O Cinema Miami Beach
500 71st Street,
Miami Beach,
FL
33140
500 71st Street,
Miami Beach,
FL
33140
6 people
favorited this theater
The Byron-Carlyle Twin Theatre opened December 18, 1968, with 590 seats in the Byron auditorium and 993 seats in the Carlyle auditorium. The opening film was the World Premiere presentation of “Skidoo”, attended by Jackie Gleason, Tiny Tim and Otto Preminger. It was multiplexed in the mid-1970’s. It was closed in 2002 and acquired by the City of Miami Beach from Wometco.
Today, the renovated theater functions as a playhouse. It is using a single auditorium which seats a total of 304 (152 in the orchestra and 138 in the mezzanine) obviously using just one of the former screens.
It was taken over by O Cinema in 2014. It had closed by 2019.
Contributed by
kitty
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Recent comments (view all 34 comments)
It ceased being a playhouse about a year or two back. O Cinemas took over last year and it is now a single screen venue. Sometime in the early 70s, it was split into three screens and then in 1986-1987 it became the Byron Carlyle 7. Does anyone have a photo of the marquee in the 70s or 80s? The “new” nautical marquee installed sometime in the 90s leaves something to be desired.
New official web site.
The color scheme has been changed on the marquee from the mustard orange hue seen in photos to a shocking pink within the last several weeks. It was originally a shade of blue when the marquee was redesigned in the 1990s.
CMB and O Cinema are squabbling over their 5 year agreement. Also, a shot of the new pink paintjob.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article205132174.html
By the by, in the summary written up top, I don’t believe Wometco was the final owner before the city took over the property in the early 2000’s. I think Cobb owned it among others. Wometco sold the Byron at some point in the 1990’s.
Regal operated it when it was sold in 1999 and then closed in 2000. Wometco probably still owned the property.
Does the O in O Cinema stand for anything?
Two bids for redevelopment of the Byron/O. If the bids are accepted, it looks like the end is likely near for this venue.
https://www.remiamibeach.com/north-beach/two-bids-to-redevelop-byron-carlyle-theater/
This Miami Herald article about O Cinema having taken over the Miami Beach Cinematheque, says this location will close at the end of October because the city will not renew a lease for a building that needs to be recertified since it is more than 50 years old:
“The Next O Cinema is Opening At a South Beach Location Already Beloved by Film Fans“
It also says the property may be redeveloped into something that is required to include ten thousand square feet of cultural space that might house a new O Cinema.
Miami New Times article:
“O Cinema Cofounder Kareem Tabsch on Expanding to South Beach After Leaving Wynwood”
The O Cinema website no longer lists North Beach (called Miami Beach on the site before they opened South Beach) as a location, meaning this O Cinema is closed, leaving South Beach (the former Miami Beach Cinematheque) as the only O Cinema for the time being.
So for now Miami-Dade County has 4 art cinemas left, down from 7 a couple years ago. Those remaining are: Coral Gables Art Cinema, Bill Cosford Cinema (on the University of Miami campus), Tower Theater (on 8th Street in the Little Havana neighborhood), and O Cinema South Beach.
Also here’s a webpage regarding art film screenings at various locations around South Florida that might be useful:
https://www.miamiartguide.com/category/cinema-1/