Green Acres Cinemas
610 W. Sunrise Highway,
Valley Stream,
NY
11581
610 W. Sunrise Highway,
Valley Stream,
NY
11581
5 people
favorited this theater
This was one of the Century chains premiere Long Island theaters. It always played big movies and I remember seeing “The Towering Inferno” here in 70mm. Century first cut it up to three screens.
RKO and later Cineplex had stiff competition here because National Amusements built the Sunrise Sixplex which is now up to 25 screens. National Amusements eventually aquired this theater and booked the more upscale product here.
The Green Acres Cinemas was closed on September 18, 2011, and was demolished in May-June 2012.
Contributed by
RobertR
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Recent comments (view all 69 comments)
Should be National Amusements. When they closed the Brookhaven and Commack Multiplexes they boarded them up.
There is now a fence around the place with a sign that says “Coming soon, Olive Garden Resturant.
Ugh.
Always amazes me that people in New York actually go to a place like Olvie Garden. You can get superior Italian food from the kitchen of your local pizzeria, in these parts! I can understand in Manhattan, around Times Square, say, where you have a lot of tourists looking for something familiar and predictable… but in the local neighborhoods? Anyway, whatever greatness this theater once had was greatly diminished when this was triplexed – and later completely obliterated when it was gutted for mutli-plexing. Turning it into an ersatz ristorante can’t possibly do any more damage to the long-deceased Century’s Green Acres Theatre.
They are demolishing this building down to the ground, it seems — it’s horrifying yet fascinating. I hope someone (hint, hint) can get some photos posted here of this debasement while it’s happening. A truly shocking sight.
Hey saps… I took the hint and got over to the theater site today. Alas, it was too late to get any image that even vaguely resembles the old gal. Demolition is complete and the process of hauling away the twisted metal and debris is well underway. I uploaded a few shots anyway, showing what the area looked like as of late this afternoon.
I think I saw “Return of the Jedi” here in 1983. I might be wrong about that, it could have been the Sunrise, though.
I loved this theater. It’s a shame that it’s no longer there. :( It certainly had more of an ‘'authentic’‘ movie theater feel than the larger rowdy ghetto movie theater (with the metal detectors mind you) at Green Acres. Now, in it’s place is a disgusting Olive Garden. I don’t know who in their right mind(s) would ever eat there. It sucks! Plus, people always seem to get sick when they eat Olive Gardens in general. I wouldn’t be caught dead there!
Paktype, I think “Return of the Jedi” played the Sunrise Cinemas multiplex down the road. In 70mm, too, if I recall. Trying to remember what summer flick I may have seen at Green Acres that year… Maybe “Wargames?” That played here for sure that year. And I recall seeing “The Right Stuff” here, too, but I’m not sure when exactly that came out.
This was my hometown theater. Sad to have seen it go.