditoriums closed, and the Ginza Toho and Shochiku Meigaza theaters were renamed the Ginza Nikkatsu, and Ginza Daiei. This led the number of screens to reduce from four to three, which includes the Shochiku Central and the two Nikkatsu and Daiei auditoriums. In the early-1970s, both the Nikkatsu and Daiei auditoriums are renamed the Ginza Shochiku and the Ginza Roxy.