Rockville Centre Cinema
340 Sunrise Highway,
Rockville Centre,
NY
11570
340 Sunrise Highway,
Rockville Centre,
NY
11570
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 112 comments found
Many theatres never did weekday matinees. In the day Century always had continuous performances from 1PM. In the end this policy was abandoned and matinees were only on weekends. The Regal multiplex in Ronkonkoma doesn’t do matinees. I don’t imagine too many theatres do.
From my childhood days, many years ago, I remember that Prudential, which pretty much ruled Suffolk County didn’t do weekday matinees except in the Summer if it was raining. I always thought that was interesting.
This theatre was making money until it closed but AMC would not continue to operate a twin. The only competition is the 5 screen Fantasy. The problem is the bank owns the building and wants so much money to take it over. They only allow matiness on Sat & Sun because they share the parking lot. I guess its more profitable for them to let it sit empty 6 years then to lower the rent.
Still very surprised this property is still available. I still think it would be kind of neat to have someone independently fix it up and make it a theater again. However, I am not sure a twin theater can really be profitable anymore.
Great image. Looks like pretty much every building in that photo has been replaced, with the exception of the structure on the far right along the same block front as the TSS. I believe that is where Kollner Prime Meats is located today.
http://cdm15281.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15281coll32/id/37/rec/229
Years before this theater closed, my Mother told me that it had been a TSS (Time Square Stores). I found it interesting that a store would close and be replaced by a movie theater. Nowadays, it’s the other way around. The link in this post shows the TSS store circa 1940 and it is right where this theater used to be.
I can’t believe this place is still sitting empty.
Would love to see someone buy it, fix it up and run the theater as an independent owner.
To see this building on Google maps, use 394 Sunrise Highway as the address. At the time the Google photo was taken, the building was empty and available.
To longislandmovies, The building is still there. Still with a for lease sign on it. I don’t think the inside has been touched. Last I heard the owner of the property wanted too much rent to make it work for an operator.
What is there now???
The year given for this photo of the RKO Twin is 1986.
Its funny how this theatre was an RKO from the start, and yet was built similar to many Jery Lewis theatres from the early 70’s. I remember the twin my late father worked at in Carteret N.J. The left theatre was blue and the right theatre was red. The concession stand was built right across the lobby, so there was no way to cross from one side to the other. This was helpful later in the decade after JL was out of the business and the theatre started showing soft porn in the blue theatre (which they called the adult side, the other theatre was the family side.) It finally closed in 1984, but man that place was fun, alot like your sounded like.
I am sorry to see that this theatre is closed. I would take my GF there after going to Time Piece Cafe for dinner. I seem to recall it was always busy on Fri and Sat nights. I would try to time dinner with enough time to eat and not have to rush for the movie. I liked it because you could not only see the movies but hear them as well. If I had seen the movie playing there I would go to the Green Acres or Sunrise multiplex that was before they put the airport metal detectors in there.
Any news on this???????
i DID COME AROUND THE SAME TIME..
someone asked me about this..i remember it…didn’t
this twin come about the same time as west babylon rko twin?
what is around it now?
Nice little twin, saw a lot of movies here when I was kid with my dad.
I saw:
The Goonies-1985
Spaceballs-1987
Who Frammed Roger Rabbit-1988
Lethal Weapon 2-1989
Saw much more, but this is what I remember. I do recall going downstairs to the bathroom. A shame it had to shutdown, it would have been nice to go back to see a shot there to relive my childhood.
I saw that they were closed a few months back for an asbestos cleaning .Nice shots!
Ed nice shots ………….love to see this back ……..i wish i still lived on longisland……..
Swung by the theater today with my camera, which I pressed up against the filthy glass front of the theater to get these shots into the lobby (and even one of the theater doors):
Through the doors of the “blue” auditorium
Right side of refreshment stand
Head-on refreshment stand
Box Office window
Made in Brooklyn
Four adults for the 7:30 showing of Blow Out, please
Right (blue) side of lobby
A ghostly view through the doors
What is that metallic object in the distance?
Under the canopy
Exclusive Agent
Looks like they unceremoniously ripped out all the light fixtures and the entire drop ceiling (grid, panels and all) from the lobby. At least one pane of glass is cracked in a large shatter pattern (but it hasn’t broken to shards) and the windows could definitely use a wash, but overall this seems to be in pretty good shape. Anyone know what the shiny metallic looking square is at the end of the aisle in the photos into the right auditorium? Looks like this is where the screen should be – could it be part of the speaker system?
Anyway… I saw many movies here in the early ‘80’s when I lived in relatively nearby Laurelton, Queens. The only one that comes to mind after all these years is Brian DePalma’s “Blow Out” back in 1981. I think I also saw David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” here – but that might have been the RKO in Lawrence.
Both theaters were single aisle down the center, so you always sat to one side or the other of the dead center sweet-spot a lot of folks loved. And at matinees, if someone opened the door to the lobby, the image on screen would get partially washed out by sunlight streaming through the mostly-glass facade! Now that I’m thinking of it, I’m trying to remember if this theater placed the aisle slightly off center so that one section was a bit wider than the other and would therefore offer a center-screen sightline for those who could get those seats early enough. I might be thinking of one of those auditoriums formed by the split of a larger single screen (like the Lynbrook) – it’s all rather fuzzy nowadays!
I’ll echo some of the sentiments above on what a great little village RVC is. Great restaurants in a hopping little business district that is always clean and brightly lit. I’ve never had a problem with parking – a lot of some kind always seems to be within walking distance of wherever your headed. There is a lot behind the Fantasy multiplex, another across Sunrise Hwy and yet another behind the storefronts that are on the other side of the street from the Fantasy. As for not being able to park in front of your own house – part of living in an incorporated village on Long Island is that you have to move your cars off the street and into your driveway (which everyone has) between the hours of 3AM and 5AM. Residents of apartment complexes can either rent spaces in their complex' lot or park at nearby Village lots with permits or cheap overnight metered rates (a dollar for 12 hours is not uncommon).
i looked into this place a while back. the rent was so high. i would love to see it re-opened rather than sitting around or becoming some ugly storefront.
Anyone interested in forming a coalition to help turn this theater into a community cultural arts center that would show independent movies as well as develop other art and dramatic programs, please e-mail me
posted by scrivenerb on Jul 24, 2007 at 12:36pm
Not the greatest twin cinemas in creation, but the loss of any is still a blow to the heart.
Interesting. I actually met with the realtor today and saw the building. He didn’t mention anything about that and the architectural plans he gave me gave me the impression that they were also trying to pitch it as a retail space.
I’ve written to some local government officials and they seem interested in the cultural arts center idea.
Well at least it would be kept as a movie theater if a cineplex took it over and it wouldn’t be a chain store. Please let me know if you hear anything else.