Movie Theatre Information: Huntsville and Decatur, Alabama

©1998-2006, Evans A Criswell

Regal Gateway Cinemas 4, Decatur

This was a second-run theatre located at the Gateway Shopping Center. It was the oldest theatre in operation in the Huntsville-Decatur area when it closed.

It was originally a single-screen theater, which opened on Friday, December 22, 1967, with "Valley of the Dolls" as its first movie, starting at 8:00 that night. This theatre originally had 680 rocking chair seats and a 55 foot screen, and stereo sound.

This theatre was "twinned" and its first night of operation as the Gateway Twin Rocking Chair Theatre was Friday, May 31, 1974. The movies shown that night were:

Theatre 1Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid7:059:10
Theatre 2Blazing Saddles7:259:15

The Gateway was remodeled in late 1988 and the Beltline Cinemas closed and moved to the Gateway. The Gateway reopened after this remodeling on Friday, December 9, 1988. The following movies were shown that night:

The Naked Gun3:005:007:009:00
My Stepmother is an Alien3:005:007:009:00

This theatre was later converted into a 4-plex. The first day of business as a 4-plex was Friday, March 30, 1990. On this night, the following movies were shown:

Pretty Woman7:159:30
Joe vs. the Volcano7:159:15
Glory7:009:15
The Hunt for Red October7:009:30

This theatre became a second-run theatre after the Regal River Oaks Mall 8 opened.

Some previous managers: Glenn E. Gilley (1969, 1974-1978), Gregg C. Richardson (1971), Bob Zak (1981), Jeff Shelton (1982-1983), Craig Fincher (1984-1987), Ralph Freehauf

The theatres have movable side masking to handle scope and flat movies. 3 of their 4 auditoriums are 36 feet wide and their smallest one is 30 feet wide (slightly wider than the common 28 foot auditoriums elsewhere).

All movies in this theatre are shown in the correct aspect ratio.

Standard seating. The seats in the auditoriums are old, are from the old theatre that used to be attached to Beltline Mall (Beltline Cinemas), but these old seats are comfortable.

Presentation quality at this theatre was surprisingly good, considering that it was a second-run theatre that ran prints that had been run in other theatres many times before, which tended to make projection problems more likely. This theatre was actually providing better much better projection quality than the Carmike 8, a first run theatre no more than a half mile away. The theatre had good management and staff. Admission here was only $1.50 at the time that it closed. This was a great value. This theatre will definitely be missed.

This theatre's last night of business was Thursday, May 11, 2000.

List of movie presentations attended:

2000/04/11 21:10, Auditorium 4
Toy Story 2

1999/09/19 18:50, Auditorium 1
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

1999/09/13 21:10, Auditorium 4
Detroit Rock City

1999/09/05 18:50, Auditorium 2
American Pie

1999/08/15 19:00, Auditorium 1
Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me

1999/03/28 19:00, Auditorium 4
Prince of Egypt

1999/03/27 19:10, Auditorium 1
A Bug's Life

1999/02/28 19:00, Auditorium 1
Waterboy

1998/11/22 19:00, Auditorium 2
There's Something About Mary

1998/08/30 19:00, Auditorium 1
The Truman Show

1998/06/20 18:45, Auditorium 3
Good Will Hunting

1998/05/03 18:30, Auditorium 3
As Good As It Gets

Site created February 9, 1998

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