AMC Loews Paramus Route 4 Tenplex

260 E. Highway 4,
Paramus, NJ 07652

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moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on June 12, 2017 at 11:18 am

36 years ago today Raiders of the Lost Ark made its Paramus debut in 70mm Dolby Stereo and became a huge hit.

markp
markp on May 22, 2017 at 4:17 pm

It also premiered the same day at the General Cinema Menlo Park Twin in Edison NJ. Lines at that theatre stretched all the way down Lafayette Ave to Roosevelt Park. I know this because I soon would be working there.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on May 22, 2017 at 11:46 am

It was 40 years ago this thursday that Star Wars had its New Jersey premiere at this venue when it was a triplex. If someone googles Vintage Bergen on facebook, there is a post featuring a picture of people waiting in line around the block to see what would become a mainstay franchise for years to come.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on May 8, 2017 at 5:38 pm

I heard that they’re building a mall on some vacant site on 17 to compete with the other malls in Paramus….will this mean another movie theater to go along with the AMC and the Regal to open next year?

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on May 4, 2017 at 11:25 am

For some time in 1983, the triplex showed the first two star wars movies from 1977 and 1980 while the then seven plex played return of the jedi on several screens. When it became a tenplex, Temple of Doom played on a couple of screens.

hotwaterbottle
hotwaterbottle on March 15, 2017 at 9:32 am

I don’t know for sure, but this theatre and the RKO Century Triplex also in Paramus opened at almost the same time. Both were huge inside when they originally opened. And both of them were sliced and diced. The triplex stayed the same size but had a wall built down the middle about 1970-71. The balcony was sectioned off and made into a third theatre a few years later. The tenplex had additions built on some years later. The original 2000 seat theatre, I think, ran Star Wars and Empire when they were originally released. It too was chopped up later on but it was still huge.

DICK3570
DICK3570 on March 15, 2017 at 7:54 am

Could this theatre be the last and largest single screen house ever built in this country? I cannot think of any other movie house with that number of seats built after 1966. Anyone know?

hotwaterbottle
hotwaterbottle on February 23, 2017 at 10:36 am

Wow, I didn’t know that….huh.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on February 21, 2017 at 12:24 pm

Yup. The first 70mm movie that it showed was a reissue of 2001: A Space Odyssey back in 1970. The last movie it showed in 70mm was Last Action Hero.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on January 10, 2017 at 4:18 pm

It’s been nearly 10 years since this theater was closed and turned into a gym. I always liked the arcade there as it was huge. A bit noisey, but fun. The concession stand was good and the employees were great. This was the place to be in north jersey if you wanted to see Star Wars in a premium large format. Most of the country saw Star Wars in mono, which according to the makers of the movie, is the definitive mix, and 35mm projection, as the film was shot that way. Most of the original trilogy was remixed into 4.2 surround sound, with the special editions remixed into 5.1, and the prequels in 5.1 and 6.1 surround sound (episode 1 in 7.1 SDDS). Episode 1 was digitally projected in 2k months after it opened in 35mm in 1999.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on June 17, 2016 at 11:35 am

Cinerama owned RKO Stanley Warner for awhile before 1981 and showed some of their movies there. ET didn’t even play at this theater until the 2002 re-issue.

Mark_L
Mark_L on June 15, 2016 at 4:53 pm

A search of the New York Times shows the theatre changing from 4 to 7 screens on Monday, December 21, 1981. Sunday, December 20 is the last mention of Quad.

The theatre added 1 screen to become an 8-plex with the opening of SILKWOOD on 12/14/1983.

It did move to a 10-plex with the opening of TEMPLE OF DOOM.

Michael R. Rambo Jr.
Michael R. Rambo Jr. on June 14, 2016 at 9:52 pm

It was Century Theatres who bought RKO Stanley Warner in 1981 to form RKO Century Warner Theatres (beetter known as RKO Century Theatres), and it was 1987 when Cineplex Odeon acquired RKO Century, and their sister group RKC Cinema 5.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on June 11, 2016 at 7:06 pm

March 5th, 1982, according to 70mm in New York website. Quest for Fire was playing in the big house. May 23, 1984 was when it expanded to ten screens when Temple of Doom played. When did Cineplex Odeon take over?

Coate
Coate on June 1, 2016 at 12:12 pm

“1981” is not specific enough, moviebuff82. When in 1981?

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on June 1, 2016 at 11:40 am

In 1981, Coate, when RKO merged with Stanley Warner and took over operations. When Cineplex Odeon took over in 1987, they expanded to ten screens and stayed that way through the Loews Cineplex and AMC eras until it was closed so that its successor the AMC Garden State 16 opened more than 9 years ago. Digital surround sound was installed around the time that Jurassic Park opened and digital projection premiered in Paramus with the Phantom Menace in late 1999. The last time I went to this theater, for X-Men in the summer of 2000, the theater was very run down from the last time i visited in the mid to late 90s. I never went to the triplex as that wasn’t as popular as this theater.

Coate
Coate on June 1, 2016 at 11:00 am

When, specifically, did this complex expand from four to seven screens?

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on February 26, 2016 at 6:33 pm

The shape of the theater the exterior didn’t change that much. The places that surrounded the theater have changed. Usually after a movie at the Tenplex, you can go to dinner at Fuddruckers and go for a grub. The signage outside the theater also used surround sound symbols to show which movies were being shown in DTS or Dolby Digital.

alpinedownhiller
alpinedownhiller on October 19, 2015 at 11:37 pm

Yeah, saw Star Wars there on opening day! Man unreal! In the grand palace screen. My god when that Star Destroyer came rocking across the screen and went on forever. Holy cow nobody had every experienced anything remotely like that before. Also saw ESB there in the grand screen. Huge screen and it actually had surround sound way back in 1977. Many places were still mono only then and few with stereo. This had full on Dolby Surround. And the screen was gigantic compared to all the little mall screens that came in all over.

Even today with the digital IMAX screens, I don’t think any in NJ are quite as large as the screen here had been.

I think two of the screens in the Manville, NJ theater though are actually at least as large. I’ve heard claims two there are 70'.

An absolute crime that AMC just closed down the giant, true IMAX at Palisades. I think that one was 72'-75' wide and with the full true IMAX height. They ‘replaced’ it with an absurdly small digital IMAX screen, not even one of the larger such around. Criminal.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on November 11, 2014 at 2:01 pm

less than two years from now this theater will be 50 years old.

dbrower
dbrower on January 29, 2014 at 11:12 pm

I too watched 2001 there from a near front row; also the Empire Strikes Back, though from further back. This was -the- place for big-screen stuff.

-dB

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on December 5, 2013 at 12:02 pm

someone a few years back uploaded old tape recordings of the 70mm Dolby Stereo mix of Star Wars and ESB, according to the link on my previous post. The quality isn’t good but you get to hear what the movies sounded like when they came out.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on December 5, 2013 at 12:01 pm

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/1977-70mm-soundtrack-recording/topic/5690/

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig on April 15, 2013 at 5:08 am

The picture of the screen in the article is from the early years. It doesn’t look 62 feet wide in that photo, but I watched “2001” from the front row of that theater and the screen was definitely not small.

moviebluedog
moviebluedog on April 14, 2013 at 8:17 pm

Information on 70mm film presentations at this theater can be found at:

http://fromscripttodvd.com/70mm_in_new_york_main_page.htm

You can search 70mm engagements by year. Thanks.