The United Artists theater chain opened the 8-screen Brea Marketplace theaters in 1988. Featuring two large auditoriums with 70mm and THX-Sound, the theatre was located in a brand-new shopping center across from the Brea Mall.  For years, Brea was one of perhaps two destinations for residents of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda to go to the movies.  Each of those communities went without a movie theatre complex until the 1989 opening of Cinemapolis.  The choices were dull, plain and small.  Either moviegoers could go to the Mann Brea Plaza, or to the UA Brea Mall, which were uneventful theatres, to say the least. 

On an empty plot of land across from the Brea Mall, the new 8-screen UA was built.  The Brea Marketplace was typical in United Artists’ late-1980s design.  A plain, boxy building held a generic interior.  The two main auditoriums were fairly typical of UA’s design theory of the 1980s: plain.  All of the auditoriums were Lucasfilm “THX-Certified.”

70mm didn’t come to Brea until 1993 when “Last Action Hero” played there. The theatre eventually closed after United Artists’ bankruptcy and was converted into a fitness center.

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UA Brea Marketplace 8 opening day preview ad [Enlarge]

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UA Brea Marketplace 8 (2004)

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Box office and lobby entrance

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Sign facing parking lot

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Sign on Birch Street