Cinema
5100 Wisconsin Avenue,
Washington,
DC
20016
5100 Wisconsin Avenue,
Washington,
DC
20016
8 people
favorited this theater
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This must have been General Cinema when it first opened – the sign on the front above the entrance canopy – ‘Cinema’ in an unusual stylized script is the same script used in the theatre sigs for the GCC formatted display advertising in the 60s, and it was also used on the uniform blouses the female employees wore in the 60s & 70s. When Cineplex had the theatre (Loews aquired it from the merger) they probably put the pink neon tubing in the sign, since they were out of their minds with that damn pink neon everywhere. It was probably blue neon, originally.
Most of the Cinemas at the time used the red serif-style block letters, but there were a few theatres where the landlord of a more upscale property did not want that type of sign, and felt that the script was more elegant looking.
Films which played at the Cinema from 1965-1976 Research from microfilms of The Washington Post and Variety. Theater opened 4/1/65.
04/01/65 White Voices
04/07/65 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
05/19/65 Nobody Waved Goodbye
06/09/65 All These Women
06/16/65 The Yellow Rolls-Royce
09/29/65 The Ipcress File
12/22/65 Bunny Lake is Missing
02/02/66 Where the Spies Are
03/02/66 Lord Love a Duck
03/16/66 The Sleeping Car Murders
04/27/66 Cast a Giant Shadow
05/25/66 The Guns of Navarone
06/29/66 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
11/09/66 La Dolce Vita
11/23/66 10:30 PM Summer
12/21/66 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
03/15/67 Hotel
04/12/67 The Deadly Affair
05/24/67 The Honey Pot
07/12/67 The Family Way
09/20/67 The Flim-Flam Man
10/18/67 Point Blank
11/22/67 More Than a Miracle
12/20/67 The Graduate
01/29/69 The Subject Was Roses
03/05/69 Funny Girl
10/15/69 Take the Money and Run
12/17/69 John and Mary
02/25/70 The Magic Christian
03/25/70 Woodstock
06/24/70 Catch-22
12/23/70 Love Story
07/07/71 McCabe and Mrs. Miller
08/25/71 The Hellstrom Chronicle
10/06/71 The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
10/20/71 The Steagle
11/10/71 Bless the Beasts and Children
12/01/71 Glen and Randa
12/22/71 Straw Dogs
02/09/72 A Clockwork Orange
06/28/72 Portnoy’s Complaint
08/16/72 The New Centurions
10/04/72 Deliverance
12/20/72 The Getaway
02/14/73 Steelyard Blues
03/07/73 Billy Jack
03/28/73 Fantasia
04/11/73 Scarecrow
06/27/73 The Last of Sheila
07/18/73 O Lucky Man
09/19/73 Bang the Drum Slowly
10/24/73 The Paper Chase
12/26/73 The Exorcist
06/12/74 Buster and Billie
07/10/74 Our Time
08/14/74 The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
10/16/74 The Gambler
11/20/74 Ladies and Gentlemen…The Rolling Stones
12/18/74 The Night Porter
01/29/75 Murder on the Orient Express
03/26/75 Tommy
07/02/75 Nashville
10/08/75 Three Days of the Condor
12/24/75 Barry Lyndon
02/18/76 (repertory film festival showings)
02/25/76 Taxi Driver
04/07/76 All the President’s Men
06/30/76 The Big Bus
09/15/76 The Tenant
10/13/76 Marathon Man
12/22/76 The Last Tycoon
The Cinema was one of the most desired theaters in the Washington DC area during the late 1960s and 1970s for film studios to exhibit their product, as witness the many popular films that played first-run engagements there as well as the length of those engagements. Yes, “The Graduate” played there over a year and most of the other films were youth-oriented hits and box-office smashes of their year.
All of the listings above were either first-run bookings or official studio reissues such as “The Guns of Navarone” and “La Dolce Vita.”
1980 was the year, in which I made a long bus ride from the MD suburbs, with a few of my school chums, to stand in a line that went around the block, to watch “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.” This theater had a 70mm print of this eagerly awaited sequel to “Star Wars.” This particular theater is not as opulent or otherwise memorable as say DC’s MacArthur or Uptown, but it had a killer Dolby 6-track sound system and 70mm capability. I still have vivid memories of watching Empire, especially the asteroid belt sequence and just being blown away by the sound and moving, in synch, with Millenium Falcon, as it bobbed and weaved avoiding asteroids and the pursuit of firing Imperial ships!
E.T. played here, also in 70mm, but the lines were too long and I ended up seeing it at the now closed Landover 6 theaters, one of the worst places to have seen a movie in the DC area. The last film I saw here, in 70mm, was Spielbeg’s “Empire of the Sun,” in 1987. I don’t think this theater booked any 70mm films after that time as I’m sure I would’ve gone there. Then again, 70mm presentations became far and fewer into the 90s.
In 1991, this theater had a Star Trek movie marathon where they showed the first five films and the trailer, for the eagerly anticipated sixth and final Classic Trek cast film. Yes, I sat and watched all five films, with a friend from work, whom I cajoled into playing hooky from his job. Unfortunately, it was a non-70mm event but it was some experience to revisit those movies again all in one day, on the big screen with an enthusiastic audience. How else would one want to experience movies, eh?
The last film I saw there was Shrek, in ‘01’, playing in digital stereo and the theater seemed pretty much the way I remembered it but seemed to be in need of some touch ups here and there. They don’t seem to book the mainstream films that they used to anymore, as the recent films shown were more of the art house variety or festivals.