Drynan's land was transferred to Queensland Talkie Pictures Ltd in December 1931, and following Mrs Blackwell's death in August 1931, allots 11–13 passed to the same company in November 1932.

The Hutchinson family understand that before construction was completed, the exhibition company (which they refer to as Associated Pictures) became insolvent and ownership of the building also passed to the contractors.

Suburban theatres of this period could no longer survive as the open-air venues of the 1910s or the tin sheds of the early 1920s — they had to offer the public something more than just the films.

Theatres all over Brisbane either closed, or were remodelled or rebuilt along more substantial, more comfortable and more decorative lines, with the object of capturing local imagination and loyal attendance.

He looked in particular at the work of American architect John Eberson, who specialised in atmospheric cinemas themed and appropriated from Byzantine, Persian, Spanish, Moorish and Egyptian architecture, which extended theatrical illusion from screen to venue.

On Saturdays, trams reputedly would stop outside the theatre at opening time and wait until the film finished to take patrons home again.

These premises were occupied soon after completion, and for many years lessees included Harold Louitt's chemist shop (1930–69), a dressmaker, a grocer and a milkbar.

[1] The theatre operated successfully until television was introduced to Brisbane in the late 1950s, by which time Plaza audiences were reduced to 20–30 patrons per screening, in an auditorium which by 1960 contained seating for 932 persons.

[1] The former Plaza Theatre is a large and imposing shed-like building prominently located at a bend in the road on Latrobe Terrace in Paddington.

Its end walls are constructed of load-bearing masonry that have been rendered in roughcast stucco and the gable roof is clad in corrugated galvanised iron.

[1] A parapet runs above the awning with an arched feature located above the theatre entry doors decorated with urns and displaying the words "Paddington Antique Centre".

The former theatre entry has four pairs of unpainted, silky oak framed glass doors with decorative brass hardware.

The foyer area has a floor of "chequerboard" grey and white concrete flagstones and an ornate plaster ceiling decorated with scrolls and deep, moulded cornices.

Brass lettering, reading "Paddington Plaza 1929" has been recently inlaid in the floor in an area formerly occupied by the ticket office.

Fluorescent lights are suspended on chains from the ceiling and hang throughout the space, just above the level of the various wall dividers of the antique stalls.

It has faceted columns to either side and is topped with a Spanish-style terracotta tiled roof supported on carved "corbels" with rosettes in between.

The columns are painted in vibrant tones of orange, blue, red and yellow and decorated with moulded scrolls of foliage, flowers and urns.

A pair of twisted columns with moulded, fibrous plaster decoration is to be found in this area and the room is also painted in "Reckitt's" blue.

The theatre and associated shops, the shopfronts in particular, remain substantially intact in form, design, materials and in much of the detailing, from which can be gained an understanding of the expectations brought by interwar film audiences to the experience of cinema viewing.

The former Plaza Theatre, located prominently on the high ridge of Latrobe Terrace, makes a major contribution to the local streetscape and to the Paddington townscape.