The signs above the upper and lower entrances still say Cinetopia, but posters and TV screens throughout the lobby make it clear that the Vancouver Mall movie theater is now the AMC Vancouver Mall 23.
The theater reopened Friday evening following a three-day closure leading up to the announcement May 23 that AMC, the largest movie theater chain in the world, had acquired Cinetopia.
The three other Cinetopia theaters — one near Mill Plain Boulevard in Vancouver, one at the Progress Ridge shopping center in Beaverton, Ore., and one at the Prairiefire shopping center in Overland Park, Kans. — also closed last week.
The Mill Plain theater is scheduled to reopen Thursday, according to an AMC representative, followed by the Progress Ridge location on Friday.
The acquisition came at the end of a yearlong legal battle in which Cinetopia accused AMC of blocking smaller theaters’ access to big release movies by threatening to withhold the blockbusters from its own screens unless the studios agreed to not license them to nearby competitors.
Cinetopia founder Rudyard Coltman told The Columbian last week that the case had been settled. A federal court filing on Tuesday confirmed AMC and Cinetopia agreed to dismiss the case, with both companies paying their own attorneys’ fees.
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed by either company, and Tuesday’s court filing does not include a copy of the settlement.
Cinetopia was best known for its “living room” style theaters with restaurant food menus and in-seat service. The Progress Ridge and Prairiefire theaters will retain that service under AMC’s “DINE-IN” brand, but the two Vancouver locations will become standard theaters with regular lobby concession counters.
Employees staffing the Vancouver Mall box office and concession counter now wear AMC-branded uniforms, and TV screens near the entrances and above the counters display the AMC logo. The Brewtopia bar on the upper level remains closed, with a sign in the window notifying customers that the restaurant will reopen as a bar called MacGuffins.
No major renovations were made to the lobby during the closure, according to a manager at the mall theater. An update including new entrance signs is planned, she said, but has no timeframe yet.
The concession counter has been restocked with AMC’s menu of popcorn, candy and other snacks. Ticket and concession prices changed to match AMC’s rates, she said.
In an FAQ on its website last week, AMC said that it would honor Cinetopia discount tickets and that Cinetopia gift card balances could be transferred to AMC gift cards at the former Cinetopia locations.
Despite being the largest theater chain in the United States, AMC did not previously have a major presence in Oregon or Southwest Washington — only a single multiplex in Corvallis, Ore.
The Portland-area big theater scene is instead dominated by Regal Cinemas, AMC’s biggest competitor, which operates more than a dozen multiplexes around the region. Another major theater company, Cinemark, operates three Portland-area multiplexes under its Century Theaters brand.
Regal and Cinemark did not reply to messages requesting comment about AMC’s entry into the Portland movie market.
