Cedar Grove movie theater closes after 12 years

The articles are in error when they indicate the theater is twelve years old; that is probably only the length of Clearview’s management. The theater was originally a single screen that showed 70mm features in the 1970s, making this theater at least forty years old.

Losing the lease was a big deal. This theater was one of the first in NJ to show 70mm films like Star Wars before getting cut into 5 screens. Yet another former 70mm cinema bites the dust.

Same for the clairidge, even though it still shows great indie films but has crappy projection and sound. The allwood should be closed too because it doesn’t have the 3D of say clifton commons. The Wayne quad and Kinnelon theaters are ok because they have 3d, and so is Morristown except Madison and Chester, both of which don’t have 3D.

This cinema opened on November 23, 1969. It died May 11, 2010. For 20+ years it showed movies in 70mm before showing 35mm movies. It was retrofitted on December 23, 1977 with Dolby Stereo 70mm for a rerelease of Star Wars, which was the most popular movie of that year. Clearview bought the theater in 1998 back when Cablevision was buying the chain. With Cablevision, its Optimum Rewards program allowed moviegoers to see a movie for free on Tuesday nights. The last day that this happened was the day before the theater closed down on May 12.

As awkward as the Clairidge is it has gotten better since the remodel, but it still does very well and sold out shows aren’t uncommon on the weekends, the weekdays are slower but depending on the show they still pull a healthy amount of business, I doubt it will close and if it ever did I bet another chain would snap it up quickly (Bow Tie or Landmark would be good fits).

The Screening Zone they told me had many equipment problems (as well as poor projection, it was retrofitted from a bank into a theater by its prior owners), while I saw many a great film there I had a few unwatchable experiences (often they’d have to call the projectionist to come down from the Clairidge to help fix an issue). I have many a happy memory from the summer of 2000 seeing great indie flicks in Montclair – stuff that today would never play at the Clairidge, at that time Montclair had 11 screens: the more commercial stuff played at the Clairidge, the indies and foreign films played at Screening Zone, and mostly foreign films from micro distributers and the occasional big Hollywood film played at the Wellmont. SOPAC was originally going to trend more towards art films and they occasionally surprise (last thing I saw there was the anthology film Tokyo!).

The opening film was Woody Allen’s “Take the Money and Run” in 35mm on Nov. 23 1969.

I looked in the door tonight and see that they have started to ‘dismantle’ the place. The chrome mouth piece’s and ticket pass thru window’s of both box office windows have been removed, the lighted poster display frames in the lobby have been removed along with the candy/soda counters.

The article, PB, is in error because of its headline and because the opening line states explicitly, “After 12 years in the community, the only movie theater serving Cedar Grove and Verona has gone out of business.” The theater has been “in the community” for over forty years. The writer apparently assumed that Clearview’s recorded announcement referring to the “past twelve years” indicated how long the theater had existed since its opening; he should have done more research.

Here;s a follow-up article; apparently the landlord is now looking for another theater operator even though Clearview packed up just about anything that could be removed: View link

I agree, but it’d be nice if someone could come in and challenge Clearview and AMC, it would have to be a local operator. I wonder if Community Theaters which opened the excellent theater in Center City has any aspirations to branch out.