Newton Theatre
234 Spring Street,
Newton,
NJ
07860
234 Spring Street,
Newton,
NJ
07860
7 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 84 comments
I have a feeling that the Newton Cinema will not be “Dark” for too much longer.I am not at liberty to say who will be taking over the operation of this fine treasure at this time.
Springtime will see the re-birth of the Newton Cinema!
i agree with you peter. Newton will suffer a decline in business next year since the theater’s closed.
Lets ALL hope someone comes in and takes over the Newton Cinema.
It has to be hurting the shops and restaurants, as hundreds of people are now not using the downtown as they did when the theatre was open.
Maybe show movies 3-4 weeks after then open and charge $4.00 a ticket.
this was the longest running theater in Northwest Jersey, right? The oldest right now has to be Madison.
Lets hope its soon resurrected!!
that’s a long life for the theater.
The land that the Warwick Drive-in sit on was sold a few years ago to the developer of the strip mall on the corner. They lease it back on a season by season basis until such time as the developer decides to build on the site.
The Wilson’s who own and operate the Warwick Drive In also own the land the Drive In sits on. This plus the fact that it draws large crowds in the season(they have to turn cars away in the prime summer months) will ensure that this Drive In WILL BE around for MANY MANY years!
If All the great old cinema’s close(I am sure there will be a bunch that don’t) I will NOT go to the movies very much in the future.
it’ll be a few years before all the old theaters will become dinosaurs. I hope the newton theater doesn’t get demolished!!!
What a shame to lose our theatre. Modern and convience take priority instead of comfort and tradition. How wonderful was the old Newton theatre? I enjoyed bringing my son to it and half the fun was parking! The refreshments were priced well and the tickets were a real bargain. I only wish I had the money. I would reopen our theatre and it would be bold, bright, and alive again. It seems we are losing a piece of our souls, our tradional heritage when we rush off to 22 screen theatres instead of remembring and supporting what we had.
friends, make it your business to hit the Warwick drive in next Summer before we lose that experience as well. What a shame. www.newkid.org
While The Newton Theatre faced competition from AMC and the new Sparta cinema,there were several changes under New Day Cinema VS when Galaxy Corp ran the theatre.
The Newton had a wonderful pipe organ that was played before the Friday/Sat night evening screening.About a month after New Day took over operation,the organ fell silent.
This was unique and special attraction that many people enjoyed.By NOT continuing with this attraction, the Newton lost that little extra perk that is SO IMPORTANT to keep customers away from Sparta and AMC.
The addition of slide-shows(adds) and the end to classic movie music took away from the charm of the cinema.Plus no special progrmaing(like classic movies form the 30’s,40’s 50’s 60’s on a Sat or Sun morning or classic horror films on Fri,Sat at midnight would have helped bring in more business.
The Monday discount night was a good idea.
Yes running a small downtown movie theatre is hard, but with creative ideas and thinking outside the box would have kept movies lighting up the screens at Newton
and there are showtimes on there, even though the theater is closed for good.
I agree with you Peter. The Newton theater always played that cute cartoon before each feature, the one where all the snack characters go to the lobby. Unlike most conservative big screen chains like AMC and Clearview where price reigns over service, the Newton Twin theater never had any changes in presentation and service when Galaxy Theater Corp. and then New Day Cinemas (owned by a dot-com company specializing in classic sci-fi movies) took over the independently run theater, which was one of the longest running theaters in New Jersey, if not America. Most recently, they had a Date Night offering each monday; two tickets for only $12!!!! Too bad it didn’t catch on with the new generation going to the high-tech theaters.
It is very distressing to see this wonderful theatre CLOSE! The staff was friendly and very attentive.The popcorn and was always HOT and FRESH and not unreasonably priced. The pipe organ played on Friday was charming and added so much to the movie going experience.
The projection top notch, sets comfortable sound crisp and clear.
Going to a movie is much more then just sitting in a seat and watching the films.
This will hurt the economy of downtown Newton, all the people who came to eat before or after a show or shop, means thousands of dollars lost for local merchants.
At the multi-plexes the staff is indifferent, nobody knows your name or cares who you are!There no organ, no special programing, no or warmth. You are hit with 15 min of adds and previews! NO SHOWMANSHIP, NOTHING BUT OVERPRICED POPCORN/DRINKS!
This Cinema MUST BE RE_OPENED!! Maybe run movies 3-4 weeks after they run in Rockaway and charge $4.00 a ticket like the Ceder Lane cinema does in Teeneck NJ.
Shame on the residents of Newton for rushing off like sheep to the big multi-plex!
i agree with you. btw, what will happen to the building? it’s an important icon of downtown newton. this is bigger than what happened to the fancy spring house restaurant, now a bar restaurant. the closest thing to a local theater is the one in blairstown that once again showing movies besides musicals and other vauldiville acts. give it a try!
The theatre closed because Rockaway, and then the newly renovated Sparta theatre drained away more than half of the box.
We gave it a try, but in the end its all about box-office. No one is sadder about than we are.
The last movies that the theater showed were “30 Days of Night” and “The Game Plan”, which enjoyed nearly a month of success at the theater as the Newton was a popular place for showing kid movies, especially Disney fare such as the “Pirates” movies, all three of which played in Newton. This theater has withstood competition from many new theaters surrounding northwest new jersey from 5/15/1924- sometime in 1997 and from 1997-2007 when Nathan Page took over the theater and most recently sold the twin to New Day Cinemas, who then closed the theater. Why did they close it? Was it because of the new AMC theater in rockaway or declining attendance? I hope it reopens and gets bought by Clearview.
that’s sad. now the only theater left in sussex county is in sparta. at least the newton lived a long life.
I herd from the former operator of Newton today(10-21-07)That New Day Cinema has CLOSED the theatre as of today.
I went to this theater last night to see “The Game Plan”, and lots of things have changed since a year ago. For one, all the employees wore the New Day Cinemas logo and red vests and some of them do their best to quiet the sometimes rowdy audience down by not using cell phones. Another thing is that the theater now shows slideshows before each movie at the two auditorium and plays movietunes instead of the classic movie music. Is the organ still in use in theater 1? Also, I sat in the balcony seats and they made them more comfortable. On Monday nights, it’s date night. For $12, two people can go see a movie for that price. BTW, since the acquisition of this theater, a megaplex in Rockaway opened as well as the return of movies to Sparta.
THe last time I was at the theater, for Pirates 2, theater 1 had the organ playing while theater 2 has prerecorded music. Does theater 1 have digital surround sound as theater 2 has mono sound? Let me know.
New Day Cinemas acquired this theatre on 11/1/2006. The new website is http://NewDayCinemas.com New Day plans to continue the old, and introduce some new special programming.
Here’s the card the woman gave me at the box office with info about it online. http://www.bigscreenclassics.com/
Definitely feels like you go back in time when you walk in. The marquee is still there, but i wouldn’t say 180 lights are in it, but at least 100 light bulbs. It is pretty big for the town it sits in. There is no fly space but it is a massive building with very little parking.