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 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.
Contributed by
kitty
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Recent comments (view all 32 comments)
I recently visited this theatre (Feb 2015) I found it to be a very enjoyable experience. They actually sell beers along with the popcorn etc. The lobby is very clean as well as the bathrooms. The theatre has two levels, I went for the balcony and it was great. Not really the traditional balcony “way up there” but good. Seats were comfortable with plenty of legroom. The picture and the sound were very good. See the pictures I took outside (at night) and at the end of the picture.
So it isn’t used as a regional theater anymore.
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?
Based on previous commentary, the chronology was Wometco->Theater Acquisitions Inc.–>Cobb->Regal. I think Theater Acquisitions tenure was relatively short and Cobb took over sometime around 1993 or so if memory serves. I would be surprised if these folks were leasing the property from Wometco. Either way, the last 8 to 9 years of its 1968-2002 history was not under the auspices of Wometco.