Sayville Theater

As i am the President of Syville Chamber Of Commerce and once was a dm for this theater when Cineplex Odeon ran it ,i can tell you it is a house of changing mgt companys.This theater changer owners every few years , when Cineplex Odeon ran it the grosses (in the 80s)were BAD.They do a good bargin TUES all seats $5.00 still to this day.

I knew the theater had to be struggling, completing against the nearby UA Patchogue 13 (which is struggling itself with all the newest multiplexes). The current owners are really making an effort though, and it is a nice little place to see a movie.

This theater is a prime location for at least one screen running art fair.

Here's a link to the Sayville's website. If you click on "Visual Tour" it will give you some photos of the exterior and interior:

http://www.sayvillemovies.com/

Here's a photo of the Sayville Theater taken today:

Click here for link to photo

How are the auditoriums here?

Did this theatre replace the Sayville Theatre that opened in 1930 and closed in 1980? My theatre listing shows two Sayville theatres.

There was a Sayville Opera House on Candee Ave, I don't believe it ever showed movies, but is another theater in sayville. It had live performances by Broadway actors. I have no idea when it closed though, but I know it was operating in the 20's.

The current Sayville theater is an old theater, I don't know exactly how old, but would assume it dates to the 20's ot the 30's.

I am pretty familiar with Sayville, but don't know if there was ever another movie theater in Sayville. Could it have been in West Sayville?

Both Sayville theatres show an address of 103 RailRoad avenue. The Sayville multiplex is listed as opening in 1984. Perhaps this current Sayville theatre replaced the older Sayville theatre.

It's the same building, 1984 must be when they cut it up.

The Sayville Theatre is the second theatre to bear the name. The original was next door in the theatre's parking lot that opened in the late 1920's or early 1930's. It was antiquated by the late 1940's and a newer theatre was built along side the old one about 1947 or 1948. Once the newer building was finished and open, the older building next door was demolished for the parking lot. The Sayville Playhouse on Candee Avenue was demolished for the nursing home on that parcel of land. Marlon Brando appeared at the Sayville Playhouse in his early days on stage and had an apartment within the theatre which he was reluctant to give up since it was within his means (affordable). He had to be evicted at a later day.

As far as I know, there is no photo showing both theatres side by side in 1948 at the Sayville Library or the Sayville historical Society. The picture would have been interesting, the old next to the new.

I thought I would give this chopped up oldie a try one day late in August. I was in the balcony theater and it was incredibly hot --- no A/C. I stayed just a few minutes. When I asked for my money back, it was refunded but without a word of apology. Unfortunately I wound up seeing the film at the Island 16, devoid of humanity but full of cool air. As do most folks on this site I lament the loss of the old theaters, but the reality is that most of them just got worse and worse in the name of better profit margins. I think they call it deferred maintenance in the business world. What a shame.

It's all about the money today.

Theater for sale

FOR SALE 2.5 MIL

I wonder if they will get it. Hopefully the buyer will keep it a theater.

Hey longislandmovies, I know it's been 2 1/2 years since you wrote your comment, but you were definetly NOT the Cineplex DM for the Sayville theater. I worked there virtually EVERY DAY that Cineplex owned the theater, and Mr. J.S. is NOT the president of the Sayville Chamber of Commerce. I think you're trying to impress people who don't know the facts.

JOHN S. WAS DM FOR LONG ISLAND FOR CINEPLEX BUT WAS OUT TWICE FOR SICK LEAVE FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME .........MY MAIN AREA WAS BROOKLYN AND MANHATTAN ....I also was president of tha Sayville chamber of commerce 2004and 2005........no lies......if you dont no just ask...........

theater sold

any of you know whats going on with islip...

auction sign on doors...islip town knows nothing...

it can't be taxes for it hasn't been two years...suff auctions says

there is no listing on his docket..called pam green cc..she knows

nothing....wasn't or is sayville tied with islip...

anyone know tom cilmi pres. islip chamber?

post or e mail www.misterwgli@msn.com






nothing...

ps....anyone know how many seats islip over 1000 before split?

what about sayville.....guess will do?

The tie between Islip and Sayville was severed long ago.

THANKS

lol

What is this SBS listed in the movie listings? Is it the booking service or the owner? Before, Lesser was the booking service for this theatre.

and even before that Cineplex was the operator of this theater

It looks like this theatre is going to draw lost business from the Regal (UA) Patchogue .

this house should be doing much better as PATCHOGUE HAS CLOSED!

The theatre from the outside looks old but from the inside it doesn't look that bad. It looks like an old Cineplex Odeon movie house because Cineplex use to operate the theater. It's now independently owned with Lesser booking it before. Now I wanna know who is SBS? Funny thing is I never been to the theater.

A comment above mentions the Sayville Playhouse on Candee Avenue. According to this link, the Sayville Playhouse later became a movie theater showing art films.

The theater was last renovated by Lesser theaters so it does not have any Cineplex Odeon look.

Lesser Theaters never renovated Sayville. The theater was renovated by previous ownership. Lesser Theater Service was strictly the film buyers. SBS is Shadow Booking Service. They took over the film buying for Sayville on 5/1/2007 after ownership felt they needed to make a change. Sayville was the first client of SBS. I know of this because I am a part of SBS. And yes it's true, Patchogue closing really did help this theater come alive again. But current ownership has also made a greater effort to widen the spectrum of the types of films brought in to appeal to all different audiences. Where the theater used to mostly play childrens films and older audience pictures, current ownership has opened it up to comedies and horror films that appeal to the high school and college crowd. Let's face facts. That's the audience that keeps theaters in business. Unfortunately, you don't make the money at the box office. It's all made at the concession stand.

The theater was renovated in 2004 under the name Lesser in the news paper..(I KNOW IT IS A BOOKING CO)I believe the people who owned it also owned the Oceanside twin.A friend of mine did all the new carpets and never got paid.

I was in negotiations to buy this theater from Mr Finkling in 06 as i was also President of The Chamber Of Commerce at that time.When Cineplex Odeion had this theater (the lease)they never spent a dime.Cineplex Odeon took this over about 1989 for a very very short time.

Now isn't that something that we are now seeing 13 screen multiplexes closing down. It use to be that people told me you cant make money with a single or a twin, now, in the year 2008, I guess the saying is you cant make money with 13 screens. What next?

LOL....true.but in this case it was the land was worth way more than the theater could make.(ua Patchogue 13)The site sat on an old drive in space with lots and lots of land...

I don't think that the Patchogue Theater closing had to do with it "not being able to make money". The problem is just what LImovies said, that the land was worth more than anything they could ever make as a theater, and that is what the problem there was. That coupled with the fact that the Patchogue was in need of an upgrade to compete with the more modern multiplexs like the Holtsville Island 16. The Patchogue was beginning to show it's age. People now have come tp expect things like stadium seating, and other amenities the newer multiplexes have.

As someone who follows box office carefully, I can safely say, the grosses the last few years at Patchogue were horrible.

Yes, because of the opening of the Holtsville theater. Also, the Patchogue Theater was not maintained as well as it should have at the end, that in combination of the Patchogue also needing an upgrade of course made box office reciepts suffer.

Here is a photo of the Sayville Theater and this is a close-up view.

THANKS FOR THE PIX

Does SBS (Shadow Booking Service) have other independent theatres in the area as clients or in other states as well? If so, who are the other clients? It's interesting to know.

SBS is new and actually just started soliciting for new clients. I can be reached at SHADOWBOOKINGSVC@AOL.COM if anyone would like a chat. A website is currently being developed.

Why does it only show one movie on the marquee?

I don't know. Maybe "Underdog" was a popular movie that day and it ran on all three screens.

That should read "all four screens".

I've been going to the Sayville Theatre for many years, since the early/mid-1990s when "Jurassic Park" and "Schindler's List" played there. Back then they had 3 screens. Through the years I saw many movies there, including the first screening of "Titanic" on Dec. 19, 1997 at 12 noon. But the theatre was a bit shabby. Now they've fixed it up and it really is very nice. The new management is good. I do wish they would play smaller films more frequently, though. Last year I was lucky enough to see "La Vie en Rose" there. Prices are great, and they now have a lot of "special midnight shows." The only draw back is that if you wanna bring in a Starbucks drink, they won't let you anymore even though they are right off Main Street. But that's understandable since they make their money from the concessions.

One comment on the Patchogue theatre. That multiplex was around a lot longer than anybody anticipated. It was running on empty by the end. Speakers were broken, staff was down, the place was always a mess. I used to go there a lot, as well, in the 1990s. The last movie I saw there was "Open Range." But I stopped going, because it was so poorly maintained. It was only a matter of time. One of the signs of it's impending passage was that the sign out by the street still said "U/A" but the signs on the doors said "Regal." A shame, too, because now Patchogue has no movie theater. Everybody has to go to the Island 16, which is hard to get to because of its awkward location in Holtzville and no buses go near there. It's expensive, too. That's why I like Sayville. They have better prices, and it's actually been redone nicely.

The year given for this photo is 1983.

Is this place still showing movies? Every time I go by, it never has movies on the marquee, and says "something" coming soon or by some date.
It always looks lit up, but unless they only rely on the posters, no movie is ever on the marquee.