Regal Edwards Big Newport
300 Newport Center Drive,
Newport Beach,
CA
92660
300 Newport Center Drive,
Newport Beach,
CA
92660
35 people
favorited this theater
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Don’t waste your money at:
Edwards Big Newport 6
300 Newport Center Drive
Newport Beach, CA 92808
(949) 640-4600
What a joke your Big Newport Theater is!!
My husband and I took the afternoon off work to see the 1:45 pm showing of “Adjustment Bureau”. We arrived early to the show, viewed the adverts prior to the feature and during the previews for the other films realized the audio was all wrong. Basically, there spoken track was muted to a whisper and the background track was cranked to full. I and several other patrons repeatedly approached the staff to ask that the audio be corrected. After several attempts with no fix the movie started and although we approached the projectionist and the other personnel on site all we were told is to get our money back. There was absolutely no sense that they cared one bit about the failure to project the movie with proper audio. They just let it run on and on and on. This is not the first time this has happened to us at this theater. They do not seem to have qualified people on staff, or they just care very little for their patrons. Is there not a quality control check of the films screened before they are shown to the public? Why did the technician not monitor and realize the problems early with the previews BEFORE the film started. What kind of service is this if they cannot do the one thing — show a film — they are paid dearly to do. The on-site manager was of no help either and had no sense of lost pride regarding their failure to provide us with the service we paid for.
We and all the other patrons (I’d estimate 20) received refunds, but I guarantee I will never visit this cinema again and I will avoid as much as possible the Regal Chain. Terrible attitudes regarding quality work. Just pathetic!
Wanted to see Unstoppable today so I called the theater to ensure it was in the big house. I asked if they had switched to Digital projectors and that this was the first week. They are using Sony 4K in all auditoriums except for the Big Newport auditorium, where they are using a Barco projector (I think Cinemark’s XD uses the same). I was told the screen was replaced with a silver one that was the exact same size. So I headed out to check it out.
The preshow was annoying, but after wards the curtains actually closed! Lights came down and they opened up and there was a slide on the screen that said Edwards Big Newport that stayed on till the curtains were opened and the masking went wide. It was a great presentation. The show as awesome. I have been here a few times and was never that impressed with the picture, it always seemed dark. That issue is gone. The image quality was great, now I have never seen a 70mm film here so I cant compare it to that. Compared to the 35mm films I have seen here, this was far more impressive.
The sound was something else. It was so loud, but clear and clean. The bass made your shirt move and the surround was quite noticeable. This was by far the best show I have seen at this fantastic theater. There were about 40 people maybe in that large house for the 10:20 show on opening weekend Saturday night.
Well alrighty then.
Mr. Ruhle has obviously slid to our universe….from a parallel where the Edwards VP was a Member of IATSE Local 504 (Orange County CA) He was never a member of our Local. I have been a member of Local 504 since 1978. Furthermore they way you have worded your blog I do not beleive that you were a member of IATSE. You certainly were not a professional projectionist and it seems that your being fired was appropriate. Had you been a member of the IA I would have filed charges against you for violating our jurisdiction and for conduct unbecoming a member.
The architectural firm of Pearson & Wuesthoff designed the 400-seat second auditorium opened at Edwards Newport in 1971. This was reported in the August 24, 1970, issue of Boxoffice. They might have designed the Newport itself, though I’ve been unable to track down any confirmation of this. The same firm designed Edwards Harbor Twin Cinemas in 1970, and a number of other theater projects during that period.
Yes, the Edwards VP was also a member of the Projectionist Union.
JohnMessick, sorry to take two and a half years to answer you. Absolutely nothing happened to me. He could not sue because I was just an employee there to help with no contract. I just went back to the Chinese and told my LA business agent that the VP can do XXX with his theater. Later, the VP got fired! Now, the VP could have sue his own Orange County union for not having their own men in the booth, but not LA union. Get this, the VP was actually a member of the Orange County union. And I knew this. He could never sue his own union, that FREAK!!!
I’d take that website’s info with a grain of salt. For the bulk of the mid-2000’s, I practically lived at this theatre. I NEVER had any issues with actor/subtitle/credit cropping…at least not in the MAIN auditorium. As for the auditorium to the right of the main one, THAT’S A DIFFERENT STORY! ;o)
at bignewport.com it says the screen is 40x80. Thats 2 to 1. Not 2.4 to 1 or 1.85 to 1. Edwards had mulitplexes with fixed screens like that down in San Diego County as well. How can they get away with that! I remember seeing a few films at their theaters back in the ‘90’s. Credits and subtitles and actors would be cropped off or missing. Ridiculous. Needless to say I never went back.
When Regal took over did they do away with those stupid fixed screens and install screens with adjustable masking so that films can be shown in the proper aspect ratio?
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:
View link
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.