Center Cinemas
42-17 Queens Boulevard,
Sunnyside,
NY
11104
42-17 Queens Boulevard,
Sunnyside,
NY
11104
2 people
favorited this theater
Small neighborhood house has withstood the test of time. Originally twinned down the middle in the eighties. Then one of the sides was cut in half to make it a triplex. Then space was created in the basement for cinemas 4-5-6. The theatres are small but the great Queens Boulevard location gives it plenty of exposure. Once upon a time it played second run double features but now its all first run.
Contributed by
RobertR
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Recent comments (view all 25 comments)
I have just recently moved to Queens after 20 years in Manhattan. During the 80’s I still was able to go to all of the great declining glory of 42nd street, all the revival houses, the few art-house screens. And of course, I saw them all go. So, I resisted going to the Center for the first 4 months that I lived here. It looked dingy and cheap. But, as a lover of movies, once I settled down in my seat with a little popcorn, I was happy to have the Center around the corner. Dingy and cramped though it may be, the sound is good, the price can’t be beat, and I was glad to learn that Sullivan’s Travels was the first film to play there, that knowledge courtesy of this website. There is a lot to be said for these old places, that were never grand in the first place, that never fell to a wrecking ball or another chain store or flea market.
does anyone know the capacities of each screen and does any have digital sound
3 theaters upstairs have DTS. The other upstairs theater has Dolby Digital EX. The downstairs theater has analog stereo.
OPERATOR ACQUIRES QUEENS TAXPAYER; Theatre in Sunnyside Building Leased Back by Seller
NY Times June 8, 1951
Maxwell Low, operator, has purchased the Center Theatre property at the northeast corner of Queens Boulevard and Forty-third Street, in Sunnyside, Queens, from the Squire-Queens Corporation, which took back a long-term lease on the theatre. Fans Wolper, Inc., were the brokers.
Francis Ford Coppola mentions seeing “The Thief of Bagdhad'‘ (1940) and other Alexandra Korda productions, as well as Universal productions including Abbott and Costello movies, in a commentary track for the new Criterion Collection DVD of "Thief of Baghdad.’'
What is the connection between the Center Theatre and Francis Ford Coppola? Did he attend the Center Theatre in his youth?
Here is a 2008 exterior view and this is one of the auditoriums.
When you check movie listing sites such as Box Office Mojo, it lists the Center Cinemas as a five screen theater. Is the screen count five or six?
This is a July 2008 photo.
The marquee is falling apart and there is terrible graffiti on the wall above it. I don’t know how the interior is but the outside looks really bad.