Criterion Theatre
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
27 people
favorited this theater
Showing 151 - 175 of 606 comments
Any film that did not meet their budget AND marketing costs and didn’t even receive many good reviews could be seen as a “bomb”. “HELLO,DOLLY!”, “PAINT YOUR WAGON” and “TORA! TORA! TORA!” failed to do all three. Okay, how about “flop”, “turkey”, “stinker”, “dud” or “failure”? Only until “Heaven’s Gate” made the term epic did this become an issue.
It seems as though age of the easily-offended snowflake has even reached the sunny shores of cinema treasures
I certainly did not mean to offend any individual by referring to a film as a bomb. I will refrain from terming any film as such except a couple of personal favorites which I sadly have to admit were indeed roadshow bombs. Does Paint Your Wagon count?
Mike (saps) makes a good point. But cinema is a matter of personal choice. “Hello, Dolly” and “Tora!” could have been better. Channing over Streisand or no Japanese opinions could have been better. But “Vertigo”, in my opinion, still sucks, anyway.
But both Wizard and Vertigo went on to eventual critical acclaim and financial success, a fate not achieved by the overproduced and underperforming Dolly…
Hello-
thanks to Al A. for your reply. as I said in my original comment in my opinion Tora Tora Tora is one of the best large scale historical I’ve ever seen and one of the best films on WW II. many people love to classify big roadshow films as bombs I bet without having actually seen them. for instance people love to classify Hello Dolly as a bomb and in my opinion its one of the best musical films ever made. we might as well refer to The Wizard of Oz and' Vertigo as “bombs” since both films were big box office disappointments in their initial release.
If only Barbra Streisand had played Gen. Tojo, it would have been the definitive role of her career…
“The Old Man and the Sea” played for ten weeks. It was followed by another roadshow (“A Night To Remember”) that played only nine weeks. Films are often called “bombs” because they fell short of expectation at the boxoffice, had such huge budgets they failed to make a profit or as in the case of “Tora!Tora!Tora!”, they also had pretty awful reviews nationwide.
Hello-
in reference to vindanpar’s 9/9/18 comment about Tora-Tora-Tora. i happen to think its a first rate action drama and one of the best films I’ve seen on WW II. so i wish people would stop referring to films as bombs as if to infer the actual quality of the film. some of the best regarded most loved classics were bombs when they first opened.
Hello-
at 87mins. The Old Man and the Sea was the shortest
roadshow film i can remember. how long did the roadshow
run last?
2018 street view does not show a restaurant. But an address search shows a Haagen Dazs ice cream, formerly Scoops R Us.
The front of the building is now 2 fashion stores(Old Navy, Gap). Whats the name of the restaurant?
On the 148-150 W 45th street side of the theatre, there was a bar & grill and I think that’s where the bar scene from Midnight Cowboy was filmed??
I wonder if Funny Girl stayed much longer at the Criterion than it was financially feasible to do so. Columbia already had Oliver set to be its wide release'69 Christmas film for the family trade and they were holding off FG because they didn’t want two big musicals competing against each other. And of course Oliver would do much better at that time. I picture FG playing to empty houses in its last months at the Criterion(my favorite roadshow theater as it was the first one I was ever in and it was a very glamourous event like occasion). One could look at Variety but it was notorious for printing inflated grosses admittedly given to them by theaters.
On the subject of “Funny Girl,” here’s the link to my recent 50th anniversary retrospective for those of you interested in such things.
By the time I was visiting NYC as an adult, this theater was divided up & I never saw a movie in it. I did have the pleasure of seeing Funny Girl in a new print at the Ziegfeld in 2001, very appropriate because a bust of Fanny Brice was on display upstairs in a foyer at the Ziegfeld. Last year the Univ of Penn Gazette (alumni magazine) had an article contrasting movies from 1968 or so to current. Classics then, current is not so. My own analysis is that 1980s & 1990s each had far fewer great mainstream films than each of the decades before, but there were still many such great films. But, after the Millennium, mainstream films that are really great hardly exist! There are still excellent “art” films which is what the Oscars mostly nominate & honor. And, the art films are often exhibited in historic movie theaters. Contrast to TV which since The Sopranos arrived in 1999 has had a renaissance of great series. So, no, films are no longer exhibited here or at the Ziegfeld, not at all, and nowhere for many months one film.
It’s inconceivable nowadays to consider that a movie like “Funny Girl” could play at one theater from September 1968 through February 1970 and then continue into a wide release. Today’s market (not just movies but so much) feels so temporary and disposable. So much feels undervalued or not valued at all. There are always films worth seeing (thank God) but the majority of the ones being funded by “the studios” are throwaway projects that mean nothing years later. Quick: name one or two films released from 2000 thru 2010 that are classics or ones you can watch over and over again? Now name one or two films released from 1960 to 1970 that are classics or ones you can watch over and over again?
Sorry-Alien.
No. The only second run I remember seeing was Superman when it moved over from its long first run at the Astor Plaza. Then I saw Aliens which was the last film I saw there before it was twinned.
“WILLARD” moved over to the Criterion in late July 1971.
budget
Looks like the red neon frame on the marquee was still up at this point for Willard before they got rid of the neon and replaced it with silver aluminum. This means I saw it but had forgotten. It looked great surrounded by the Bond’s neon. And with the Gordon’s Gin spectacular above it was the last of the old great Times Square blocks.
Believe it or not I heard two different people in the late 70s/early 80s when I was walking on the opposite side of the street when they saw the decrepit disrepair the site was in say ‘I never thought I’d see that block look like that.’ I myself would have loved to be going to the Criterion during the roadshow era. Just the marquee announcing some big buget epic or musical must have been exciting.
Included in views from 1971 of Times Square and other parts of Manhattan at the “Forgotten NY” website here
“Funny Girl” premiered here 50 years ago today. It would go on to play 72 weeks.
They did vindanpar. I was completely annoyed.