Salt Lake Film Society Broadway Centre Cinemas 111 East 300 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 saltlakefilmsociety.org (1991) |
Cineplex Odeon opened the Broadway Centre Cinemas on 20 December 1991, showing "Father of the Bride" and "JFK". The new multiplex had a total of 1,600 seats in six auditoriums, each equipped with Dolby Stereo sound systems.
The Broadway Centre Cinemas was built on the former site of the historic Centre Theatre, which was demolished in 1989. The Centre Theatre's 90-foot art deco tower was saved for use on the new multiplex, but was later determined to be not structurally sound.
The Broadway Centre Cinemas closed for a time after Cineplex Odeon entered bankruptcy in 2001, but the theater was later reopened by the Consolidated / Starship theater chain.
After the opening of the Megaplex 12 at the Gateway, the Broadway Centre Cinemas had difficulty booking a good selection of first-run films.
During the summer of 2002 the Broadway Centre Cinemas was renamed the Broadway Film Center and was converted into into an art film theater which competed with the Salt Lake Film Society's Tower Theatre.
The Broadway Film Center, however, had trouble paying its rent and when renewal time came the owners signed a lease with the Salt Lake Film Society instead. After a court battle the management of the Broadway Film Center was finally given a court order to vacate the premises.
The Salt Lake Film Society, whose lease has a clear option to renew, took over the theater in November 2002. The film society, which now operates seven art film screens in two theaters, changed the name from Broadway Film Center to Broadway Centre Cinema and installed Dolby Digital sound systems in four of the auditoriums.[1][2]
1. "New Cinemas Open at State, Broadway", Deseret News, 26 December 1991, page C6
2. "Independent Theaters go to war", BYU NewsNet, 5 September 2003