AMC Rockaway Inner 6/Outer 6
301 Mount Hope Avenue,
Rockaway,
NJ
07866
301 Mount Hope Avenue,
Rockaway,
NJ
07866
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It was replaced by a new 16 screen theater in 2006.
Next month will be 40 years since the Outers opened.
Also “what made it great” for me was the architecture / style of theaters built in the late 1970s, by AMC.
Granted the Outers had a remodeling in 1994 I think (maybe 1993? I didn’t start working there until May 1995 / opening day of Braveheart), but the inners looked the same until their closing day in August 1998.
In 1977, 1980 It was state of the art, remember AMC was the investor of the newest movie experiance.
I remember seeing the original Star Wars for the 1997 re-release at the Outer Theater. Great experience.
25 years ago today, The Lion King was released and became the biggest animated 2d cartoon of all time. It would get a reissue in the fall holiday season in order to qualify for the oscars, which it did and won some awards.
On this date 20 years ago, The Phantom Menace came out to record crowds at this theater. Back then, reserved seating was not a thing.
Most of the seats in each complex were sloped seating, unlike the stadium seating that its successor has.
Were the screens at this theater bigger or the same size as the successor theater near route 80?
15 years ago this year the Best Buy opened where the outers used to be and has done good business even with Amazon ruling the roost.
20 years ago this year the inner 6 was closed and replaced by FYE which became forever 21.
It was at these theaters that employees started to inform moviegoers about the moviewatcher rewards program around the 1990s. Advance tickets became the norm .
40 years ago this weekend the mall was opened. Construction on the inners would take awhile before it finally opened and became the first AMC theater in north jersey to open.
During the star wars reissue in 1979, the inners had dolby stereo. This reissue featured the teaser trailer to Empire Strikes Back.
Later this month will be 15 years since the Outers were closed, leaving Rockaway without a a movie theater for more than four years until AMC returned to rockaway big time. I miss those twilight specials.
When did Star Wars A New Hope first play at the inners? I know when the outers opened they had a reissue of the original Star Wars in Dolby Stereo followed by Empire before Jedi came out, the latter would be shown again in 1985 before the special editions arrived in 1997 in digital surround sound. By 1998, the inners were closed, so Episode I and II played at the outers to moderate success. The last major blockbuster to play in the outers was Spider-Man before they shut their doors in June nearly 15 years ago. This left North Jersey with the AMC in Clifton Commons, Bridgewater, and Essex Green as the only AMCs in that area, with the AMC Empire 25 the closest and only true AMC theater in the NYC area.
The outers had two screens with Dolby Stereo when it opened in 1981. It was also the far superior theater compared to the inners.
Back then it was crazy for a 12 screener to be operated by AMC although it was two separate buildings with some movies opening on two or more screens in order to fulfill demand.
12 screens on February 6th, 1981. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
This opened as the AMC Rockaway 6 on November 2nd, 1977. Grand opening ad in the photo section. This marks the entry into the New York City area for AMC.
Did employees have to transfer from the inners to the outers during peak and non peak hours? Must’ve been a drive between the locations. Thankfully when AMC returned to Rockaway they managed it nicely.
The outers (screens 7-12) had 2 screen sizes. Houses 7,8,11,12 were all the same size. But screens 7 and 12 sat 335, 8 and 11 sat 300, and screens 9 and 10 sat 160.
The inners I think had 2 screen sizes but honestly I’m not sure as I worked almost exclusively at the outers. I’m not sure of their seating as well either (only worked box office over there a few times).
Which of the 12 screens were the largest in each complex (6 screens)?
I agree. Even though most of the mall culture is focused on shopping online, there are a few places that attract these shoppers such as the food court and restaurants as well as the big stores with stuff for people to try out, not to mention a hotel as well as a health pavillion.
I wish I had photos from inside the mall itself or in a packed auditorium here from the 80s. (I see that there are a ton of videos from Paramus HS from the 80s posted on youtube that show what it looked like in the local HS in Northwestern NJ though at least.)
(I have to say people looked a lot less dingy and grim looking than when you walk around the Rockaway mall today haha. Today, it’s like at least 85% nothing but hipsters, faux gangsters and grunge…. so it’s awfully drab and grim compared to the 80s. In fact, it hasn’t really changed much at all in that regard since the early late 90s, going on almost 20 years now.
The 80s styles held on a long time at Rockaway and I’d say the Rockaway and Willobrook Malls were basically as fully prototypical 80s as any place in the country, I think the mallrat started at these malls and the foot traffic is still at least somewhat relatively decent here still (maybe that’s why when they bring the 80s movies back at the current theater they seem to do way better business here than say at the Paramus AMC despite that being #1 for business theater in the region AFAIK), but I think the colors, styles, big hair and so on finally gave away to grunge and gangster hip-hop even here by around something like ‘95-'97 depending upon what exactly you are talking about. The Rockaway Mall stills gets relatively decent traffic though unlike a lot of other places where the mall culture seems to have totally died out.)