RACINE - A theater inside Regency Cinema faced a scene of destruction: crumbled bricks, crumpled metal and twisted fiberglass.

The movie screen had been torn down, the seats were empty and the ruins were real - the handiwork of a yellow Caterpillar 235C there on Monday to begin demolishing the theater at 5230 Durand Ave., which closed in mid-April. Azarian Wrecking is in charge of the demolition, and is expected to be there until the end of next week.

Randy Jansen, 44, looked on with a camera around his neck.

"If I'd have known the seats were in there I'd have said 'I'll buy a row,'" said Jansen, there to take pictures for his wife Melissa, who worked at the theater for 15 years.

Jansen arrived at around 8:45 a.m., and planned to watch until he had to leave for work at around 3:30 p.m. Three other spectators joined Jansen in an otherwise empty parking lot Monday morning.

Jansen's pictures will add to the couple's Regency collection from over the years, including from when his wife's then-young daughter ripped tickets for a bring-your-child-to-work day. He took pictures on the cinema's last day of operation, too, in mid-April.

That was when the building lease for Marcus Theatres Corp. ran out. Carlo Petrick, communications manager at Marcus, said the building was "antiquated" and "no longer suitable for use as a movie theater." Regency had been converted to a budget theater in 2006.

Demolishing the building prevents Marcus competitors from taking over the lease, Regency Mall General Manager Curt Pruitt said. It was easier to raze it than to turn it into a different kind of facility, he added.

"It would be so costly, we might as well start with all-new construction and technology," Pruitt said.

Mall management and the City of Racine are still figuring out what to do next with the land. They have some prospects but no strict game plan, Pruitt said.

At about 9:45 a.m., the "C" and "I" in "CINEMA" had been knocked down from the building's left side, facing the parking lot. With the upwards swoop of the Caterpillar's fingers against the beige brick wall, the "N" partially fell, too, contorting into an upside-down heap of metal and wood hanging from the wall.

By 3:15 p.m., the whole sign had been knocked away, along with a large chunk of the building's left side. Melissa Jansen, off from work, stood in front of the boarded-up front door as Randy took pictures.

"This was my first job," said Melissa, 40, who was assistant manager there. "When I pulled in the parking lot, my heart just started racing," as she remembered years of Halloween parties and dressing up for big premieres such as "Grease" and "Batman".

Bob Tapp, 51, pulled up to the parking lot and joined her. He worked there for 20 years, and he agreed with Petrick's description of the building as "unique".

"Most of it was over 20 years old," he said. "They didn't enjoy coming here to fix stuff."

As Tapp and Melissa Jansen spoke, Randy drove off for work, with a souvenir brick in the back of his pickup truck.