St. Marks Cinema

133 2nd Avenue,
New York, NY 10003

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Additional Info

Functions: Office Space, Retail

Previous Names: Astor Theatre, St. Marks Theatre

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St. Marks Cinema

Listed in the American Motion Picture Directory:1914-1915 edition as the Astor Theatre. By the time the 1926 edition of Film Daily Yearbook was published it had changed its name to St. Marks Theatre.

Later, this was a second-run theatre in Manhattan’s East Village on the northwest corner of St. Marks Place and 2nd Avenue. In the 1980’s it was a second run theatre offering films at a discount compared to what other films in Manhattan charged. They would run double bills and sometimes independent films. I believed they had midnight screenings each night of classic films. A Gap (since closed) replaced the theatre. By 2019 it was in use as a Verizon phone store and office space.

Contributed by Christopher Heaney

Recent comments (view all 30 comments)

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on December 26, 2009 at 3:46 pm

The St. Marks can be seen in Paul Mazursky’s “Moscow on the Hudson”. The two films on the marquee were “Exposed” and “An Unmarried Woman”. I’m not familiar with the first, but the second was also a Mazursky film.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on September 5, 2015 at 12:29 pm

Circa 1930’s photo added, Ottendorfer Branch of the NYPL. Photo credit Victor Volnar/NYPL

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on November 23, 2015 at 10:56 pm

1963 photo added. Peter Falk in a scene from TV’s “Naked City” Photo courtesy of Bob Greenhouse. St. Marks marquee in the background.

areacode212
areacode212 on January 4, 2016 at 9:06 pm

Phyllis Nagy, who wrote the screenplay for Carol, just gave a shoutout to this theater in her NYFCC award acceptance speech.

jarkin
jarkin on February 9, 2016 at 4:30 am

Saw a midnight screening of ‘The Shining’ here in ‘81 and thought it was awesome. Always wondered where this place disappeared into.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on February 9, 2016 at 9:32 pm

Loved the double bills and the midnight shows. I saw the original Blade Runner (with narration) here several times.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on January 26, 2017 at 3:39 pm

June 25, 1934 photo added, photo credit Percy Loomis Sperr.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on July 2, 2022 at 4:33 pm

This thread has been dormant a few years, but if anyone still getting notifications remembers the theater, did the auditorium have a balcony? I’ve been trying to figure out the cinema where my dad took me to see a triple feature of Magical Mystery Tour, One Plus One, and An American Band around New Years of 1978/79. I remember it being a downtown theater and also remember we sat up in an actual balcony (not a raised loge at the rear).

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on July 2, 2022 at 6:30 pm

Ed, on December 24 and 25, 1978 the Cinema Village was showing two other made for TV Beatles movies (“BEATLES AROUND THE WORLD” and “WHAT’S HAPPENING! THE BEATLES IN THE USA”) at 2:55pm only.

MDchanic
MDchanic on July 2, 2022 at 10:34 pm

Ed, I won’t claim that my recollection is perfect, but I believe that you walked into the theater in a straight line from the street (i.e.: heading West) with the screen in front of you, and that once in the theater you could turn around and ascend a couple of steps to a small, slightly elevated “smoking” section behind you (not a balcony, because not suspended above other seats) or walk forward into the “regular” seats.

It is also possible that there was no such section behind the entrance level and that I’m thinking of some other (also long-gone) theater.

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