posted February 28, 2008 04:31 AM                   

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East Windsor Showcase Cinemas To Close

By LYNN DOAN | The Hartford Courant
1:19 PM EST, February 25, 2008

EAST WINDSOR - Showcase Cinemas will close for business this Sunday because it is "no longer financially viable," owner National Amusements Inc. announced today.

The Massachusetts-based company, which operates more than 1,500 theater screens across the world, said it plans to shut down the movie theater and attempt to relocate its 47 employees to other National Amusement theaters. Showcase Cinemas East Windsor opened for business in 1994 and operates 12 screens.

"...this is not a decision we make lightly. We are making every effort to find these employees other opportunities within our company," said Wanda Whitson, a company spokeswoman. "We also wish to thank our loyal patrons who have shared great movies and memories with us over the years."

Customers who have purchased or received movie passes, gift cards or prestige tickets for Showcase Cinemas East Windsor can redeem them at Enfield Cinemas 12, located at 90 Elm St. in Enfield or Showcase Cinemas Buckland Hills, located at 99 Redstone Road in Manchester. The company closed the Showcase in East Hartford in September 2006 and that building along I-84 remains vacant.

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East Windsor Theater To Close Sunday

By LYNN DOAN | Courant Staff Writer
February 26, 2008

EAST WINDSOR - It's a tear-jerker, said Patricia Tardif, walking out of Showcase Cinemas East Windsor Monday afternoon.

But she wasn't talking about a movie.

National Amusements Inc., which owns Showcase Cinemas, announced Monday that it would be shutting down the 13-year-old theater on Sunday because it is "no longer financially viable." In a separate statement, the company announced it also would be closing its 38-year-old movie theater in Orange, Showcase Cinemas Orange, this weekend.

"It's like a wake in there. They're all sad," Tardif said, standing outside the East Windsor theater, a prominent fixture from I-91.

Tardif, a Windsor Locks resident who has been catching flicks at the theater on Bridge Street at least once a week since it first opened, said she heard it was closing over the weekend and had to come Monday to see for herself.

"The people who work there ... they are a family," she said, after learning that the rumor was true. "I really looked forward to my Mondays."

Employees at the theater declined to comment on the impending closing Monday, and company officials remained tight-lipped on exactly how financially unsuccessful the theater had become. But regular patrons said they'd noticed a thinning crowd in recent years.

Monday's announcements come less than two years after the company shut down the Showcase Cinemas theater in East Hartford, citing a "population shift" and other undisclosed business reasons. Town officials said at the time that they weren't surprised by the closing because the theater on Silver Lane seemed to be losing customers to the newer Showcase theater at the Buckland Hills complex in Manchester.

The East Windsor theater is also about five minutes away from another National Amusements theater in the Enfield Square mall. Unlike the theater in East Windsor, Enfield Cinemas 12 holds weekly specials for senior citizens and shows classic films for $2.

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