Craig S. SemonWorcester Telegram & Gazette
WEST BOYLSTON — When the closing credits roll on its final film, scheduled for May 30, West Boylston Cinema will become the next Central Massachusetts movie house to go permanently black.
March 31, Cinema World in the John Fitch Plaza in Fitchburg closed its doors for good, leaving that city without a movie theater for the first time in nearly three decades.
July 25, 1997, the West Boylston Cinema opened for business in the Scarlet Brook Plaza off Route 12, in the same shopping complex as Walmart.
The West Boylston Cinema occupied about 20,000 square feet of space on land leased from plaza owner S.R. Weiner Co.
With screening rooms ranging in size from 125 to 250 rocker-style seats, the theater — which took up some (but not all) of the space that was once occupied by the former Iandoli's Supermarket — opened with nine movies spread out on five screens.
The films shown at West Boylston Cinema's opening weekend included: "Speed 2: Cruise Control," "Anaconda," "The Fifth Element," "Liar Liar," "Addicted to Love," "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," "Breakdown," "Father's Day” and "Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion."
When the West Boylston Cinema opened, tickets for all shows were $3.75 for adults, $2.50 for children and senior citizens — about half of what Showcase Cinema North in Worcester (which was just a nine-minute drive and three miles away) was charging back then.
David Fedeli, who used to own Cinema World in Fitchburg, also originally owned West Boylston Cinema. Fedeli’s original plan at the West Boylston Cinema was to show new movies about three to six weeks after the films open in the first-run theaters.
Kevin M. Broderick, who had been the owner of the West Boylston Cinema since 2003, continued this business.
When asked Monday about the closing, Broderick said, “It just had to be done…It was just too much,” adding that it was a difficult decision to make.
Broderick said things has gotten “much harder” to run an independent movie house than when he first started.
Broderick, who was the one who made the tough decision to finally close, went to social media to announce the news. He wrote on Facebook: “It is with a great amount of sorrow that I have to announce the closing of West Boylston Cinema at the end of the business day on May 30, 2024.”
While the cinema is closing, Broderick said “wonderful memories of all the customer interactions over the past 20-plus years,” will remain.
Not only that, Broderick credits the cinemas’ “nice clientele” for furthering the West Boylston Cinemas' existence. Without it, the “behemoth down the street in Worcester,” (referring to the former Showcase Cinema North on Brooks Street in Worcester) would have gotten “the best of us.”
March 2020, Worcester’s Showcase Cinema North “temporarily” closed its door at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fifteen-months later, June 7, 2021, Showcase officials announced that the multiplex at 135 Brooks St. would not be reopen for business.
As a result, the second-largest city in New England hasn’t had a movie theater for the last four years.
In addition to boasting lower ticket prices than its neighbors in Worcester, West Boylston Cinemas was able to start showing first-run films when Showcase Cinema North was no more.
“That is when the movie companies allowed us to show first-run,” Broderick said Monday. “It was all up to the theater. If Showcase said, West Boylston could play day and date, fine. Solomon Pond never had a problem with it, just Showcase. The movie companies cow toed to Showcase because they’re so big. I’m sure they would have cow toed to Regal as well, if Regal would say it, but Regal never claimed clearance.”
In addition, Broderick says that if it wasn’t for their loyal customers, the cinema would have “gone away” with the 2014’s conversion from 35mm film to digital.
“Conversion to digital, all the first-run theaters were given a kickback from the movie companies, not the second-run theaters,” Broderick said. “The second-run theaters had to take out their own loans and pay off their own debt. If we could have somebody pay for our upgrade to digital, maybe we could have put a little money in the theater.”Lastly, Broderick credits its clientele for getting through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through its run, Broderick made a point to hire high school-age students to work from West Boylston and the neighboring towns, to work in the theater.
Because of the COVID shutdown, Broderick had to lay off 16 part-time employees. Currently, West Boylston Cinema has 12 to 15 part-time workers, he said.
In addition to the West Boylston Cinema, Cinema World in Fitchburg and Showcase Cinema North in Worcester, The Strand Theatre, 58 High St., Clinton, closed Dec. 31, 2021; and Regal Westborough Stadium 12 closed Oct. 29, 2017.
Now, the closest places for a Worcester moviegoer to see a film on the big screen are:
- Blackstone Valley 14 Cinema de Lux at The Shoppes at Blackstone Valley, Millbury
- Elm Draught House Cinema, 35 Elm St., Millbury
- Regal Solomon Pond, Solomon Pond Mall, Marlborough
- Entertainment Cinemas, The Mall at Whitney Field, Leominster
- Gardner Cinemas, Timpany Plaza, Gardner
