Loews Cineplex Cinema 5
183-15 Horace Harding Boulevard,
Fresh Meadows,
NY
11365
183-15 Horace Harding Boulevard,
Fresh Meadows,
NY
11365
4 people
favorited this theater
Originally built in 1984 by an independent who also owned the Arion, Surfside Twin and other local houses, he converted a former Bohack supermarket into Cinema City 5. The theatre located on the service road of the Long Island Expressway featured a huge mural on its front of Hollywood legends like Elizabeth Taylor, Charlie Chaplin and Judy Garland. Instead of one marquee there were five small ones each containing the title of the film in that auditorium.
The theatres themselves were not first rate, being long and narrow but the place was an immediate hit. When Cineplex aquired the Century Meadows and announced plans to gut and multiplex it, the owner panicked and put it up for sale. Cineplex not wanting competition bought it. They now had 13 screens in Fresh Meadows between the two.
A few years later they re-modeled Cinema City and renamed it Cinema 5. The whole place was spruced up and given the Cineplex flair with pink neon and marble floors. The mural though had seen better days and instead of replacing it with a big sign or something flashy they painted it black.
The theater closed in 2004 and was demolished in spring of 2005.
Contributed by
Robert R
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Recent comments (view all 33 comments)
Have they built anything new on the site of the old theater here yet?
This must have had similar auditoriums as the Movieland Cinemas in Mastic, which also took a shopping center, and converted it into theaters. The theaters are pure utilitarian, with concrete block walls, etc. Strange, the usual progression is a theater being turned into retail…here we had retail converted into a theater.
This has a reputation as the worst “theatre” ever built in Queens. When the building was converted to a cinema, the exterior still resembled a supermarket. At first sight of it, I couldn’t stop laughing. Cinephiles refrained from going there because of its retail past.
The Movieland Cinemas in Mastic is just as bad:
/theaters/8564/
It’s almost a joke. It was built out of an A&P supermarket, and still has the pointy peak fascade, standard to all old A&P supermarket buildings. It’s almost humerous.
As I said, the auditoriums are pure utilitarian, ans small, and the walls are painted cement blocks. I can’t speak for the Cineplex, but it sounds like it was just as much a joke.
This and Movieworld in Douglaston were by far the worst theaters I ever had the displeasure of attending. The old Bayside Theater on Bell Boulevard ran a distant third, when it was a horrendously maintained multiplex in the ‘80’s. Somehowe, Movieworld still survives to this day.
This and Movieworld in Douglaston were by far the worst theaters I ever had the displeasure of attending. The old Bayside Theater on Bell Boulevard ran a distant third, when it was a horrendously maintained multiplex in the ‘80’s. Somehowe, Movieworld still survives to this day.
I remember going here as a child a couple of times and only because my parents were extremely young and would like to go to later showings and this always had a late viewing. As a child I loved the mural on the top of the building and would look for it when ever we were on the high way. I went to Francis Lewis High School just across the street and some times if it was open late afternoon would catch a show. Then go to Pizza Express next to it. Sadly in the mid to late 90’s when I was in school this place was a DUMP! It was not a surprise to me that this was knocked down and I did feel sad the first time I saw it was missing but that’s because everytime I turn around something from my past is being demolished. The last movie I saw there was The Sixth Sense with my mom. One thing I do remember is how Easy it was when I was a kid to sneak into the theatres my dad would take my brother and I and we would se like 3 or 4 movies for the day on our original tickets and no one ever said anything.
This was a pretty bad theater but it does hold a bit of sentimental value for me. It is where I saw Return of the Jedi for the first time. If I’m not mistaken that would mean it opened before 1984 because Jedi was released in May 1983.
No wonder there are no pictures if it was so bad.
Pics are up.