Westgate 3 Theatres

4608 Westgate Blvd Austin TX 78745

Information for this tour was contributed by James Gonzalez.

In 1979, Mann Theatres of California opened its "Mann's Westgate 3" in the southwest part of Austin. With its opening, the Westgate joined Mann's Fox Triplex, in north Austin as the only two Mann Theatres to ever operate in the city.

The Westgate was a typical 1970s designed theatre in layout, and style. It had three identical 150-seat auditoriums in the "shoebox" design with the main aisle running down the center. The lobby was in a blue & red color scheme with alternating orange and yellow "potato sack" style drapes in all of the auditoriums.

As it was common at the time, the Westgate was equipped with only a monaural sound system in each auditorium. The auditoriums all used Cinemeccanica's Victoria 5 projectors and SPECO platters for its film handling and projection.

In the mid 1980s, Mann Theatres had converted the Westgate into a discount theatre due to the opening of AMC's Westgate 8 Theatre (now Regal Westgate 11) across the street.

In 1992, Mann's Westgate Discount Theatre (as it was now being called) was sold to ACT III Theatres. While under ACT III, the Westgate saw many upgrades and improvements such as a computerized ticketing system, a pre-show slide program with background audio, new carpeting, additional poster cases, and additional maintenance to its constant degrading metal seats.

By the mid 1990s, with its increasingly low attendance and the overall poor condition of the theatre, the Westgate eventually closed. Later, the theatre was converted into "The Buffet Palace", a local Chinese restaurant chain which is still in operation today.

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Last featured 9/10/2003. Last edited 11/25/2006.

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