New World Stages

The neighborhood has gone very upscale now and the cinemas would now be welcome if they programmed movies like the “QUAD” in the village or the undergound “Lincoln Plaza” cinemas/

When this was the Worldwide Cinemas ($3 movies)— does anyone remember me “rhyming the movies” (1994-1995)and running the lines out front ?
“When the icebergs melted, and the waves currrled; What once was Earth, became known as WATERWORLD !"
”….is the movie to be seen, and coming attractions are on the screen..“
etc.
Name rhymes you remember, please.

The Worldwide Cinemas was not the only location that Cineplex made a deal that would never pay for it’s rent. When Cineplex got into a bidding war when the former UA Westwood Theatre (aka Mann’s Festival)became available. They out bid everyone else and had a rent of 1 million dollars a year for the single screen in Westwood, California. It was all done for having a screen in that market. Mann Theatres a few years later picked up the lease when Cineplex dropped the location.

This was a very nice movie mall-style operation when it first opened around 1990. Then, it was caleld “Worldwide Plaza Cineplex odeon,” or something like this. I remember seeing “Thunderheart,” “Misery,” “A League of their Own,” and “Forrest Gump” here, plus a few others before it became a discount second-run place. When it first opened, the carpeting and low lighting were very nice, the auditoriums were spacious, and the facility was clean. I saw an usher or a manager here punch a patron in the face when I attended “Forrest Gump,” which was the last movie I saw here, in 1995. By that time it was hot, noisy and crowded, with lots of litter and soda on the floors. Seeing the patron get punched (he was being escorted out for some reason and the manager cracked him in the jaw right in the middle of the crowd) turned me off the place, as did the noisy audiences. Never been back.

The “Worldwide Cinemas” was a great place to see a movie! The theatres were mostly large and comfortable. It never really took on due to the lousy programing! It could have easily become a house like the Lincoln Plaza, and it was far more comfortable, large screens and CURTAINS! It is now a very attractive off Broadway thaetre and seems to be doing fairly well!

Don’t mistake full seats at discounted prices as profit. The Worldwide’s high rent killed any chance at profit. It was bad deal that should never have been made. It went subrun when the other Times Square theaters refused to play day and date. When it dated the same film as the National it did around 10% of the business and it took that from the National hence the discount attempt. Staffing costs and a sometimes violent crowd did not help matters. I understand the AMC Empire loses money as well.

The Worldwide lost money from the day it opened to the day it closed and was the source of much grief within Cineplex Odeon. The lack of a replacement cinema at the former RKO Warner Twin site lead Cineplex Odeon to sign this loser deal which was about one block off way from the action.

This theatre was never called the Worldwide Plaza Cinemas; it was simply known as the Worldwide Cinemas, or, at least on an informal basis after it became a discount house, the Encore Worldwide (or Encore Worldwide Cinemas).

Onex, a Canadian company, retained a majority interest in the Canadian Cineplex theatres only, merged it with Galaxy Cinemas creating Cineplex Galaxy Limited Partnership – an “affiliate” of LCE (though I haven’t yet figured out the extent of the affiliation). The rest of the LCE operations in the US and overseas were sold by Onex to the Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Spectrum Equity Investors. As with several other theatre chains, the bean-counters are running the show.

The Worldwide opened in the summer of 1989, at or around the same time the nine-screen Chelsea multiplex opened its doors for business. Unlike the Chelsea, however, few people seemed to know (or care) the Worldwide existed and struggled to compete as a result for product with the theatres within the Times Square/immediate area zone at the time (the Criterion, the Astor Plaza, the combined four Embassy screens, the Ziegfeld, and the Guild 50th Street), eventually mostly becoming a move-over house and a repository for schlocky low-budget genre pics and very minor indie-type films.

In March of ‘94, Cineplex Odeon converted the Worldwide, the Manhattan Twin, and the 59th Street East Cinemas into discount theatres (with each of those three sites being rebranded as 'Encore’ houses – i.e., the Encore Worldwide, etc.). While the Manhattan and the 59th Street East eventually again became first-run venues (within a matter of months or, at the latest, by the 1996 holiday season), the Worldwide continued to serve in its then-present incarnation. Wildly successful during weekends and holidays, the Worldwide was generally a ghost town during non-rush periods, making it the perfect target for closure when Loews Cineplex' bankruptcy reorganization plan was accepted in February of 2001. (Among the Worldwide’s final films: ‘Charlie’s Angels’, ‘Meet the Parents’, and ‘Vertical Limit’.)

I used to go here often when it was both a first-run house then a discount theatre. It was a good place to see a film twice, the second time not having to pay full fare or a place to catch a film late in its run.

I remember seeing “Seven” for the second time here and I could have sworn they dropped a reel or left out a part of the movie for some reason.

It was wild here when it was a second run house due to huge crowds taking advantage of the low rates. However, it was noisy. It wasn’t exactly an upscale crowd.

Is it currently operating as a live stage? If so, the status should be “Open”.