KC’s century-old movie theater closes. See what once grew out of the roof
From circus animal performances to trees growing through the roof, the now-closed B&B Theatres Mainstreet KC has a century of stories.
B&B Theatres Mainstreet KC announced its closure Monday on Facebook and on the doors of the building. Located near the Power & Light District, it was one of the last movie theaters within Kansas City limits. The Liberty-based B&B Theatres had operated the location since 2021.
The theater on the southwest corner of 14th and Main started as a vaudeville theater in the 1920s before surviving decades of decay at the end of the 20th century and revitalization in the 2000s, according to The Star’s archives.
Designed by Chicago architects Rapp & Rapp, the theater’s Beaux Arts exterior “stands as a prominent reminder of the golden age of grand movie palaces,” according to its entry on the National Register of Historic Places. The original gold terra-cotta dome and decorations of dolphins and cupids overlook Main Street.
The theater’s 1921 debut weekend coincided with the Liberty Memorial groundbreaking, to capitalize on crowds in town. During the opening weekend, the 3,250 seats filled with spectators watching acts like a “loose limbed” dancer, a bicycle riding troupe and a circus with monkeys, ponies and dogs.
The theater advertised four live shows and a movie each day. Parents could drop their children at the free basement nursery. A cooling system kept the theater at 70 degrees on the hottest days, which meant the Mainstreet didn’t have to close in the summer like other venues. Jazz singer Cab Calloway and comedy pair Olsen and Johnson performed on the Mainstreet stage.
The entertainment proved popular — during the first year, on average 4,000 people a day passed under the marquee, according to a newspaper report at the time.
But crowds declined during the Great Depression, and the theater closed in 1941.
Eight years later, the venue reopened as a movie theater with a new name – the RKO Missouri — and new features, like air conditioning. Kansas City-area-based AMC bought the theater in 1960, then known as the Empire, and made it a multiplex by splitting the main auditorium into two levels of theaters.
In the ‘70s and ‘80s, the movie theater declined further, showing mostly low-budget flicks. In 1980, a man was stabbed to death by another movie-goer at the Empire after asking someone to be quiet.
A Star critic remembered watching the 1978 horror movie “Magic” inside the Empire. “An additional aural element was provided by what was apparently a very large rodent chewing on an unknown object (wooden stud? shreds of popcorn boxes? 220-volt electrical wire?) in one of the walls.”
The movie theater closed in 1985. In the next two decades, only pigeons entered the once-grand theater. A tree poked out of the roof, growing more than 25 feet tall, and water leaks caused mold in the interior. The building escaped demolition multiple times.
In 2003, development company Cordish announced the plans to renovate the rotting Mainstreet Theater as part of the Power & Light District. Crews embarked on a $25 million renovation effort, funded by AMC and Cordish. Trucks hauled away approximately 200 loads of asbestos and mold-covered debris.
Film buffs caught their first movie back in the building in 2009, which was rechristened AMC Mainstreet Theater. Operations switched from AMC to Alamo Drafthouse to B&B Theaters.
Now in 2026, the auditoriums are dark and popcorn machines empty again.
