Cineplex Odeon Route 17 Triplex
85 South Route 17,
Paramus,
NJ
07652
85 South Route 17,
Paramus,
NJ
07652
16 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 127 comments
btw, how is parking where the old triplex used to be? Seems that more cars can go in there and get to the movies!!!
Did some of the employees at the old triplex move into what was once the Tenplex before they moved into the new AMC, which is mostly staffed by youngsters? I would like to learn about that.
On the other hand, the new AMC is like this:
Route 4 Tenplex + Route 17 Triplex + Stadium Seating + 3 screens (2 with DLP and one with RWC/DVS)= AMC Garden State 16.
Just heard this was getting demolished. Now if I could just get the phone number out of my head after 30 years, 201 843-3830.
The status of this theater needs to be changed to “Demolished”, but like the Rt 4 Tenplex, I’ve sent messages to whoever administers this site, and they just go ignored. Very annoying.
I think people are more likely to use this parking area for the twin restaurants that are next door. This pot is fairly distant from the mall.
good for the shoppers at Garden State Plaza who want to see a movie at the new movie theater in Paramus on days when the mall is closed; plenty of parking, indeed.
Update: No longer a pile of rubble. It is now a parking lot, paved, with curbs and all. You would NEVER know a building was ever at this location had you not seen it yourself.
All gone! As has already been mentioned the building came down a few days ago and is now just a pile of rubble. I noticed it yesterday morning on my way to work. I had been meaning to stop one morning and take some photos of the place, but never got around to it. Too late. RIP Century.
Someone should edit this theater to demolished.
<sigh> As of Sunday, May 6, the triplex is now just a heap of bricks and rubble. The parking lot has also been completely torn up and will be either repaved or built on. The area is completely fenced off, so no chance to get a memento from the place.
Century Paramus Theatre 1965-2006 R.I.P.
same could be said for the tenplex when the new theatre opens in three weeks.
VERY SAD DAY this is – saw the wrecking busily working away on the old triplex. The back was completely crushed, the front facade was still up (but the wrecking crew was not finished for today). Very sad day indeed :–(
Saw the first of run of “Superman” here in 1978. I was in junior high. I believe the theatre was a twin at that time, and the movie might have been in 70MM? Anyone know for sure? At that time this was still a nice theatre, only 10 years old and first run top line features played there.
FYI: Just noticed the newspaper ad for this theater’s 1965 opening day posted in www.fromscripttodvd.com
Go to the section “70MM theaters in NY” which also includes New Jersey and Connecticut theaters as well. Some great trade magazine photo pictures and /or newspaper opening day ads. Don’t miss, it’s real good, juicey stuff.
Hopefully when the new movie theater opens next to the mall, the old standalone building, now infected with quarantine and bugs, should be razed to make room for additional parking or maybe, in my idea, turn it into an Imax theater like the Palisades Center did but this time it’s a separate theater rather than an indoor one.
Tommy, before it was twinned in 1971, it had 2000 seats in it, balcony included. Now it just sits there, waiting to be razed. It’s all very depressing.
Not sure when they will demolish it, so don’t wait, take pictures now and ask now about stuff being possibly auctioned off. Hope you get some good momentos. A shame to see these great old places go down…any idea how many seats it had ???
TommyR – any idea when exactly the wrecking ball plans to drop on it?
Justin – I know before Route 4 became 10 screens, it was the largest screen in Paramus. It played Star Wars, Empire, & Jedi in 70mm and the screen was huge! After it was carved up, I don’t know. I would say it’s a draw between one of the screens on Route 4 and the triplex’s upstairs screen. As for any mementos from Route 17, most likely anything of any use like projection equipment, poster frames, etc. has been removed. Maybe try to get one of the white bricks it’s constructed from?
When the Route 4 became 10 screens, was the Route 17’s auditoriums the largest in Paramus? And what will be auctioned off the closed triplex? I would love a piece of memorabilia,
Heard from the management of Garden State Plaza that this theater will be demolished soon. So get out your cameras…in it’s day, this sounds like it was nice big theater. How many seats ???
The new multiplex will be located near Border’s Books and Ruby Tuesday.
Don’t know if they started to build it yet…
Empty.
is this just empty …………or is it other use
Century’s Paramus Theatre was already a twin by the time Century Theatres bought RKO Stanley Warner from Pacific Theatres in 1981.
This was probally the only Cineplex Odeon theatre that never had the Cineplex Odeon name on the outside of the building, instead keeping the “RKO Century’s Paramus Theatre” name on the building until it closed a week before Loews Cineplex became part of AMC Theatres.
Century’s Paramus was my favorite theatre up until it was multi-plexed. As a single, it has an awsome sized screen that looked big, even from the top of the balcony. They ran almost all the United Artists and some Universal films. I saw most of Connery James Bond films here. When RKO Stanely Warner took over, they did one of the worst multiplexing jobs I had ever seen. The last film I saw there was Apocolypse Now back in 1979. I saw it there 2 weeks after I saw it at the Zeigfeld in NYC, and seeing it on a tiny postage stamp size screen with poor sound was so disapointing that I never have been back.
Oh, man. This theatre has a warm place in my heart, since I saw many films there as a youth. The Bond double features, especially. Before they closed, the lobby was pretty much the same as it always was, with damn little change. It really hurts to see it slide the way it has. Inside the theatre always smelled of damp mildew, which is never good. This was the first theatre in the area to be twinned, balcony included. Very strange, since all the seats are set to face toward the center of the screen. After the wall went up, you had to sit at a slight angle in your seat, causing your butt to go numb. When the balcony was made into the 3rd theatre, it was a big improvement, since it was a wide theatre and you got a sense of what it was like before the wall went up.
My favorite memory of the Century Theatre; 1968, on a Saturday night, they played a double feature of “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming” and “In The Heat Of The Night”, plus a sneak preview of a upcoming major motion picture. My parents and I were at the show, and I was feeling sick; I probably had the flu or some childhood ailment. “Russians” comes on first, and I feeling ill, but I think I can make it through the whole show. Now me, being a dumb kid, heard “sneak preview” and thought – long trailer. Wrong! The sneak was for “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”, all two and a half hours of it! And I HATED it! Absolutely detested it! I honestly thought it would never end! Everything that happened on screen seemed to take 5 times longer than it should. I remember getting very queasy when Van Cleefs henchman beats up and bloodys Eli Wallach, especially when he digs his thumbs into poor Eli’s eyes. By the time Clint leaves Eli in the cemetary with his share of the gold and rides off, I remember thinking “ well, when is The End going to come up? Don’t tell me there’s more!!” I could'nt wait to get out of there! Of course if I could get into a time machine and go back to that day, I would appreciate the experience for what it was. In the back of my mind, I really hope that this theatre can be salvaged, but it would take a lot of money and effort. If not, I may just shed a tear when the wrecking ball does drop on it.