163rd Street & Patio Theatre

1245 NE 163rd Street,
North Miami Beach, FL 33162

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Showing 1 - 25 of 33 comments

rivest266
rivest266 on March 18, 2020 at 4:33 pm

Closed at the end of April 1994.

rivest266
rivest266 on February 15, 2020 at 6:37 pm

This theatre was split into two screens and the Patio theatre became cinema no. 3 on July 3rd, 1981. Grand opening ad posted.

rivest266
rivest266 on January 27, 2020 at 6:40 pm

Opened September 28th, 1960

Ripshin
Ripshin on December 25, 2017 at 12:04 pm

So, Linda Gray actually did the poster?

MSC77
MSC77 on December 22, 2017 at 4:17 pm

“The Graduate” opened here fifty years ago today. The film went on to play a successful four months while playing concurrent in a few other area venues. And to commemorate the classic film’s golden anniversary, here’s a new retrospective article which includes some exhibition history (and other) details.

dblatt01
dblatt01 on June 21, 2014 at 4:35 pm

I Just posted a Photo of Wometco’s 163 rd Street and Patio Theatres. I Did This Marquee in 1980 for their Holiday Attractions.

elric300
elric300 on May 25, 2013 at 12:22 am

The 163rd St. was a single screen until it twinned around 1983. Yes, The Patio screen was completely separate. It had 850 seats. both sides had 70mm capability. In fact, during the end of RETURN OF THE JEDI’s run, an attempt was made to run the 70mm print in one of the now 300 seat sides, since the projector had been left upstairs during the twinning. It…did not go well. We would often get 70mm exclusives before the other theaters.

jdoc001
jdoc001 on May 17, 2013 at 3:01 am

it was demolished and became a home depot

rivest266
rivest266 on October 23, 2011 at 1:16 pm

I have uploaded some ads and a picture of this theatre.

Kieranx
Kieranx on May 28, 2010 at 6:34 pm

Loved this theater. When I was a teen-aged mall rat in the early-mid ‘80s, I used to take the bus to N. Miami and hang out, shop and go see movies at these cavernous barns of a theater. Saw Class, Brainstorm, Easy Money, The Mel Gibson version of The Bounty, Hannah & Her Sisters, Ruthless People and Aliens before I moved out of the area. It was really an event to go to this theater.

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on March 1, 2010 at 7:56 am

“So what’s the story?”

It was big hit at the time.

The Patio had a separate boxoffice and entrance. When the theatre was tripled, the main boxoffice sold all tickets but the Patio (screen # 3), still had a separate doorman. Wometco did a nice job twinning their main screens. They were not sloppy rush jobs like General Cinema did in Florida.

Ripshin
Ripshin on February 28, 2010 at 11:23 pm

Did the “Patio” have a separate entrance? I finally saw that “Lovers and Other Strangers” on TCM – hated it. Would probably be a PG13 today.

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on February 28, 2010 at 5:03 pm

Bea Auther was in the openeing movie,Arrrrggggg!

rivest266
rivest266 on January 19, 2010 at 5:44 am

Patio grand opening ad October 29th, 1970 at View link

rivest266
rivest266 on January 17, 2010 at 3:05 pm

Article with picture September 25th, 1960 View link

Grand opening ad View link

hittman305
hittman305 on September 23, 2009 at 4:28 pm

I saw Nightmare on elm street 2 there as a kid. I dont think the neighborhhod suffered from “west indian” folks. i think it was the hatins, and the other blacks. they destroyed that area. Now it is a walmart, and a home depot in its place.

Ripshin
Ripshin on March 30, 2009 at 6:18 pm

Yep, remember “Oliver!” there. Again, we never went to Miami Beach/Bay Harbor. “The Bible: In the Beginning” had a big rerelease showing at Dadeland – I know it wasn’t the initial 1966 release – wasn’t in Miami then. In 83, I stood in line five hours for “Return of the Jedi” – number five in line. Unfortunately, it was with a bunch of sci-fi nerds in costume – I hid from the news cameras.

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on March 30, 2009 at 3:13 pm

The Dadeland Twin ran “FUNNY GIRL” and “OLIVER!” on roadshow although they were added runs after both had played a while in Miami Beach/Bay Harbor.

Ripshin
Ripshin on March 30, 2009 at 1:52 pm

I attended a few roadshows at Dadeland Twin in the late 60s. I’ll check out Sunny Isles – to a mere six year-old, all I remember was 163rd Street – it was Siberia to a kid who rarely traversed north of the airport (except Westland). In college, though, it was indeed the 163rd Street Theater where I say “Eddie…”

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on March 30, 2009 at 8:55 am

This theatre opened in 1960 with the exclusive South Florida roadshow engagement of “SPARTACUS”. The run was a failure and Wometco refused to book roadshows for several years at any of its theatres as a result.

Ripshin, that “CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG” roadshow actually ran on both screens of the nearby SUNNY ISLES TWIN further down 163rd Street. It had staggered showtimes there.

Roadshows eventually settled back on South Beach where they always did best with the tourists keeping them going for months, sometimes years.

Ripshin
Ripshin on March 30, 2009 at 1:15 am

I only went here twice, as we lived down in the Fairlawn area (Flagler & Red), and it was too far. My family saw the roadshow engagement of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (with Intermission) in 68, then while attending UM, I caught “Eddie and the Cruisers” in 1983. It was definitely a triple by then.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on January 6, 2009 at 8:13 pm

This is from Boxoffice magazine in April 1962:

Members of CORE staged a 40-minute demonstration April 3 at Wometco’s 163rd Street Theater in the 163rd Street shopping center. The Committee of Racial Equality sent some 30 Negroes to the box office to purchase tickets. When they were refused, the demonstrators formed a revolving line which continued the requests until the ticket window closed for the night.