Islip Cinemas

410 W. Main Street,
Islip, NY 11751

Unfavorite 4 people favorited this theater

Showing 1 - 25 of 192 comments

robboehm
robboehm on January 29, 2023 at 9:15 pm

Joe- Probably just as well. The theatre wasn’t air conditioned and there was some sort of remediation which needed to be done which would have cost $150,000.00.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 29, 2023 at 7:23 pm

This cinema has been permanently closed. Owners of the property have applied for a zoning change and a permit to convert the structure to apartments and retail space.

Moviefan333
Moviefan333 on January 28, 2023 at 11:38 pm

This is very discouraging this Theatre has not reopened. It was a really good place to go see Movies a very nice independent theater in Islip New York. Friendly staff good popcorn I hope it reopens again soon

ridethectrain
ridethectrain on December 17, 2021 at 2:12 pm

Please update, theatre closed, hasn’t reopened since the shutdown.

ridethectrain
ridethectrain on June 15, 2021 at 7:19 pm

Please update, became a triplex on December 24, 1980, No Grand Opening ad

ridethectrain
ridethectrain on June 4, 2021 at 10:38 pm

Cineplex Odeon took control on August 11, 1989, after they merge with Loews went back indie

robboehm
robboehm on June 2, 2021 at 10:01 pm

Phone is not in service. Not a good sign.

rivest266
rivest266 on June 1, 2021 at 7:10 pm

Better grand opening ad posted.

robboehm
robboehm on March 17, 2021 at 9:41 pm

Thanks ridethectrain.

ridethectrain
ridethectrain on March 17, 2021 at 9:00 pm

robboehm Just uploaded a Suffolk Cineplex Odeon ad showing ownership of the theatre, see photos

robboehm
robboehm on March 17, 2021 at 6:43 pm

ridethectrain -I know that the owners of the former Jackson Heights Cinemas purchased the Islip but I don’t recall that Cineplex Odeon was ever involved.

ridethectrain
ridethectrain on March 16, 2021 at 8:54 pm

Please add previous owners: Cineplex Odeon

rivest266
rivest266 on October 21, 2020 at 5:01 pm

The Prudential Islip theatre opened on April 5th, 1947. Grand opening ad already posted.

paul baar
paul baar on May 23, 2017 at 2:30 pm

I WENT TO THIS THEATER IN THE “60’S” ONCE.I SAW A DOUBLE-FEATURE FRANK SINATRA in"ASSAULT ON A QUEEN",and DEAN MARTIN in MATT HELMS’s"MURDERS ROW",BOY DO I MISS DOUBLE FEATURES.

robboehm
robboehm on June 30, 2013 at 1:36 pm

Didn’t find any listing in the newspaper show times or on Fandango so drove by. It’s open as the Islip Cinemas. They don’t have a webpage but are on Facebook. Contrary to originally published reports prices are not super cheap. 2D is $7.50; 3D is $10.50. Lobby is gray with a white tray ceiling.

robboehm
robboehm on June 20, 2013 at 10:20 am

Good. Have to give it a try. Now all we need is for the grand opening of the Westbury, the Sandy ravaged Long Beach and the Glen Cove negotiations and all will be back online.

Bordick
Bordick on June 20, 2013 at 12:35 am

Grand Re-opening tomorrow, 6/20/13

wally 75
wally 75 on May 31, 2013 at 1:59 am

Work is on going..my mom would be proud…good job.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on May 25, 2013 at 9:41 pm

Still closed as of this week. Here’s the direct link and here’s the text of Wally’s post:

The aroma of hot buttered popcorn will soon be wafting through the long-shuttered Islip Theater.

The circa-1946 venue on Islip’s Main Street, closed since 2006, could be playing first-run movies by mid-March, through a planned remake of the community touchstone.

Rudy Prashad, who owns two theaters in Queens, has signed a long-term lease to operate the three-screen theater, which seats about 900. He’s spending $500,000 on renovations to the interior, including paint, carpeting and new seating. The theater will be outfitted with new digital projectors for Real-D — the latest in 3-D technology.

“I love the area, it’s a beautiful, beautiful neighborhood,” said Prashad, who operates the Center Cinema in Sunnyside and Main Street Cinemas in Kew Gardens. “I just want to keep it as a neighborhood movie theater.”

The theater was once the pulse of Islip’s entertainment district, with patrons lining up to buy tickets at a marble box-office. In 1982, the single theater was turned into a three-screen movie house; and in 2006, with increasing competition from mega cineplexes, it closed.

James Nazzaro, a real estate investor who bought the closed theater at auction in 2006, has tried since then to lease the property. Several deals — which would have turned the venue into a day care center or a symphony hall — fell through.

In 2009, Nazzaro withdrew an application before the town’s Planning Board to demolish the building and build a day care center.

“For six years, I’ve been painstakingly trying to find the right tenant,” said Nazzaro, of the Bay Shore-based Nazzaro Group Llc. “It’s just really gratifying to see it come to fruition.”

When Suffolk County Legis. Tom Cilmi (R-Bay Shore) posted news on his Facebook page earlier this month that the theater was set to reopen, the message garnered more than 600 likes.

“It’s a tremendous shot in the arm for the community,” Cilmi said. “Main Street in Islip has always enjoyed the community’s support. We have a pretty successfully cohesive area in the Islip hamlet. This missing piece has always been like a blemish on our community. Now that blemish will be healed.”

Prashad, who lives in Great Neck, said he has been greeted warmly as he has supervised crews working on the renovations. “We will have passersby knock on the glass door and say, ‘What are you guys doing? Is this going to be a movie theater?’ They’re very excited.”

Prashad said he anticipates keeping prices “very low,” – in the range of $2 less than the average movie ticket — and that free municipal parking will be available.

“I want to attract neighborhood folks,” he said. “There’s no reason for people to have to go far … to go to the movies. They should be able to walk and drive a close distance and enjoy a movie with their family.”

wally 75
wally 75 on February 5, 2013 at 11:20 pm

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/towns/islip-theater-gets-remake-to-reopen-mid-march-1.4537207

guitarpixistar
guitarpixistar on March 30, 2012 at 11:22 pm

I loved islip it was always reasonable and close, I pass by it all the time, and i remember seeing 40 year old virgin there and a bunch of others, sad to see it sitting vacant, deteriorating.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on July 18, 2011 at 6:06 pm

Wally: What you hit to make it big and red was the # key. Cinema Treasures is now supporting Markdown code as well as standard HTML in its comment forms. In Markdown code, the # (hash sign) placed at the beginning of a paragraph will turn the block of text following it large. I don’t see the HTML command for changing font color in the page’s source code, though, so I don’t know why it’s turning red.

If you avoid starting paragraphs with a hash sign, this won’t happen again. Hash signs are OK anywhere else in your text. Even placing a single dash in front of the hash sign when you want to use it at the beginning of a paragraph will prevent the auto-formatting program from reading the sign as Markdown code:

–# No large red type here.

wally 75
wally 75 on July 17, 2011 at 11:33 pm

ps i don’t know what i het to get red and large

wally 75
wally 75 on July 17, 2011 at 11:32 pm

It is still a triplex but when the last people wanted it to be some kind of multi- use they took the seats out of theatre 1 for live shows dance and party area..

2 has seats also balcony in best shape, they did a few plays there..New ac but, how it was explained to me was to get water from the underground stream and pulled up sand instead made a big mess in # 2…As far as the historical society…I don’t think they really care about the theatre…I go to the Islip street fair every year and when i ask them what are you doing to save the Islip? the guy said “there are many other theatres people can go to”..The small mom and pops around the town want the theatre….

robboehm
robboehm on July 17, 2011 at 9:59 pm

And, remember, it was triplexed at some point. Who knows what the interior looks like. There is also a question as to whether it was ever airconditioned. There is no real parking lot at the theatre but quite a lot on Main Street and the side streets. There is also the parking lot at the Old Town Hall, across the street which is often available in the evening.