Levittown is basically the blueprint for American suburbia. It's got the houses, the lawns, and for a long time, it had the Regal Division movie theater. If you grew up in Nassau County or spent any significant time hunting for a matinee in the early 2000s, you probably knew this place. But here’s the thing: people get the history of the "Division" theater mixed up all the time. They confuse it with the old Loews or think it was just another generic multiplex that died out because of Netflix.
It wasn't.
The reality of the Regal Division movie theater—officially known in its final years as the Regal UA Division Cinema—is a bit more complicated. It was a site of constant transition. It reflected exactly what was happening to the film industry on a micro-scale. From the rise of the megaplex to the crushing weight of real estate values on Long Island, the story of this theater is basically a eulogy for a specific kind of suburban weekend.
The Identity Crisis of the Division Avenue Screens
Most locals just called it "Division." Located at 2200 Hempstead Turnpike, it sat right in the heart of the action. But if you look at the records, the theater underwent a massive shift in the late 90s. United Artists (UA) was the original powerhouse here. When Regal Cinemas eventually swallowed UA, the branding got a little messy.
People often forget that before it was the Regal Division movie theater, it was a place where you could actually afford a large popcorn without taking out a second mortgage. It was a "neighborhood" spot. That sounds like a cliché, but in Levittown, geography is everything. You had the AMC Loews Raceway nearby and the multiplexes in Westbury. Division was the underdog. It was the place you went when the blockbusters were sold out elsewhere, or when you wanted a slightly grittier, more authentic 90s cinema experience.
The building itself wasn't a masterpiece of modern architecture. Honestly, it was a bit cramped. The lobby had that specific smell—a mix of industrial floor cleaner and stale butter—that anyone born before 2005 remembers vividly. The theaters weren't stadium seating at first. You had to pray that a tall person didn't sit in front of you. If they did, you were spending two hours tilting your head like a confused golden retriever.
Why Regal Division Movie Theater Actually Closed
The "death of cinema" is a popular headline. People love to blame streaming. But that’s not why the Regal Division movie theater vanished. It closed its doors for good in the early 2010s, and the reasons were much more boring—and much more permanent—than just "people like watching movies at home."
First, let's talk about the "Megaplex Effect." In the mid-2000s, Regal and AMC started a digital arms race. If your theater didn't have 4K digital projection, IMAX capabilities, or those massive reclining leather thrones, you were basically dead in the water. The Division Avenue site was small. It was a multi-screen, but it wasn't a "mega" anything. To retro-fit that specific building with the tech required to compete with the newer theaters in Garden City or Huntington would have cost a fortune.
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Real estate in Levittown is gold.
When you have a massive footprint on Hempstead Turnpike, the land is often worth more than the business sitting on top of it. This is the harsh truth of suburban development. The Regal Division movie theater occupied a prime piece of dirt. By the time the lease agreements came up for renewal, the math just didn't work. Retailers and developers were circling. They wanted high-turnover businesses, not a dark room where people sat for three hours at a time.
The Lost Experience of the "Second-Run" Spirit
There’s a misconception that Division was always a premium first-run house. In its later years, it felt a bit like a "discount" theater, even if the prices weren't strictly dollar-theater rates. It had a specific vibe. You'd see posters for movies that had been out for six weeks still hanging in the windows.
It was a refuge.
Teenagers in Levittown used it as a de facto daycare. You could drop a kid off with twenty bucks and they’d be safe and entertained for an afternoon. You don't really get that anymore with the $25-per-ticket "luxury" experiences. When the Regal Division movie theater was demolished to make way for a CVS and other retail spaces, that middle-class entertainment hub disappeared.
It's funny how we don't miss these places until they're a pile of rubble. I remember the red carpets—not the fancy Hollywood kind, but the patterned, slightly sticky ones that had seen a thousand spilled Cokes. I remember the arcade games in the corner that were always out of order. Those imperfections made it human. Today's theaters are so sanitized and corporate that they feel like hospital waiting rooms that happen to play Avengers movies.
What Replaced the Screen?
If you drive down Hempstead Turnpike today, you won't see a trace of the cinema. The site was redeveloped into a shopping plaza. It’s functional. It’s clean. It’s got a CVS. But it has zero soul.
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The loss of the Regal Division movie theater was part of a larger trend across Long Island. Think about the old Westbury Drive-In or the many small theaters in towns like Hicksville and East Meadow that have been converted into gyms or medical offices. We’re trading communal dark rooms for convenience.
Critics might say, "Who cares? The seats were uncomfortable and the sound was mediocre." They aren't wrong. Technically, the theaters we have now are "better." The screens are brighter. The sound is immersive. But the Regal Division movie theater represented a time when going to the movies wasn't an "event" you had to plan weeks in advance. It was just something you did because it was Tuesday and you were bored.
The Regal-UA Merger and the End of an Era
The business side of this is actually pretty fascinating if you're into corporate M&A. When Regal acquired United Artists, they inherited a lot of "aging" assets. Division was one of them. Regal spent the better part of a decade trimming the fat. They didn't want the small, 8-screen or 10-screen houses that were tucked away in shopping centers. They wanted the 20-screen giants with the neon lights and the massive parking lots.
Division Avenue was a casualty of scale. It was too big to be an "indie" theater and too small to be a flagship. It lived in that awkward middle ground.
I talked to a former floor manager of a similar Long Island Regal branch a few years ago. He told me that the decision to close these types of locations often came down to a single spreadsheet. If the "concession per cap" (how much popcorn you buy per person) didn't hit a certain threshold, the theater was on the chopping block. The Regal Division movie theater simply couldn't sell enough $8 sodas to stay alive in an era of rising commercial taxes.
Why We Should Care
This isn't just nostalgia talking. Losing neighborhood theaters like the one on Division Avenue changes the way a town functions. When a theater closes, the surrounding restaurants lose their "dinner and a movie" crowd. The parking lots become emptier at night. The foot traffic dies down.
Levittown is still a bustling place, but it’s a different kind of busy now. It’s "errand" busy, not "community" busy.
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If you’re looking for the Regal Division movie theater today, you’re about a decade too late. But if you want to understand what happened to it, you just have to look at the nearest "Luxury Cinema" with its heated seats and waitstaff. We traded the neighborhood theater for a high-end experience, and in the process, we lost a piece of the suburban fabric that made places like Levittown feel like more than just a collection of houses.
Actionable Steps for the Modern Moviegoer
Since you can't go back to the Division Avenue screens, here is how you can still find that "neighborhood" feel and preserve what's left of local cinema culture:
1. Support the "In-Between" Theaters
Look for the smaller multiplexes that haven't been fully "luxurized" yet. They often have lower prices and a more relaxed atmosphere. If they don't get ticket sales, they become the next CVS.
2. Check the "Small" Showtimes
Don't just go for the opening night of a Marvel movie. Go see a mid-budget thriller or a comedy on a weekday. These are the movies that theaters like Division relied on to fill seats between the big blockbusters.
3. Use Your Regal Crown Club Points
If you are a loyalist to the brand, use the rewards programs. Regal actually tracks where points are earned and spent. If people only use their rewards at the giant flagship locations, the smaller ones look even worse on paper.
4. Document the Architecture
If you have old photos of the Regal Division movie theater lobby or the marquee, upload them to sites like Cinema Treasures. These digital archives are the only way we keep the history of these local landmarks alive once the bulldozers move in.
The Regal Division movie theater is gone, but the story of why it left tells us everything we need to know about the current state of entertainment. It wasn't just a building; it was a reflection of how we spend our time and what we value in our communities. Next time you're driving down Hempstead Turnpike, take a second to remember where the neon used to be. It was a hell of a run.