Amboy Multiplex Cinemas
US Highway 9 and State Route 35,
Sayreville,
NJ
08872
US Highway 9 and State Route 35,
Sayreville,
NJ
08872
14 people
favorited this theater
Showing 151 - 175 of 228 comments
I have always said a nice 4 screen drive-in would look mighty nice on this spot. 2 larger screens by the river, 2 smaller ones by the old circle. Bet it would be a gold mine. Open it up from say early April till maybe Halloween.
I was driving on Route 9 toward Old Bridge last week, and I made it a point to eyeball the Amboy Cinema, to see just what’s happening. The theater is still standing, but there’s a “For Sale” sign on the outside. I wonder who would buy it? Maybe a developer, but what would they build there?
markp is the theatre still standing? I thought it had to be demolished because the ground it was built on was unstable.
Drove by the theatre yesterday on my way to the Count Basie Theatre. There is a “For Sale, 20+ acres” sign on the boarded up marquee. I guess thats truly the end for this theatre. Wouldnt a nice 4 screen drive-in look good over there? Just sayin.
That is so sad….I live 2 minutes away and they really need to fix that place up and open it again we need a multiplex.
JonStan, The last time I was in there was a few years back. At that time, some equipment was removed, some screens removed, and some seats removed, but for the most part, and in talking to people who have been in there since, it is still 95% intact. Just rotting away.
Has anyone been inside this theatre lately?? I drive past it everyday and I dont know why but I have this overwhelming urge to see what it looks like inside. was the inside demolished at all or is it all still setup inside just decaying? also when the theatre was in operation what did it look like inside?
Not a bad looking theatre from 1983 photo.Lots of good stories written.Especially from the old theatre dawgs.
Had the Amboy been kept open, it would’ve benefited from digital projection, 3D, but not a liemax screen.
I was the New Jersey and New York service technician. I would go into Amboy to take equipment and share them with other working theaters. Get this, at certain points in the booth, you can look to the outside because the walls are cracking. In the lobby, the concession stand drops over a foot from one end to the other. The place is sinking! Yikes… The booth was very nice, however, people have broken into it to steal copper wiring.
that is all, sweet dreams…
I had my first car accident in the parking lot. It was not my fault, but a drunk woman sideswiped the whole side of my car while I sat stationary and she was passing me at 5 MPH. She started scraping along at the front bumber and stopped when she got to the back. I was sitting in the drivers seat gritting my teeth as she slowly SSCCHHEEETTCCCHHHEEEDDDD down the entire length of my car. Then to add insult to injury, the cops arrested her as she struggled to resist being handcuffed on the truck of MY car. It is a memory that I will have with me always.
Hey MovieManBill, as of today 9/17/08 the building is still standing, however, it is empty and abandoned. Its a shame, because I was one of the projectionists there from 1985 till its closing. I remember those sold out shows. It will be cheaper to tear this one down and build a new one from scratch, but I don’t know if the company is going to do this or not. I work for an independant theatre now, and I am far removed from my Amboys days and the company as well.
This place was my “go to” theater once I got my drivers license in 1985. I remember going to the sold out opening Friday night midnight showing of Aliens and being impressed with the sound quality of the presentation. I was used to the subpar quality of my local movie house, the Strathmore Twin in Aberdeen, and Amboy was a vast improvement.
I have heard that the Amboy structure has been deemed uninhabitable. The structure was built on partial land-fill on the marshlands of the Raritan River. The ground beneath the foundation of the lobby and concession area had begun to collapse and make the building unstable. I hear that the floor level in the lobby has dropped. I don’t think that there is any chance that the theater will ever reopen. The building would require demolition and major reconstruction.
Does anyone know anything about this?
Justin, I have it on good authority that Summner will never die :))
By the way I am very proud of what Shari (not Sharon) has been doing with the theatres. She is very inovative and dedicated to keeping the movie business thriving.
Edgewater is a classic Multipex operation,but the Cinema De lux design is more in line with NA’s future plans. Long Island does have one,but we also have one in White Plains.
Garth, we did have plans for a renovation of Amboy back in 1991.
Then came Menlo Park and others, and suddenly the project was killed.
The folks at National Amusements are very good at what they do, the decision not to renovate turned out to be a good one.
i agree. When Mr. Redstone dies, his legacy will still live on with his daughter, Sharon, running the chain, which is not as well known as AMC or Regal. I’ve never been to a National Amusements cinema and never will, even though I see many of them especially in New England, where NA is hq’d. If they had to renovate the old theater, then they’d look at the Edgewater location as an example as this is a bit cheaper to build than the Cinema De Lux line (the closest is in Long Island).
Justin, The reason for putting the theatre in that location was due to the demise of the Drive-in theatres. The property was formally the Amboy Drive-In.
After Summner Redstone built the Sunrise Multiplex on the grounds of the old Sunrise Drive-In, it was only a matter of time befoe all of NA’s Drive-in locations became Multiplex theatres; the Last one being Hazlet in 1992. It was sad to see all the Drive-In theatres go, but from a pratical business sense it was inevitable.
jim , I would have to think that prior to closing down , the owners considered renovating and upgrading the theatre with stadium seating , sound systems and what not . Evidently it was not considered economically feasible. Also I get the impression from reading the comments on this page that the surrounding area has been going downhill for some time…..
i still see the building on tv everytime I watch the traffic cams near the driscoll bridge. Weird that they built it near a busier highway than most other theaters.
I passed this place on Sunday May 4, 2008 on my way back from Red Bank. There is a large roll off container next to the lobby portion of the building. Wonder whats going on???
I rode by this (deserted) theater a week or so ago on my way to the dentist. There was a cop car stationed at the exit. I assume he was there to ward off vandals or loiterers.
I remember that night well as I was one of the projectionists working there that night. At that time we used to have 2 projectionists on each shift. Each of us would do 7 theatres, 1-7 & 8-14. “New Jack City” was playind in Cinemas 8 and 13. The melee broke out in Cinema 13, just as I was starting to thread up for the midnight show. This is probably the one incident which started Amboys eventual downward spiral.
You mean like this. I worked there the night this happened. I believe The News Tribune titled it “Melee at the Multiplex.” Couldn’t find Tribune article, I edited out the none amboy parts of the below article.
VIOLENCE ERUPTS AT DRUG-GANG MOVIE / FIGHTS BREAK OUT IN N.J., N.Y., NEV.
Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ)
March 11, 1991
Author: BYLINE: Associated Press
Estimated printed pages: 2
Three police officers and one civilian were injured when violence erupted after a showing of the new drug-gang movie “New Jack City” at the Amboy Multiplex Cinemas, police said.
Six people were arrested in the Friday night incident, with charges ranging from disorderly conduct to assault on a police officer, according to Sayreville police Lt. William Gawron. The names of those arrested were not available Sunday.
The Sayreville incident began between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. as a fight between two people in the theater lobby escalated into several other fights, and two trash dumpsters outside were set afire. There were about 500 people in the lobby at the time, he said.
The first fight “just got out of control” Gawron said, adding that other patrons joined in the initial dispute.
“As we were dispersing the fight, another fight, then another fight, broke out,” he said.
Gawron did not say what caused the fights.
Police from Sayreville, Perth Amboy, South Amboy, Edison, and Old Bridge and the state police were dispatched to break up the melee, Gawron said.
The Melrose and President’s Park fire departments responded to the dumpster fires.
National Amusements, like many theatre circits, employees security at all times. Whenever a potential “problem” movie is booked, additional security is provided. At amboy, in addition to the regular private secutity, local police also provided security with off-duty personnel. It is not uncommon for a studio to offset some of the cost of any additional security hired for specific movies.
Remember it used to get rowdies from certain neighboring towns to the north at certain shows…think security was provided/needed.