[rmason]

I've always used theatre myself. I always believed that it depended largely on when you first encountered the word in school. If you came of age in the fifties or sixties that was the common spelling of the word. I can even remember movie theatres, pre multiplexes spelling it that way. If you're younger and spell it as theatre then you're an Anglophile;<).

[icantthinkofone]

If a movie theater spelled it as 're' then that was wrong. I think you are mis-remembering.