I am there practically every week since I moved into the neighborhood and the tourist element is insignificant at the movies unless you consider people from The Bronx tourists. The ‘burbs crowd also pack Red Lobster, and The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.
AMC has no down side if the IMAX projectors are free, no screens are lost, and regular films can still show in that screen. In the future if I have a choice between IMAX 3-D and 35mm I will choose the latter as I hate it when they edit the films to accommodate the format and the 3-D gimmick wears thin five minutes in, even when they keep throwing things at you as they do in BEOWULF.
If others think like me, it will soon be KISS ME KATE at Radio City Music Hall all over again.
It’s a watered down version with a much smaller screen. IMAX is going the way of Cinerama by getting less spectacular every year.
When I saw WINGS OF COURAGE in IMAX 3-D with headphone sound to augment the speakers I felt I was seeing the future of the movies. When I recently saw an edited version of HARRY POTTER with ten minutes of lame 3-D effects I felt ripped-off.
IMAX has been struggling mostly by discounting school groups. Why would tourists buy tickets to something almost every town in the world already has?
You have to wonder why they would bother. Every time I have been to Lincoln Square IMAX (the only one in Manhattan) it is empty and this is within walking distance.
When I was a kid the monster had already destroyed New York and London and Tokyo was the real target. I remember people gasping in London theatres during the final scenes of “A.I.” which depicted a shattered lower Manhattan.
I don’t mind seeing New York blown up and it has become a film language tradition for the “end of civilization” that actually compliments the city and makes it seem more important than it really is. I mean if you thought you were the last man on earth would you stay in Manhattan?
We can always ask the French to make us another statue but we can never get back our two hours after watching filmmaking from the mentally challenged Roland Emmerich.
I will check some of my old Village Voice copies to see if I can get any addresses. Does anyone know if The New York Post was the best at keeping porn ads after the 80’s sudden morality binge?
In May 1975 the Park-Miller theatre moved to 7th and 48th Street (most likely the former Avon 7). It is at this time that the Henry Miller may have become the Avon-at-the-Hudson.
Ed, the Cineplex Odeon lease included several unused office spaces floors upstairs and in surrounding buildings that dated back to the agents for the live shows.
There were also changing room upstairs accessed only by fire ladders and an elaborate octagonal waiting area for the downstairs rest rooms.
The basement alone was almost a city block and scary as hell with huge rats living there.
For those missed BWANA DEVIL in 3D, anything in smellovision or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in Sensurround. Another crap movie in a desperation presentation ripoff gimmick.
This type of crap “digifilm porn” is one of the reason audiences are thinning out from film theatres.
Watch it for free on your iphone or,here is better idea, skip it altogether and keep this hack work out of real theatres!
As a Die hard New Yorker I feel that anything that will take the monopolies away from Broadway’s arrogant unions will help. L.A. theatre is long overdue.
The stagehands union in NYC is a NOT worthy of the Writer’s strike in L.A. and they should be ashamed to be equated as such by the media.
As for “fair share of the profits” I will quote ALL ABOUT EVE.:
“It’s about time the piano realized that it did not write the concerto.”
The kids, seniors, early birds and discount ticket programs bring the average price down significantly. Manhattan has a higher average due to the limited effect of those categories.
Compare the Ziegfeld to the Odeon Leicester Square in London and you will find $12 a real bargain. They get around $36 for an adult yet New Yorkers still complain.
Back when the Ziegfeld charged six dollars people still complained.
Remember Mayor Koch at the picket lines?
“The Guild Theater opened in 1938 as a newsreel house, with an entrance on the south side of Radio City Music Hall.”
“The Guild’s entrance on the north side of West 50th Street was to the east of RCMH’s entrance…”
Since Manhattan streets do not sit on a true north, both statements are correct. The Guild was (is) SOUTHeast of the RCMH entrance as 50th street sits on a northwest angle.
Near the end there some deuce houses ran double feature first-runs. I recall many of the Cineplex Odeon National Twin films both playing double-bill around the corner and at half the price, as long as they did not advertise.
This may have been the result of martial arts and porn product drying up or going straight to video.
The death of 70mm had nothing to do with cost cutting from distributors nor exhibitors.
Audience demand to see films on opening weekend made it possible to sell every seat in any format, so 70mm eventually meant nothing financially to blockbusters. The multiplex just added auditoriums on 35mm interlock and non-discriminating teenagers filled them. Since multiplex screen sizes did not vary much, few noticed the difference.
1980’s kids would never wait months to see E.T in 70mm at Movieland Broadway when their local plex had it on several screens in 35mm.
Louis, the Sheridan was an ABC Florida State Theatre. It did not stay porn only because the City of Miami Beach shut it down when it banned DEEP THROAT which had its South Florida premiere there.
I am there practically every week since I moved into the neighborhood and the tourist element is insignificant at the movies unless you consider people from The Bronx tourists. The ‘burbs crowd also pack Red Lobster, and The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.
AMC has no down side if the IMAX projectors are free, no screens are lost, and regular films can still show in that screen. In the future if I have a choice between IMAX 3-D and 35mm I will choose the latter as I hate it when they edit the films to accommodate the format and the 3-D gimmick wears thin five minutes in, even when they keep throwing things at you as they do in BEOWULF.
If others think like me, it will soon be KISS ME KATE at Radio City Music Hall all over again.
Simple. You have to eat before a Broadway show.
The Empire crowd are mostly locals and Lincoln Square usually outgrosses the Empire on a film by film basis.
It’s a watered down version with a much smaller screen. IMAX is going the way of Cinerama by getting less spectacular every year.
When I saw WINGS OF COURAGE in IMAX 3-D with headphone sound to augment the speakers I felt I was seeing the future of the movies. When I recently saw an edited version of HARRY POTTER with ten minutes of lame 3-D effects I felt ripped-off.
IMAX has been struggling mostly by discounting school groups. Why would tourists buy tickets to something almost every town in the world already has?
You have to wonder why they would bother. Every time I have been to Lincoln Square IMAX (the only one in Manhattan) it is empty and this is within walking distance.
When I was a kid the monster had already destroyed New York and London and Tokyo was the real target. I remember people gasping in London theatres during the final scenes of “A.I.” which depicted a shattered lower Manhattan.
I don’t mind seeing New York blown up and it has become a film language tradition for the “end of civilization” that actually compliments the city and makes it seem more important than it really is. I mean if you thought you were the last man on earth would you stay in Manhattan?
We can always ask the French to make us another statue but we can never get back our two hours after watching filmmaking from the mentally challenged Roland Emmerich.
Hmm…good point.
I will check some of my old Village Voice copies to see if I can get any addresses. Does anyone know if The New York Post was the best at keeping porn ads after the 80’s sudden morality binge?
The Avon 7 may have re-opened as the Park-Miller in May 1975 after the gay porn concept left the Henry Miller.
In May 1975 the Park-Miller theatre moved to 7th and 48th Street (most likely the former Avon 7). It is at this time that the Henry Miller may have become the Avon-at-the-Hudson.
Ed, the Cineplex Odeon lease included several unused office spaces floors upstairs and in surrounding buildings that dated back to the agents for the live shows.
There were also changing room upstairs accessed only by fire ladders and an elaborate octagonal waiting area for the downstairs rest rooms.
The basement alone was almost a city block and scary as hell with huge rats living there.
For those missed BWANA DEVIL in 3D, anything in smellovision or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in Sensurround. Another crap movie in a desperation presentation ripoff gimmick.
This type of crap “digifilm porn” is one of the reason audiences are thinning out from film theatres.
Watch it for free on your iphone or,here is better idea, skip it altogether and keep this hack work out of real theatres!
Ok , I’ll bite.
As a Die hard New Yorker I feel that anything that will take the monopolies away from Broadway’s arrogant unions will help. L.A. theatre is long overdue.
The stagehands union in NYC is a NOT worthy of the Writer’s strike in L.A. and they should be ashamed to be equated as such by the media.
As for “fair share of the profits” I will quote ALL ABOUT EVE.:
“It’s about time the piano realized that it did not write the concerto.”
Pre-release screening cell phones only need to be checked in if they have image recording. It is a piracy issue.
Blocking devices are legal now in France but everywhere else is iffy.
The kids, seniors, early birds and discount ticket programs bring the average price down significantly. Manhattan has a higher average due to the limited effect of those categories.
Compare the Ziegfeld to the Odeon Leicester Square in London and you will find $12 a real bargain. They get around $36 for an adult yet New Yorkers still complain.
Back when the Ziegfeld charged six dollars people still complained.
Remember Mayor Koch at the picket lines?
You cannot disagree with geography regardless of what is practice among New Yorkers. Not everyone looking at this page is local.
The GUILD is still a Nautica store and it says “Avenue of the Americas”, not Sixth Avenue, on that street.
“The Guild Theater opened in 1938 as a newsreel house, with an entrance on the south side of Radio City Music Hall.”
“The Guild’s entrance on the north side of West 50th Street was to the east of RCMH’s entrance…”
Since Manhattan streets do not sit on a true north, both statements are correct. The Guild was (is) SOUTHeast of the RCMH entrance as 50th street sits on a northwest angle.
$12.00 for two hours' entertainment in a borough that charges six dollars for drink is more than fair.
The “elite” who pay $120.00 for high-brow entertainments such as GREASE and MAMMA MIA are mostly middle class tourists from the midwest.
Laffmovie seems to disappear in 1948, so it either became the Empire then or reverted to Eltinge.
Muvico is a class act and this can only be good news. The limited seating may be a comfort issue.
https://www.muvico.com/press_releases.htm
Thanks for these, Ed. As we know from the lack of photos from some sites, there is no such thing as too much coverage of these palaces.
Near the end there some deuce houses ran double feature first-runs. I recall many of the Cineplex Odeon National Twin films both playing double-bill around the corner and at half the price, as long as they did not advertise.
This may have been the result of martial arts and porn product drying up or going straight to video.
“ES TU MOMENTO@ (Its your moment) is a Vodaphone ad slogan, so it may be a paid advertisement or a special event party being held on the site.
The death of 70mm had nothing to do with cost cutting from distributors nor exhibitors.
Audience demand to see films on opening weekend made it possible to sell every seat in any format, so 70mm eventually meant nothing financially to blockbusters. The multiplex just added auditoriums on 35mm interlock and non-discriminating teenagers filled them. Since multiplex screen sizes did not vary much, few noticed the difference.
1980’s kids would never wait months to see E.T in 70mm at Movieland Broadway when their local plex had it on several screens in 35mm.
Louis, the Sheridan was an ABC Florida State Theatre. It did not stay porn only because the City of Miami Beach shut it down when it banned DEEP THROAT which had its South Florida premiere there.
There’s a new even further watered down version of IMAX being installed these days in multiplexes. It looks like they are heading the way of Cinerama.
They have already abandoned the speaker head gear, have selected scenes only in 3D movies and now allow for smaller screens.