Kew Gardens Cinemas
81-05 Lefferts Boulevard,
Kew Gardens,
NY
11415
81-05 Lefferts Boulevard,
Kew Gardens,
NY
11415
17 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 113 comments
Nice photos ridethetrain. I wonder what the seating capacity was when it was a single screen theatre.
Please update, the six screen opened July 20, 2007
Just posted photos from my collection of each screen and the layout of the theatre
Total seats 677
Please update, the Kew Gardens Cinemas open on April 24, 1999 as a five plex. Theatre 1 was not stadium seating when the theatre open, he converted it to s tadium seating in 2002-2003.
In response to zoetmb’s comment, the LIRR announced recently they’re actually going to repair the bridge’s platform structures and the work is supposed to be over by the end of 2019. What this means for the theatre remains to be seen. I agree with your point about elderly patrons, but that also depends on when you go. I live right around the corner and go a lot at night, when it’s a younger crowd.
The addition on the roof is to hold solar panels. And the big screen is not #1 – I forget what it is – it might be #3. It is six screens – you can easily see that by looking at the show times . The sound in the theaters is pretty good, but @thebrat is correct that the middle aisles in all but the big screen are pretty bad. Also, the big screen suffers from parallax distortion. When I saw “Darkest Hour” there on one of the smaller screens, the left channel was missing. I do like seeing arty films there, but for bigger films, I go to a better theater in Manhattan.
One thing I don’t like about the theater is that the elderly audience who patronizes it always has someone who lets their phone ring and doesn’t know how to shut it off and they also tend to talk a lot during the film. They’re worse than the kids.
The MTA is threatening to tear down the bridge and isn’t renewing leases on the stores. This theater isn’t quite over the bridge, but anyone know if that construction is going to negatively impact the theater?
When it was an adult cinema, it was operated by the same people who also operated the Polk in Queens, the Deluxe and Cinema Kings Highway, the Mayfair and several in central New Jersey.
Underrated complex. The middle aisles are deplorable but considering its age, it’s doable. The Stage Accompany sound system is really the unsung hero with their ribbon driver speakers. DLP systems look great too.
Google street view shows some type of addition over the roof as of October 2014. Link would not post correctly.
Photo from adult era added.
1956 photo added courtesy of AmeriCar The Beautiful Facebook page.
Just added a 1970’s pic as the Austin in the Photo’s Section courtesy of Robert’s World Facebook page.
Just a little update. The vacant drug store, alas, was never incorporated into the Kew Gardens. A new store now occupies that site.
I remember thatwhen it was the Austin back in the 60’s 70’s they play similar stuff with the Mayfair in Fresh Meadows. Did they both had the same owner?
United Artists never owned or operated the Austin Theatre as described in the overview. The person who wrote it might have mistaken it for the Continental theatre in Forest Hills for a short time. UA also operated the Midway and the Forest Hills Theatre.
Did they add a six screen, I rember it was five 3 downstairs and two upstairs. Where is screen 6 located and how many seats and when did it open. Did the other screen lose seats
Just spent an enjoyable evening seeing “The Descendants” at the Kew Gardens. (A very fine film – but not in the same class as either “Midnight in Paris” or “The Artist”. Clooney, however, was terrific.) The place was packed, which is a tribute to the management’s excellent picture selection – and the sophisticated tastes of the local residents ……. While there, I asked a couple of employees about the theater’s possible expansion into the old drug store. While one worker did not have a clue, the other one confirmed that some thought had been given to it, but that nothing firm has, to date, emerged. So, stay tuned. (Wouldn’t it be great to see a drug store turned into a movie theater!!)
LuisV, given the number of people who jammed the Kew Gardens yesterday evening, I hope you are correct about the possible incorporation of the pharmacy site. At the very least, it would provide some additional and badly needed lobby space – and perhaps an additional screen …….. robboehm, I too have been to Florence and can attest that the Ponte Vecchio does open up at the middle of the Arno to provide a beautiful river view. A bronze bust of Benvenueto Cellini, originally donated by the metal workers of Florence, is situated on the west side; while the famous Vasari Corridor spans the entire east side, about one floor up, the ground floor also opens up at the center to provide a river view as well as a spectacular panorama of the hills situated further east.
Firstly, I thought this theatre was on Austin not Lefferts.
Secondly, shops are on both sides of the Ponte Vecchio all the way across Been there.
Just passed this theater the other day and noticed that the corner pharmacy adjacent tot eh Kew Gardens Theatre has been closed. It seems big enough to make screen number 8! Would that work? Is it possible? I need to make the time to see a movie at this theater in 2012.
Before it was a porn house ,it was a second run double feature that share billingswithe the Mayfair theater of Fresh Meadows ( now the Bombay theater)
I just noticed RickB’s recent comment. Yes, it is true that the Kew Gardens is situated on a part of a bridge that spans the tracks of the Long Island Railroad’s Main Line. In fact, the sound of the trains rumbling below us provided some unplanned sound effects during tonight’s movie. I am told that the this bridge was patterned after the famous Ponte Vecchio in Florence Italy, where shops – for the most part – are situated on both sides of the bridge and, thus, block one’s view of the Arno. The major difference here is that no shops were constructed at the center of the Ponte Vecchio, while the line of stores exist over the entire course of the Kew Gardens bridge. Again, Happy New Year!
I just spent a wonderful time helping to close out the old year at this wonderful theater. We very much enjoyed the film that we saw – The Artist – and I strongly recommed it. But the big news was the huge number of people who turned out to see a movie here this evening. I have never seen the place so packed. (Certainly the films presented, which included The Descendents; Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy; A Dangerous Method; Hugo – in 3D no less; and My Week With Marilyn contributed to attracting the huge throng – and reflects the Kew Gardens' excellent program selection policy.)It was really great to end the year on so happy a cinematic note!
According to this page at Forgotten New York the theater is actually built on a bridge over railroad tracks, although it looks like a typical commercial street. (There are pictures about a third of the way down the page, but they don’t show the theater closely enough.)