The closing of the Marunouchi Toei in the heart of Tokyo’s Ginza neighborhood on July 27 marks the end of an era — and not only because it is Toei Company’s last directly managed movie theater.
Opened 65 years ago on Sept. 20, 1960, in the then-brand-new Toei headquarters building, the two-screen venue was once a jewel in the corporate crown of Toei, a major film producer, distributor and exhibitor. The studio was launched in 1951 and flourished in Japanese cinema’s postwar golden age, when movies were at the top of the country’s entertainment pyramid and fans flocked by the millions to see Toei’s signature samurai action films.
But after multiplexes entered the Japanese theatrical market in the early 1990s, so-called roadside theaters like Marunouchi Toei — movie palaces located in central urban areas near train lines (the “road” of “roadside”) and directly managed by big film companies — went into decline as facilities and equipment aged and audiences opted for multiplexes, which offer state-of-the-art projection and more varied programming. The Marunouchi Toei is the last of its kind in Japan.
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