Auburn Plaza Cinemas Marks 45 Years of Continuous Operation
The venue began in a mall in 1981, moved to Auburn Plaza in 1990, and remains open under current management.
By Justin Barnes ·
Residents of the Lewiston-Auburn area can still buy tickets and watch films at the Auburn Plaza location. The site has operated continuously since November 1981. It originally housed a two-screen cinema inside a local mall.
Hoyts Cinemas closed that initial mall theater on December 1990. The company opened a new 10-screen facility at Auburn Plaza the very next day. This single day of transition moved the business from a smaller format to a larger multiplex model.
Flagship Cinemas took over management of the Auburn Plaza location in 2005. The theater continues to show movies today. The physical space has remained active for four decades despite changes in ownership and industry standards.
Before digital applications allowed users to select seats and pay online, patrons relied on recorded phone messages. Viewers called Hoyts Cinemas to hear the weekly schedule. They had to write down the movie title, the specific theater, and the showtime on paper.
Weekly newspaper listings also provided schedule information to the public. People used pen and paper to record details before calling friends to relay the information. This process required coordination to ensure everyone arrived at the correct time for the selected film.
The 10-screen Auburn Plaza theater now serves the same community that used the original two-screen mall cinema. The venue stands as a local anchor that has survived multiple ownership transfers. It remains a functional destination for local moviegoers in the Lewiston-Auburn region.
