AMC Loews Paramus Route 4 Tenplex

I said that last week. It appears to be an administrative function.

This is a dead issue..this will never reopen…

John J. Fink said:

With that said, I think Paramus could support an art theater.

The Mall Theater in the Bergen Mall was a top quality art house for many years. I remember seeing “To Sir, With Love” there in 1967 and having to sit separately from the rest of my family because the place was so crowded.

AMC will never reopen the tenplex – it will just never happen, unless this thing becomes part of a larger project (such as the redevolopment of the Bergen Mall). Secondly, as much as I liked the Tenplex back in the Cineplex Oden days (I never visted in the RKO days) – the new theater is pretty good – one of the best multiplexes around in terms of screen size and comfort. It’s an improvement over the current state of the Tenplex. Although I think it’s location will bring in more kids with “nothing better to do” which is never good (look at the morons walking around GSP with their cell phones and imagine them in a cinema)

With that said, I think Paramus could support an art theater. 10 screens is maybe about 5 or 6 too many for an art theater (given these large theaters) so I think if the original 5 were some how saved, including Theater 1 and the remander of the building featured a bar, a cafe, or some additional venue with live performance, and maybe an art gallery – that would be the way to go. In fact thats something Paramus should look in to, aquiring the building as an art theater/alternative space – almost like SOPAC in South Orange or Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. AMC has no interest in this kind of thing, as nice as the new 16-plex is they lack the inovation to offer these kinds of ammenities. Someone like National Amusements (which has the best theater in the county – Edgewater Multiplex, which has a decent track record of showing indie films – I saw Y Tu Mama Tombien, The Host, Notes on a Scandal, Waitress, and several other indies there) might collaberate with a non for profit on this type of center. But look at the new upscale plexes that AMC has opened, none of have lounges with full kitchens in them like National’s Cinema De Lux sites do. Regal and AMC aren’t interested in this sort of business model whereas National, Marcus Theaters, Landmark, Mann Theaters, and Muvico are looking on ways to drag people out of the house by making movie going a high end experience. That’s the way to save the tenplex, completly set it apart from the sixteen at GSP.

…and lose a fortune :)

Sorry I over reacted. What AMC should do is: take down theaters 6-10, remove the center divider down 4 and 5 and make it one theater again. It would have true stadium seating, remember it was a balcony! Remove 2 and 3 and make theater one big again like you said. That would be a partial circle of life. That would be a true “Showplace”. We have an old theater up here where I live and they play OLD movies there every now and again, they sell out every time.

Yes, Pete, you are partially correct. AMC is going for the “showplace” appeal. Look at the Loews’s Jersey. That’s “showplace appeal”. No different then as it is today. AMC I’m sure feels the old stand-alone location isn’t worth putting any money into. It is after all a 40 year old building that has seen it’s glory days, and served everyone well. The mall has more traffic, and coupled with the new food wing, will attract families. I can understand their logic. Money people, it’s all about the money.

I’m pretty sure JeffS was being sarcastic about the “newer = better” mentality. If they fixed up the Tenplex (mostly by restoring Theatre One to its original size), it would be a “showplace”.

I prefer Schneider lenses myself. You should watch your choice of words. The old ‘dump’ was a showplace. I remember it was good enough for special screenings of movies. When it was ran by real movie companys, it had curtains over the screens, colored lights, intermissions etc.. It wasnt run like a fast food Restaurant that played movies on the side. So is AMC’s new theater a ‘showplace’ or just a ‘cash cow’. Oh thats right… its attached to a mall.. hum.

Amen to that, Jeff S. Same goes for the Rockaway 16, which brough movies back to Rockaway after a five year absence during which Clearview dominated the box office in that area with Parsippany. I hope AMC makes better multiplexes to replace those that don’t have the amenities of AMC’s newer theaters, and match the prices up with AMC’s standards. When I checked out the pricing for the AMC in Paramus, the ticket prices remain the same for regular films, but digital 3-D pricing has come in, which is a bit more expensive but cheaper and better than IMAX 3-D. My dad went to see Star Wars the weekend it opened at the Tenplex since there was no other theater playing it. Back then, the film played on a giant screen before it was chopped up in the early 80’s to what it was today. I hope they sanitize the building years after it’s closed down just in case if they want to renovate the theater into a cheap theater. I think Clearview should buy that theater like they did with the Ziegfeld and show classic movies. It should be called Clearview Bijou Route 4 10. ‘Nuff said.

So is “Silence is Golden®”, another popular AMC trademark used to quiet down those teens with cell phones and crying babies with that annoying trailer played before the feature presentation one at most AMC theaters. I prefer the original one with the flying eagle cartoon over the soundwave preview. I still miss the classic Cineplex galaxy trailer with the coliseum-like logo before each movie at the tenplex. Was this theater one of Cineplex’s highest grossing theaters (along with the Ziegfeld and the CityWalk in CA)? I guess it was and was also a top grosser for the RKO and Stanley Warner chains and still survived to its Loews Cineplex and AMC days.

Christopher:

Go to this page: http://www.investor.amctheatres.com/releases.cfm and you’ll see a couple of corporate phone numbers in the communications department. I’m sure that if your potential tenant calls, they will direct his call to the appropriate department. If they haven’t yet removed any of the equipment or seats, he could be in good shape. If they have removed them, it will be much more costly to re-equip (figure a half million for used equipment and used seats).

As for knowing it was closing, I’m not sure where I first heard of it. We in the theater business heard about it as soon as they began negotiating years agao to construct the new facility, since that affects the ability to book films in the area. I can’t imagine that it was never discussed at any of the planning board meetings and reported on.

Peter, there actually was an individual who contacted me, after the article in The Record, who was interested in leasing the Tenplex. He’s been in the business of leasing older theaters, when the companies that own them decide to close, for about 30 years. The only problem is that no one seems to be able to reach AMC directly. If you go to their website, there is no email address or phone number listed for any form of contact whatsoever, only mailing addresses. Even the historical societies I’ve been in contact with haven’t had any luck speaking with AMC directly. As I said originally, there is no reason you can’t keep the Tenplex open for first run movies. The new theater at GSP was only showing 4 movies this past weekend, on its 16 screens, which leaves a lot of smaller and independent films that could be shown at the Tenplex. I know that won’t always be the case when the summer blockbuster season is over, but the Hyway Theater, a few minutes further up Rt.4 has always shown first run movies, and that was never a problem with the Tenplex or the old theater at the mall. There were rumors about the Tenplex being closed, but up until recently, it was never definitive. Their own staff wasn’t even informed until a couple of weeks ago. Where did you read about the stipulation of the tenplex closing?