Edwards Big Newport 6
300 Newport Center Drive,
Newport Beach,
CA
92660
300 Newport Center Drive,
Newport Beach,
CA
92660
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Showing 76 - 100 of 101 comments
Jeff,
Thank you so much for the info on the “Plitt City Center” in Orange, Ca. I think it’s great that there is some history still preserved regarding the theatre.
Many thanks,
Mark
Mark, are you talking about:
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I received a response to my comment on July 3rd, but I don’t know where to find it. I clicked on the address…no indication where it is. If anyone can help I would be grateful.
Thanks, Mark
I drove by the Big Newport today.
People were outside standing (sitting) in line for Pirates. Everyone was wearing the pirate costume. Also, here are the capacities.
Big Newport – 1108 seats.
Aud 2 – 444 seats
Aud 3 – 289 seats
Aud 4 5 and 6 (stadium) – 284 seats.
total – 2693
Hey, Does anyone in Orange County, Ca. remember “The Plitt” as we called it, located where “The Block At Orange” is now located? It was, up until the early 80’s, a single screen with slightly curved screen and incredible sound! Remember walking into the doors past the lobby and the enormous screen seemed to be so close and wrapped around you? Star Wars & ET opening day…and those high-back, rocking seats! Remember the restaurant connected across the breeze-way? What was it called?
The pre-show “First Look” is shown, as either “Regal First Look” or “AMC First Look”, since National CineMedia, the company that does the pre-show, is owned by Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Entertainment, and Cinemark Theatres.
Regal has recently changed the name of their (HIGHLY ANNOYING!) pre-show from “The 2wenty” to “Regal First Look”. It’s the same old pre-show crap…with a different name.
Thank you Joe Vogel.
DanW: “The 2wenty” is the name Regal Entertainment Group has given to the twenty minutes of ads and movie trailers that precede the feature in almost all of their theatres. By giving it what they appear to think is a hip&trendy name, they can pretend that it’s part of the show instead of just a bunch of advertising. They even have a web site for it.
Bill Kallay: The relationship of Southern California’s Edwards theatres and the Los Angeles Times goes back for ages. I remember seeing the Times ad (about 15 seconds long) every week at the various Edwards theatres I attended in the San Gabriel Valley in the 1950’s. It was the only ad the theatres ran (aside from their usual popcorn plug), and the word was that The Times gave free advertising space in the paper for any theatres that ran Times ads on their screens.
In 1989, Big Newport presented the Director’s cut of “Lawrence of Arabia”. It was an amazing experience, and an excellent show: A beautiful 70 MM print, with great sound, an overture, intermission, no commercials, and no previews. A true class act!
JSA
Oops, I meant 2000, not 200.
I retired from the movie theatre industry in December of 200. Someone please help me out of my ignorance and tell me what “2Twenty” means.
During the late-1980s, I went to many Edwards theatres. They usually did a pretty good job on presentation. The chain was one of the few in Orange County that actually ran title drapes before nearly every show (Syufy/Century did at the Orange Cinedome, until they began with the slide shows sometime in the 1980s). About the only thing that I didn’t care for at an Edwards was the Los Angeles Times commercial they’d run before the previews. But for the most part, I prefered seeing films at an Edwards over AMC or Mann theatres in Orange County.
In my opinion, when Edwards built the Irvine Spectrum theatres (which are very nice), they let the quality of their presentation and overall theatre cleanliness go down hill at other theatres. Town Center and Charter Centre were totally run down before they were closed, and it was a real shame to see them that way. Big Newport started showing signs of wear-and-tear before it was renovated. Still, I think as a grand theatre, it should not run the “2Twenty” and leave it as a grand place to see movies. Run it like the Grauman’s Chinese or Pacific’s El Capitan in Hollywood. Make it a class act once again.
The Big Newport Theatre opened on Feb. 11th, 1969.
Also, just for the record, Edwards had an excellent engineering department which took a back seat to no one.
I spent almost thirty years in the movie theatre business as a projectionist and a technician. Edwards was the last outfit I worked for and I was with them for five years. I too miss the old days of the title drapes. When I was a trainee in November of 1972, a white screen was something that was never to be seen. I was always trained that a screen should be covered with either a drape or a picture. My how things did change!! I would like to say that, in my opinion, Edwards built the very best of the multi-screen cinemas.
Meredith Rule…read your post date Aug 8 2005. I am interested in how you ever made out. Did he sue the union? Did anything ever happen to you, over you walking out? Am interested in knowing what happen.
For more on “Big Newport’s” recent presentation, please read this article:
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Excuse the pun, but this once regal theatre wasn’t always poorly run with screenings of the “2Wenty,” an open screen, re-wired surround sound and dim 35mm projection on its massive screen. This was once a class act in Orange County, and it’s a shame that Regal has let it go to waste.
They did some renovation with new curtains and speakers, but overall, they’ve cheapened the experience of going to this theatre with the above mentioned issues. This flagship should be just that—a flagship! Regal should run it as a special theatre where moviegoers can experience films far and above the general megaplex one can find anywhere in their town. Anybody can go to a typical and bland shoebox megaplex today. Not everyone in Orange County can go to a big screen theatre like Big Newport.
Junk the “2Twenty” (and I thought AMC was bad with their preshow “entertainment”), close the curtains, present music according to the theme of the movie being played that night, and re-wire the surrounds so that front channel dialogue is heard on the front channel—not the surrounds. Gee, kind of like how they used to run movies in the “old days.”
I saw “The Matrix: Reloaded” on the big screen and the curtains were wide open prior to the feature. But on “Star Wars III,” they closed them for a brief moment as described in the article pasted here.
I saw “Four Brothers” and “40 Year Old Virgin” here in August. Neither time did they close and reopen the curtains before showtime. Just a dimming of the house lights after Regal’s very annoying “2WENTY” pre-show.
In 1997, I was working at the Chinese in Hollywood when I had noticed a patron was watching me as I “rode the fader” (adjusted the sound) during the performance of “Titanic.” After the movie concluded, he introduced himself as a brother projectionist from Local 504, IATSE, Orange County.
A few months later, the business agent in Los Angeles calls me and asks if I would be interested in being the projectionist for four days at the Newport Film Festival to take place at the Edwards Newport Cinema.
When I got to Newport Beach, that same brother that had greeted me at the Chinese was waiting to show me around the Newport Cinema.
When doing a film festival, it means the projectionist is in hyperdrive. You must build-up prints and do tear-downs on the fly. That means, while the movies are playing in all six theaters, you must be building up the next set of features and tearing down the old at the same time because features only run once.
There was just me to do all of this WITH NO HELP.
On the first day of the show, the vice president of Edwards comes into the booth after discovering the film prints were being delivered upstairs into the projection booth. Instead of asking me if I would like a sip of water or a crust of bread, he began to complain and told me the projectionist had to carry film up and down the stairs, not UPS or whomever.
After a nice arguement, I told him that I was doing him a favor and he should appreciate someone coming in from L.A. to help make sure his stinking film festival was a success. Then, I put on my coat and said, “Bye-Bye!” He yells to me, “I will sue you, I’ll sue. Oooh, I hate you people.” I said, “Bye-Bye!” He then yells, “I will sue your local union. How can you do this to your local?” I said, “Bye-Bye!”
That is my one and only story regarding the Edwards Newport Cinema.
Bye-Bye!
The Edwards Newport Cinema (“Big” Newport, screen #1) was among the handful of theaters that was equipped with Cinema Digital Sound (CDS), the 1990-1991 precursor to the contemporary digital sound formats.
UPDATE: They have re-instated the tradition of closing and re-opening the curtain. For the latest Star Wars film they dimmed the lights then faded up a projection of a red Vader helmet directly on the red velvet curtain, which drew lots of ooohs and aaahs before they opened the curtain.
This is still a great place to see big “event” movies, but unfortunately they no longer open and close the huge red curtains. They just sit open while an absolutely horrific “pre-show entertainment” (blatant and irritating advertising) film plays.
I believe the REG Edwards Newport 6 was where Discovery Channel’s new show “Big” showed a very big popcorn popper in the newport cinemas parking lot.
The Big Newport was built as a single screen and was never divided. Additional screens through the years were added to the existing single screen. The big screen has always been a draw and the industry should take note.brucec