Demolition Begins at Burton’s Long-Shuttered Showcase Cinemas East [VIDEO]

Showcase Cinemas in Burton was once a booming movie theater, but has now begun its journey to becoming a pile of rubble.

I saw a construction vehicle parked in front the the old "Showcase East" earlier this week and thought to myself, "I wonder what's going on here?" Unfortunately, the answer to that question is "demolition."

According to ABC-12, the property was purchased by the Al Serra Auto Group and will soon be leveled. There are currently no plans for the site to host a dealership, which the group sees an "an investment." It does have a really large parking lot that was redone shortly before the theater's 2007 closing, if memory serves me well.

This was inevitable, but part of me hoped that someone (perhaps me after winning the lotto) would buy the old theater and turn it into a place that runs awesome old movies and serves beer. I grew up not far from Showcase and was an avid movie-goer. My parents and I would go there to see a movie every weekend, some weekends two or three movies. I saw just about every movie worth seeing (and a lot that weren't as well) that came out between 1985 and 1997 inside Showcase Cinemas.

For a long time -- that was the best theater in the Flint area. This was back before NCG Trillium came along in 2006 and used its modernized amenities to lure all their moviegoers to Grand Blanc. Hell, it was a booming theater years before Showcase West (now Rave Cinemas) was even a thing. But them, as they say, were the good old days.

R.I.P. Showcase Cinemas.

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