Waterworks Cinema had been on a downhill slide for years and the prior owners merely exacerbated the decline by cutting, cutting, cutting employees, etc. My best guess is that they were on a slide and the opening of Cinemark at the Mills was the coup d'grace. The prior owners probably had an expensive lease since when the theater opened it was a prime location (before Loew's and before the Mills) and they were losing money because the rent was astronomical. The owner of the Waterworks shopping center likely refused to renegotiate the lease on the they that the theater would not close its doors. But it did. Then the shopping center had a confrontation with reality and had to ask itself, "Self, what do we do with a big box of a building in the rear of a shopping center." The answer was probably scary, so they negotiated a new lease at a much lower rent with the new owner who will operate the theater on the model of the Manor in Squirrel Hill (probably won't work in that location, but a nice try). We'll have to see how this plays out. Despite the convenience, the seats and the theater design at the Mills makes the extra travel time (8 minutes) worth it - at least to me.