Redondo Beach Cinema 3
1509 Hawthorne Boulevard,
Redondo Beach,
CA
90278
1509 Hawthorne Boulevard,
Redondo Beach,
CA
90278
12 people
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Showing 1 - 25 of 38 comments
December 20th, 1974 grand opening ad posted.
So near as I can figure from LA Times ads, and if anybody knows differently please correct me:
12/29/1964 Statewide Theatres opens the South Bay Theatre
11/01/1967
Loews acquired Statewide Theatres
08/21/1969 Loews opens South Bay 2
12/24/1971 Loews opens South Bay 3
06/28/1972
General Cinema acquires Loews in Southern California
12/20/1974 GCC splits South Bay 2 causing a name shift to all three buildings. South Bay 1 > South Bay I South Bay 2 > South Bay II-III South Bay 3 > South Bay IV
11/14/1986 South Bay 1 is split into three, causing a name shift to the buildings. South Bay 1 > Cinema 4-5-6 South Bay 2-3 > Cinema 2-3 South bay 3 > Cinema 1
11/25/1997 Cinema 2-3 and Cinema 1 close as GCC Galleria at South Bay 16 opens the following day inside the mall.
03/11/2010
The original South Bay theatre, now the Redondo Cinema 3 closes.
So so many amazing memories here. The screen nearest Hawthorne Blvd. most often, I saw Sixteen Candles, The Karate Kid and more in the 80’s. The twinned house in the middle also showed Rocky Horror and other midnight movies (Dawn of the Dead, Cheech & Chong flicks) on the weekends. And that bowling alley complex was AMAZING, complete with an ice cream parlor, a coffee shop, a bar and an arcade. You could live there. ;)
I saw SNOW WHITE there at a very young age, JAWS there when it first came out, and then upon my return to the area in the 1980s, I saw CHUCK BERRY: HAIL HAIL ROCK AND ROLL. Good memories.
South Bay Cinema 3 which was next to Levitz furniture never ran 70mm. In fact it didn’t even have stereo sound. The booth has two Simplex XL projectors. When I worked there in the early to mid 1970’s General Cinema operated the three theatres.
I hope I’ve positioned the street view accurately. Don’t have any photos yet. The theaters were just to the south of the (then) South Bay Galleria Mall, which is what I remember it being called in the 1980s.
Looks like they are building something on the site.
Ray Milland story was good long with others.
Where do we go now to watch movies for three bucks?
R.I.P. Redondo Beach Cinema 3.
Say goodbye to this one. I drove past today and the theater has been razed. Status should be changed to closed/demolished.
I did that once in Philly-a rainy Tuesday afternoon. I was the only one in the theater for the show.
I’ve visited this place around 15 or 20 times in the last 10 years or so and on only 2 occasions was there someone else in the theatre with me.
The best way to get a status changed is to fill out this form. Specify ‘Correction’ in the ‘Regarding’ menu.
Any photos?
It will be updated evantually. Ken Roe is out of the country still, I think.
Scott Neff just posts comments on here, he not part of this site’s staff. He’s part of CinemaTours site.
Do you know how to contact Scott Neff? I have to tell him something; edit the theater’s status to CLOSED because the theater’s marquee said “CLOSED”, and the movie listing is taken down as well.
I drove by there today. Definitely closed. Rest in peace.
Somebody should let Scott Neff know another old GCC has bit the dust.
It wasn’t exactly breaking attendance records.
Well that’s the second complex the chain has closed in the last month or so. They closed the Fairfax Theatre (triplex).
Another one bites the dust. The theatre has been removed from Regency’s web site, and the theatre’s recording confirms the closing.
I remember going here a number of times when my mom lived in Redondo Beach. I know for certain I saw Pete’s Dragon and The Empire Strikes Back here.
Cinema 3 (the big house next to Levitz) is where I had one of my first THX experiences (with “Pretty Woman” – the exact wrong movie for THX!) as well as my first DTS Digital experience with “Jurassic Park” in 93. At the time, that was the LOUDEST movie I’d ever heard. The memorable sequence with the puddle vibrating to the sound of the oncoming T-Rex literally shook the theatre!
Showing today-Hannah Montana, Knowing and I Love You, Man.Wasn’t the last one first-run like two weeks ago? Admission is $3.25.