It’s lights out for Newport 8

Another of the region’s older movie theaters is closing, succumbing to the modern multiplex with its stadium seating, surround-sound and multiple screens showing first-run flicks.

On Monday, Regal Entertainment Group will close the Newport 8, a fixture at the corner of Newport Highway and Hawthorne since 1985. A Regal spokesman said the theater gradually has lost attendance since the opening of NorthTown Mall’s 12-screen theater in September 2000.

“Moviegoers vote with their dollars and through their attendance have chosen to drive past the Newport 8 and drive to the new NorthTown Mall theater,” said Russ Nunley, Regal’s marketing and communications director. “It really is the moviegoers deciding the fate of our buildings more than we are.”

The 10.5-acre parcel where the Newport theater sits was sold last year to Spokane developer Lloyd Torgerson and his wife, Sharon. Torgerson said he paid more than $3 million for the land and plans to turn it into a shopping center, possibly to include banks, a restaurant and other larger retailers. Demolition of the old theater likely will occur this fall, he said.

On Monday, Regal will offer $1 movies at the Newport 8 to thank moviegoers for their patronage.

The closure of the Newport is reflective of a nationwide trend, in which older, smaller movie theaters lose audiences to new multiplexes opening nearby. The trend has been playing out in Spokane for years and is likely to continue when Regal opens a new 14-screen multiplex in Coeur d’Alene next year. That theater could push out Regal’s Showboat 5 and Coeur d’Alene 5, Nunley said.

“Both of those are more than likely going to be closed,” Nunley said.

The Washington Post recently reported that since 1997 about a third of the nation’s movie theaters have been replaced by multiplexes with 14 screens or more. The report also predicted that another third will follow in the next seven to 10 years.

The trend toward the modern multiplex also began here in 1997, when the Spokane Valley Mall’s 12-screen theater opened. A few years later, Regal closed its East Sprague Cinemas nearby. Regal also sold its four-screen Lyons Avenue and six-screen North Division cinemas, both on Spokane’s North Side, in conjunction with opening the NorthTown 12.

At the time, a Regal executive quoted in The Spokesman-Review said NorthTown’s 12-plex would absorb patrons of both the Lyons and North Division theaters. Now it appears NorthTown’s reach has extended all the way up the Newport Highway.

“As far as the number of films offered, the number of different titles, Spokane is ahead of the game from five, 10 years ago,” Nunley said. “It has more modern facilities, more show times, more titles. The modern multiplex offers a better variety.”

And it doesn’t appear the former cinemas are sitting idle. Many have been converted into churches, which are drawn to the buildings for their large auditoriums and central locations.

By next year, Torgerson hopes the site of the former Newport 8 will be a busy shopping center. He’s planning to call it Hawthorne Crossing and anticipates more than $10 million will be invested in the project by the time it’s complete.

“I’ve had a lot of interest in that property from retailers,” Torgerson said.