Ritz Center 16
900 Haddonfield-Berlin Road,
Voorhees,
NJ
08043
900 Haddonfield-Berlin Road,
Voorhees,
NJ
08043
6 people
favorited this theater
This theater opened as the Ritz 12 in September 1996 as part of a shopping strip with a 1,200 space parking lot. Both theater and shopping stip were owned by the Ritz Theaters of Philadelphia, arthouse film exhibitors. The Ritz 12 cost 7-million dollars to construct. The huge 5,000 square feet lobby was designed to recall a European hotel lobby, and included a lounge, a cafe and a concession area. Concessions included espresso, cappuccino, cafe au lait, and pastries. The hall leading to the auditoriums was adorned with portraits of dozens of renowned film makers. The auditoriums seating capacitys ranged from 187 to 437 people, with the largest two auditoriums sporting very large 40 feet wide screens. All auditoriums were built with digital surround sound, luxury seats, and what was referred to in 1996 as ‘terraced seating’ and explained as a 16 foot drop from back to front (as compared to the four foot drop in most theaters) for excellent sight-lines.
Four auditoriums were added later and the theatre was renamed the Ritz 16.
Following Ritz founder Raymond Posel’s death in June 2005, the Ritz Theaters were sold. The Philadelphia theaters and the Ritz Theaters name were sold to Landmark Theatres. The Voorhees theatre was sold in April 2007 to National Amusements and run by their Showcase division as the Showcase at the Ritz Center. In December 2009, Rave Motion Picture Theatres took over operation and the theater was renamed the RC Ritz Center 16. In November, 2012, Cinemark announced its acquisition of Rave theatres. In the Philadelphia region, the name ‘Ritz’ has been the gold standard for upscale movie exhibition since the first Ritz opened in 1976 in Philadelphia and this theatres continues to have a fine reputation as a topnotch cinema.
Contributed by
Howard B. Haas
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Recent comments (view all 22 comments)
The quality is slipping already – saw Darjeeling Limited here and the sound was low and muddled, like it wasn’t even in stereo.
I worked at the Ritz 16 back in high school. It was an amazing place. I got payed minimum wage to clean up garbage (and on one occasion-poop) in the auditoriums. The hours weren’t great and the job itself was demeaning to say the least. However, it was still my favorite place in the world.
People think its a better place now because they sell hot dogs or because they show children’s cartoons in the mornings or because you can watch a Harold and Kumar sequel while eating nachos or whatever your cup of tea is, but honestly the standard has plummeted. Ray Posel dying was the worst thing to happen to modern cinema; and as if that wasn’t bad enough, National Amusements, the worst theater group there is, bought and ruined Ray’s masterpiece. Why not draw a mustache on the Mona Lisa while you’re at it? The Showcase would have already gone out of business by now if it hadn’t been recycled from the Ritz’s corpse.
I also managed a National Amusements theater after college so I am entitled to speak poorly of them. Its a bottom-line kind of corporation that seems to hate their own customers as much as they love profits and every policy they have is ass-backwards.
Don’t get me wrong though. The Showcase is still a better theater than you’re going to find in most places. Some of the Ritz touches are still there and you can even still see some art films and maybe a documentary or two as long as Al Gore is attached in some way. The artwork on the walls may be gone but at least they kept the portraits of yesteryear’s great movie icons. The flowers in the bathrooms is a classy little accent but its really not enough to polish that turd.
Rave Motion Pictures is slated to acquire this theatre, as well as The Bridge: Cinema De Lux, and 33 other National Amusements locations.
Rave has officially purchased this theatre and taken over as of last weekend I believe. It’s listed on Rave’s website as “RC Ritz Center 16”.
Should be back there soon to see what, if anything, has changed.
`I think business will be same as usual,Rave will honor NA gift cards and other programs till early next year.
World cinema has a very short shelf life here. But, they do have the opera. After three years, this theater did not turn into the nightmare I thought it would. I perfer seeing art films at the Phila. Ritz instead of New York. IFC Center: except for main theater(Waverly)The others are small, boxy, bad projection. Lincoln Plaza: crowed theater no butter for popcorn. Angelika: tunnel cinemas subway train noise. Sunshine: good theater. Ritz Five needs works but Ritz at the Bourse and Ritz East are better art house cinemas than anything in New York.
The official National Amusements to Rave changeover happened today. Showtimes are no longer listed on the NA site, and the theatre is now “Rave Motion Pictures Ritz Center”.
Went there tonight, and saw the first notable changes since the sale:
—Rave ticket stubs, popcorn bags, and uniforms are in use.
—“Showcase Art” is now called “Rave Review”. The old sticky letter box office marquees are still up.
—Coke has replaced Pepsi (yay!)
—No policy trailer on the 3D screening I’ve seen, and no Screenvision digital, just opera music.
It’ll be interesting to see what the signage will look like. The Ritz 16 is practically the exact opposite of Rave’s typical “put neon everywhere” philosophy.
A beautiful place when Ray Posel built and ran it. Managed there for about a year. Very popular with the upscale crowd…
So I’m looking for a list but this is apparently one of the theatres going to Cinemark. Which would be this theatre’s fourth owner in five years.
Interesting that Cinemark is buying this, because they have a (nicely remodeled) 16 frankenplex not far from here. It boosts their standing in the market instantly, though.
Cinemark won’t be taking over this theatre after all. Due to the proximity with their existing Somerdale theatre (3 miles away), the DOJ has ordered them to sell this off. Wonder who gets this.