Waterbury cinema closes

It will relocate to Brass Mill Center mall theater later this month

Officials with a Massachusetts-based movie theater chain have apparently had a change of heart about operating two movie theaters at different locations in Waterbury.

A month after an executive with Apple Cinemas told Hearst Connecticut Media in early March that the company was opening a new movie theater in Waterbury’s Brass Mill Center shopping mall and planned to keep an existing theater on Wolcott Street in the city open, the latter location closed its doors.

Visitors to the Wolcott Street theater, which is located at the rear of the Naugatuck Valley Shopping Center, were greeted on Friday with a sign that announced the theater closed on April 4.

“We are just relocating to the Brass Mill Mall and will announce our formal opening there soon,” the message read in part. “We have truly enjoyed our time on Wolcott Street and look forward to seeing all at the new Apple Cinemas Waterbury location.”

Jessica Robitaille, Apple Cinemas’ operations manager, had told Hearst Connecticut Media in early March the chain would keep both locations open when the 12-screen theater at the Brass Mill Center opens in mid-April on the third floor of the mall. The mall location has not opened yet and when contacted by phone on Friday, Robitaille said she could not yet speak about the closing of the Wolcott Street theater or when the Brass Mill Center location would open.

The space that Apple Cinemas is moving into at Brass Mill Center had previously housed a Regal Cinemas. That mall-based movie theater has sat empty since September 2022 when it was abruptly closed as part of its corporate parent’s bankruptcy filing.

The closing of the Wolcott Street location in Waterbury will leave Apple Cinemas with four theaters in Connecticut, once the Brass Mill Center opens.

Apple Cinemas also has theaters in Hartford, Torrington and Simsbury. When the Waterbury mall cinema opens, the chain will have 12 theater locations in six states.

Having a movie theater in the mall once again is expected to increase foot traffic at the retail center, which has seen a number of its tenants leave of late.

Photos by Luther Turmelle/Hearst Connecticut Media The former Apple Cinemas theater location on Wolcott Street in Waterbury. The theater closed last week, in advance of opening in the city’s Brass Mill Center.

The former Regal Cinema location at Waterbury’s Brass Mill Center mall will get a new lease on life later this month when a Massachusetts-based theater opens in the retail center.

A notice on the doors of the former Apple Cinemas location on Wolcott Street in Waterbury, announcing the theater closed last week.