Universal City Theatre

Info Updates:

4/11/2008 - Marshall

Nice little place. I worked there as a projectionist. I remember showing Moonraker and Grease. There was a door leading out onto the roof from the projection booth and I had a lawn chair and could sit outside on the roof between reels.

3/29/2008 - Greg Steinmayer

Correction: The laser tag game was named ''Photon''.

8/17/2006 - Greg Steinmayer

Back in 1986-87, the architectural firm I worked for (Thomas Strat & Associates) designed and built a project to convert the Universal City Theater into an indoor laser tag arena ( I think it was called Lazerblast). The theater (which was part of the Universla Mall complex but in a separate building) had just closed, and all of the seats, equipment, etc. was still in place. It was easy to see that the theater had originally been just one screen, but had been turned into a twin by merely removing seats and building a wall down the middle. Even the structure for the screen was original, they had just hung two smaller screens onto it. An out-of-state company that was opening laser tag centers all over the country bought the theater, and we turned the lobby into a space-port where you would rent equipment and queue up to enter the arenas, with a snack bar too. We levelled the floors of the auditoriums, and added carpeted bunkers and other such structures, and converted the projection booth into an observation deck. We also redid the exterior of the building to look futuristic ( by mid-80s standards, anyway). The two auditoriums-turned-arenas were mirror images of each other, and the business plan called for the organization of teams and leagues, and to push birthday partys too. The place opened just after the laser tag craze peaked, and so it was open for only a very short time. The owners cut their losses and sold out to Kroger, who tore it down for a new grocery store. What a waste - all that nearly new equipment and fittings such as lights, handrails, windows, counters, automatic sliding doors, etc. just ground into dust by the demolition crews!

8/22/2003 - Jack Pickering

Owners were United Artist, the capacity as 300 for each auditorium. It closed around 88,89. I also work there as a projectionist from 79-87. The building was torn down for a new Kroger store. One of the first theaters with a platter system to run movie with one projector.

2/9/2003 - Scott Biggs

The marquee of this theatre is now being used by the Key Motor Mall, it is all that is left of this location. The Movies 16 in Warren reside in the same complex now, although in a different building. The old Universal City is now a Kroger store.

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Universal City Theatre