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The Main Street Cinema is a small movie theater currently located on
Main Street, U.S.A. Main Street, USA is the first "themed land" inside the main entrance of the many theme parks operated or licensed by The Walt Disney Company around the world. Main Street, USA is themed to resemble American small towns during the early 20th centu ...
at
Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...
and previously at the
Magic Kingdom Magic Kingdom Park is a Amusement park, theme park at the Walt Disney World, Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It opened on October 1, 1971, and is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company through its Disney Experiences, Expe ...
and
Tokyo Disneyland is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney park t ...
.


Disneyland version

When the theater opened on the park's opening day on July 17, 1955, the cinema showed many silent movies, including films starring
Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
and
Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked Vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckler film, swashbu ...
. In the 1970s, these were replaced with several
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
shorts on six different screens while a recorded musical accompaniment plays. Five of the six shorts are played without sound and are changed from time to time. The sixth short is always
Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...
's 1928 short ''
Steamboat Willie ''Steamboat Willie'' is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by Walt Disney Animation Studios and was released by Pat Powers (producer), Pat Powers, under the name of Cele ...
'', which is played with its original sound, albeit in an edited version to remove objectionable content; it includes an introduction prepared for a 1950s reissue reminding the viewer when the short was created, and that it is still screening today worldwide. In 2010, for the 55th anniversary of the park, footage of Disneyland's opening day was shown. In June 2019, displays selling Disney resort-brand merchandise were added inside the cinema as a test to drive traffic into it. This was later removed, and benches were added to give a better view of the featured films. Original films shown * ''Fatima's Dance'' (1903) * '' A Dash Through the Clouds'' (1912) * '' Gertie the Dinosaur'' (1914) * ''The Noise of Bombs'' (1914) * ''Dealing for Daisy'' (1915) * '' Shifting Sands'' (1918) * '' The Phantom of the Opera'' (1925)


Magic Kingdom version

The version at the Magic Kingdom is also located on Main Street, U.S.A., and opened with the park on October 1, 1971. As with the Disneyland version, the cinema at the Magic Kingdom originally showed silent films before switching to Disney cartoons. By 1994, the cinema showed the ''Mickey's Audition'' short that was previously shown at Disney-MGM Studios. Here, it aired under the title of ''Mickey's Big Break''. In June 1998, the Cinema ceased showing cartoons and began to show previews of then-new Disney animated films. By 2005, five of the screens were removed from the building when it became a venue for guests to play the Virtual Magic Kingdom online game, and the building was renamed as ''VMK Central'', but a single screen remained in the building which was used for showcasing promotional trailers or videos. ''VMK Central'' closed on September 30, 2007, and was replaced with a gift shop called ''The Art of Disney'' that November. It remained as such until 2021, when the store was closed and the artwork formerly housed there was relocated to a shop in Fantasyland. In May 2021, the venue was used as a temporary location for the Sweets and Treats shop. For the 50th Anniversary Celebrations, the venue became home to ''The Magic of Walt Disney World'', containing a shop known as the ''Walt Disney World Vault Collection Store''. In 2023, the venue transitioned to a shop selling
Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...
merchandise, and by February 2024 the marquee sign was changed to read "Mickey Mouseterpieces".


Tokyo Disneyland version

The Cinema at Tokyo Disneyland was housed in the World Bazaar, and operated from the park's opening day on April 15, 1983, until October 20, 2002, when the cinema closed to make way for an extension to the ''Emporium'' shop next-door, with the combined lot being renamed to the ''Grand Emporium'' in December 2002. The Main Street Cinema signage was removed in the process.


Hong Kong Disneyland version

Although the attraction does not exist in Hong Kong Disneyland, a facade does for the building that houses the shop inside. The first shop in the building was ''Midtown Jewelry'', a jewelry shop that operated from the park's opening day on September 12, 2005, until April 14, 2016. As part of the park's 10th Anniversary celebration, a Duffy the Disney Bear themed shop named ''My Journeys with Duffy'' opened on July 26, 2016, becoming a joint ''Duffy and Friends'' themed gift shop and Meet & Greet attraction.


See also

* List of Disneyland attractions


References


External links

*
Disneyland Resort attraction page for Main Street Cinema
{{coord, 33.8107, N, 117.9188, W, region:US-CA_type:landmark_scale:1000, display=title Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions Disneyland Main Street, U.S.A. Tokyo Disneyland 1955 establishments in California 1983 establishments in Japan 2002 disestablishments in Japan Mickey Mouse