National Twin
1500 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1500 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
5 people
favorited this theater
The National Theatre opened in 1973 and was the first theater built in Times Square in over thirty years.
The theater originally housed 932 on the main level and 513 seats in the loge and mezzanine. Its marquee was one of the largest in New York City.
The National was twinned in 1989 with two distinct auditoriums created.
After several changes in operators, the National finally closed in 1996.
As part of the Disney revitilization of 42nd Street and Times Square, the theater was gutted and became the new street view studios of ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ program.
Contributed by
Jamal Savage
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Recent comments (view all 78 comments)
Was this the last single-screen theater to be built in the United States?
It may have been the last one this large but hardly the last single screen even in Manhattan.
I’m now repeating myself but that’s Hollywood for you…this was a really cool theatre probably 10 years behind the times for its own good…Opened at a time when road shows were a thing of the past and where there relatively few big pictures to fill it at 1400 seats…by the time this had opened the State was already a sizeable twin, the Ziegfeld was closing intermittently, the Penthouse/Cinerama was showing dross from American International and the Astor Plaza was the really big showcase theatre on Broadway…so basically it was Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno and downhill from there
A shame because the escalator ride was fun, the ticketing with cashier style tickets rather than hard tickets a novelty, and because it was just big…in many ways it could have been as a single as good an experience as the Astor Plaza (and I saw Jaws at the Rivoli, and Star Wars at the Astor Plaza opening weekend) and as a twin not bad at all if it had been part of a better circuit
Add to that a really good long marquee that looked great lit up
The National.
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I was in the National a couple times during the Xmas holiday season 1974. I saw Roger Moore in the little-remembered, but terrific “Gold” and I saw one of my all-time faves “The Towering Inferno.” I remember it as being fairly nice. However the theater was built in 1973 when the Times Square area was pretty sleazy: all sorts of panhandlers and disreputable characters hanging out outside. While I saw very few films on Broadway after this period, I imagine the crowd patronizing this theater probably deteriorated and the theater itself probably went downhill. By the time Giuliani got into office and the revitalization of Times Square began, it was probably too late to save this theater. That is the only reason I can think of why a theater built as late as 1973 should have only lasted until 1996.
The theatre always did well. The landlord wanted it out of there as they felt a movie theatre cheapened the building and they could get better terms from other options. They refused to let Cineplex Odeon triplex it at their own expense.
This intro has several wrong dates.
The National opened in 1972, was twinned in 1982 and closed in 1998.
Cineplex Odeon closed it for tripling in 1987, an aborted attempt when the landlord refused to allow it. The wall was never put up and the landlord hoped Cineplex Odeon would negotiate to leave instead as he no longer wanted a movie theatre there. It re-opened as a remodeled twin.
The theatre closed on January 22nd, 1998 with the previously mentioned For Richer or Poorer (in DTS) and Home Alone 3 as the final engagements.
I seem to recall a big inaugural opening with The Poseidon Adventure. A few other big films after that , then the twinning and the real big decline of Times Square-no one in their right mind went to a movie theatre on Broadway. Now ABC Studios and Sephora