Located in the basement and staffed by a trained nurse, it offered toys and games for older children and cribs for babies.

Noted performers such as Cab Calloway, Charlie Chaplin, Harry Lauder, the Marx Brothers, and Olsen and Johnson headlined at the vaudeville house.

The prominent signage suspended from scaffolding attached to the building's roof during the "Mainstreet" and "RKO Missouri" eras was removed when Durwood converted the theater to the Empire.

[7] In 1972, as a protest against what it called "cultural prejudices", the Italian American Unification Council in Kansas City spent $2,500 to purchase all the seats of the premier showing of Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Godfather at the Empire.

[8][9] Prominent downtown landowner Larry Bridges purchased the Empire Theater in 1986 from Stan Durwood, then CEO of AMC Theatres.

Owner Larry Bridges expressed desire to raze the Empire several times and even obtained a pre-demolition inspection permit from the city in August 2003.

In 2004, the Kansas City Chapter of the American Institute of Architects compiled a list of 25 buildings in the central business district believed to be significant downtown landmarks "worthy of attention and reuse".

[10] In November 2005, the State of Missouri approved up to $938,538 in Brownfields Redevelopment Program remediation tax credits to help offset costs involved in the cleanup of asbestos at the theater.

Power & Light District developer Cordish reached an agreement with AMC to form a joint venture, Midland-Empire Partners LLC, to redevelop the Empire Theater and the nearby Midland Theatre.

The AMC Mainstreet Theater opened to the public under its original name as part of the Power & Light District on May 1, 2009, after a test period of playing second-run films for employees and invited guests beginning April 18, 2009.

[12] The renovated theater's ground floor has three standard auditoriums, while the upper level features "cinema suites" with reclining loungers, food trays, and a call button to summon a server.

[12] All auditoriums feature 4k digital projection[13] and 11 channel sound, including overhead speakers and bass shakers mounted under the seats.