Studio 28

Studio 28 was a cinema multiplex located on 28th Street in Wyoming, Michigan. Expanding to a maximum of 20 screens, it was the first megaplex, and was once the largest multi-screen cinema complex in the world,[1] opening on Christmas Day, 1965, and closing November 23, 2008.

Studio 28 was opened by movie pioneer Jack Loeks and eventually became the flagship theater of Jack Loeks Theatres, Inc., and later Loeks Theatres, Inc., the company run by his son John Loeks.

History

Studio 28 started with a single 1,000-seat theater in 1965. It expanded in 1967, adding a second screen dubbed the "Little Studio", which commonly showed features for children when the big screen was showing a feature for older audiences, or a film with a niche audience while the main screen showed a more commercial feature. The complex expanded to six screens in 1976, enabling it to accommodate extended runs of the popular blockbusters of the era while still having screens for new releases. It expanded further to twelve screens in 1984, and to twenty in 1988. Loeks ultimately desired to expand to a total of twenty-eight screens.[2]

The complex broke a single day attendance record on November 29, 1990, serving 16,000 guests, a record which still remains unbroken. (Home Alone and Dances with Wolves were in their opening weeks at the time.)

After Loeks opened several other cinemas in the area, including Celebration Cinema! North and Celebration Cinema! South, and the Cinemark chain built new cineplexes at nearby Rivertown Crossings and Woodland Malls (later purchased by Loeks), Studio 28 saw a sharp decline in attendance, leading to its eventual closure in November 2008.[3] In March 2014, the building was demolished.[4][5]

Preceded by
Eaton Centre Cineplex
18 Screens		 Largest Theater in the World
Studio 28
20 Screens 1988		 Succeeded by
AMC Theatres
30 Screens

References
  1. "Studio 28 History Timeline". Celebrationcinema.com. Retrieved 2014-06-10.
  2. "TURN ON 28TH STREET" (PDF). City of Wyoming. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  3. "Cinemas Around the World - Studio 28 Theatre, Wyoming MI". CinemaTour. Retrieved 2014-06-10.
  4. "Demolition to begin this month on closed Studio 28". Wzzm13.com. 2014-03-04. Retrieved 2014-06-10.
  5. "Studio 28, once 'world's largest movie theater' to be demolished". MLive.com. 2014-03-03. Retrieved 2014-06-10.

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