Baronet and Coronet Theatre
993 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
993 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
17 people
favorited this theater
Showing 176 - 192 of 192 comments
Does anyone know if any NEW theatres are going in to this area. When I first moved to 73rd and Third, there were MANY theatres in the 59th/Third area—a Manhattan Twin and the DW Griffith on 59th St. itself, the Gotham on Third, the Sutton on 57th, and the Baronet-Coronet combo, along with Cinemas 1, 2, and 3 next to the B-C. With all these theatres vanishing, are any new mutliplexes coming in? Will the new Bloomberg building have a theatre at all?
Craig
I sure do rememebr you. I worked at the Festival on and off from 80-82. My manager there was tranferred to the Baronet/Coronet around 81. His name was Joe Torres. It makes me sick to see what they have done with all the old movie theaters in NYC. I am glad I moved from there in 1983 because it would be very difficult to see the buildings gone. I worked at Bowery Ssavings when they were on the corner of 60th and 3rd so I knew that area very well. I ate at the Chinesse restaurant above the Coronet all the time. Would love to chat more, email me at
Next door at the Cinema I in the late 60s Martin Sheen was employed as an usher. He was fired when he set up the ticket-holders line across the street in front of Bloomingdales – and held up traffic on Third Ave. for 10 minutes when they brought the line across and into the theatre…..
I used to be Manager of the Baronet/Coronet in the late 1970’s and 80’s for about 10 years when Walter Reade owned it. I stayed up until the day Cineplex Odeon took it over. It was a sad day last year to see a hole in ground on 59th and 3rd. So much of my youthful memories are about that theatre that I loved so much. It was my first managing job. It was a very prestigous theatre back then. Exclusive bookings, premieres, stars and it was the number one grossing theatre in NY for a time. Does anyone remember me? My name is Craig Dougherty. I have many stories to tell.
Did you know that the late Abby Hoffman used to be the manager in ther early 1960’s? Did you know that Sylvester Stallone worked there as an usher and was fired for stealing? He would go out on the sidewalk and sell loose tickets to the customers waiting on line.
It is hard for the chains to make a profit in general. Yes, That’s the same problem they have been having when they started building those mega-plexes. This has been a problem since the first twin opened and it was him going againist the single screen operator of the past. Westwood area has not been the same since Century City and Santa Monica opened their plexes and the Pacific Grove Theatre near the Farmer’s Market. All those areas do great business even during the daytime. Westwood was like walking into a large plex, but you had to walk alittle farther to get to your theatre. The Avco Theatre played many great shows and still does. GCC had to twin the main house, because it also gives the theatre that extra screen. And like you said with “Lord of the Rings”, with a running time of three hours plus, you can get that extra show without going into overtime for the staff. Having worked for GCC Theatres in many of their Southern California locations. They were not very overtime friendly, unless you had a true blockbuster on your screen. Even with the studio paying for the labor, management always tried to cut costs even more. GCC went from a really good company to work for to a pain in the end. The two best single screen Theatres that GCC had but let go were the Loew’s on Hollywood Blvd. (aka: Paramount and later the El Capitian) and the Art-Deco Beverly Theatre.
If you want to look at a theatre that could never make a profit vs. rent. Look at the Cineplex Odeon in Westwood. (Former UA Westwood, UA Egyptian and now known as the Mann’s Festival Theatre)
Bill has Mike gotten back from his vacation? I will be sending out those copies of the 70MM info on Thursday.
GCC had been splitting big theaters for years prior to the Avco. They split almost all of the former Statewide Theaters that were built in Anaheim, Bakersfield and San Bernardino, only to let those theaters perish. Not too long after the Avco split, GCC went into bankruptcy. Another fine theater damaged by another exhibition company. I just find it ironic that the Avco will book a very popular film, like a Lord of the Rings, and will fill the two houses that once equaled one auditorium.
The Avco was a great example of a modern theater that had class and excellent presentation. You’re correct, William, on that the ceiling was lower and the screen smaller than the National. It was a unique design. The Avco had some of the best 70mm projection I’ve ever seen.
I recently attended a press screening for “Thunderbirds” in the other 70mm house upstairs. AMC has actually kept the curtain presentation and the sound and picture presentation is still top-notch. I can’t say the same for the former big house downstairs. The new sightlines are terrible.
I find it hard to believe that theater chains today can turn a profit with the newer megaplexes (20 screens and more). The buildings that house all of these screens are much, much bigger than the old multiplexes (10 screens or less), and seem to require much more overhead. Where they get you is at the box office with higher ticket prices (for mediocre presentation) and very high concession prices.
It’s not as though a lot of these theaters are crowded during the week. If I recall, that was a factor in splitting the Avco. Not enough people were seeing shows during the week; only Friday and Saturday nights were good for business.
I think this thread is interesting. Once decent chains, like Cineplex Odeon and GCC, did some really great theatrical upgrades during the building boom of the late ‘80s, then allowed their properties to fall apart. Then those same chains ultimately were bought out or went under.
The above comment about the Avco in Westwood, California. Because of zoning in the area of Westwood. You could not build new screens because of a parking vs. seating law in the area. So to get a new screen added you had to cut or remodel the theatre in question. In the Avco’s case the theatre seated 1100 people. So you could cut the theatre up say (two 500 seat theatres or 800 and a 200 seat theatre) or use up the full 1100 count. In the market place of Westwood, Mann Theatres had all the major houses north of Wilshire Blvd. and for a few years all of them. (Village, National, Bruin, Plaza, Regent, Festival, Westwood Quad) On the south side of Wilshire Blvd. there was the Crest, Avco 3, UA Coronet 3. And because at one time the Westwood area out grossed the Hollywood booking area. Westwood was the hot spot to open films in Southern California. So the only way General Cinema could still turn profits at the Avco was to cut the main theatre in two. So now the Avco had that extra screen to use for bookings. The former main house was a very nice place to see films, it was as wide as the National but with a lower ceiling and smaller screen.
OK , General Cinema damaged the theatre in the twinning of it, because the theatre could not turn a true profit anymore.
At one time Mann Theatres had plans to multiplex the Village Theatre and raze the National Theatre to make a 10 screen plex. Using the seat counts from the Regent, Westwood Quad and the National Theatres to complie with the zoning laws.
I worked as a union projectionist in these theatres during that time.
Loews Cineplex made millions off the sale of the property the theatre was sitting on. I remember the marble and neon in a lot of their theatres, Cineplex apparently thought that was real classy, as was selling you extra squirts of butter on your popcorn. I wonder though why towards the end of it’s exisitance the theatre changed from being a Cineplex theatre to just a plain Loews theatre, maybe a way to drum up some business. My friend used to call them Cinebucks Odeous.
Dave-Bronx wrote: You can put Cineplex right up there behind UA when it comes to running theatres into the ground.
You can add General Cinemas to that list. They took a lot of their good/great theaters and ruined them. Perfect example is the Avco Westwood. They split their 1000+ seat main auditorium into two separate theaters. The result? Off-center screens, bad seating, bad theater.
Cineplex put the whammy on many theatres, and this is a perfect example. They took a perfectly viable, well-attended theatre that was tastefully decorated for it’s upper east-side audience, and threw away a lot of money on faux-marble floors, hideous pink neon, re-built seats (no, they weren’t new) and ‘Real Butter’ signs plastered everywhere. The result made it look like a plex in a suburban Toronto shopping mall, not an upscale Manhattan movie house. If that wasn’t bad enough, they never put another dime into it – they didn’t maintain the escalator, or the heating & air conditioning systems, or the roof, or even the light bulbs. All that, coupled with their inability to comprehend the film booking patterns that existed in Manhattan in those days, and they turned the place into a dump in record time. For some reason that to this day remains a mystery, Loews merged with the nearly-insolvent Cineplex, taking on their HUMONGOUS debt. As the combined company was skidding towards backruptcy and looking for cash, the B/C was too far gone, and worth more as a development site. You can put Cineplex right up there behind UA when it comes to running theatres into the ground.
The Baronet/Coronet closed with a series of free-admission classic films on one of two screens with, I believe, ‘O’ and ‘Rat Race’, the theatre’s final first-run offerings, alternating in the other auditorium.
When my wife and I were first dating and first married, we saw most of the films that were playing at these two theatres in 1968 and 1969.
It’s sad to see this theater closed for it’s the first time my wife and I saw a movie together. “Forrest Gump” played here and we saw it with my friend Frank. It was great and we came home talking about the movie all night and broke night and went home at 6:30 a.m.
When Cineplex took this site over they remodeled the lobby and combined the two box offices into one. Loews Cineplex renamed it Coronet I & II in the era when multiplexes moved films around more easily based on business so the ads wouldn’t be wrong every time they switched sides.
Another sad reminder of how prestiges these east side houses were. The downfall began when they became Cineplex houses and they put the standard pink and silver marquee. I never understood when they first renovated it was still the Baronet-Coronet but then someone made the moronic decision to rename it Coronet I & II. Did anyone ever hear why? I also caused the landmark sign with the crowns to be destroyed. Better it lives on only in our memories then be desecrated.
It’s been demolished.
The Baronet & Coronet was closed on September 13, 2001 and has been sold to a real estate developer.