Quad Cinema
34 W. 13th Street,
New York,
NY
10011
34 W. 13th Street,
New York,
NY
10011
25 people
favorited this theater
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Not only did they renovate the lobby and candystand a few years ago, but in the last year they changed all the seating in the theaters. They also changed all the screens and theater wall material. The Quad, unlike many theater chains, try to continually improve the theater in ever way they can. All of the sound systems were upgraded to give the best quality sound available. The light on the screen can’t be beat by any theater. They also have a tech on staff to make sure everything is running perfectly. There are never any complaints about presentation at the Quad. Not to mention all of the film festivals from all over the world that they run. More and more every year. (Italian,Swiss,Iceland,Korean,and others).
It seems that whenever I am in New York there is ALWAYS something of interest playing at the Quad to appeal to the serious (jaded?) film buff. When I brought a small group of high-school students to the city in April of 2000 for Broadway shows and the opera, I also took them here on one free night to see the beautiful Iranian film “The Color of Paradise,” about the travails of a blind boy. They all came out teary-eyed. The place is horribly cramped but utterly essential.
This is named the Quad Theater because, as hard is this is to believe today, when it first opened in 1972 it was, literally, THE quad theater – the first ever four-screen theater in NYC (if not the country). The lobby underwent major renovations about 3 years ago, but the theaters themselves remain among the smallest in the city. Remains an essential showplace for independant/foreign films.
Kanbar still runs it, and he sends out a lively newsletter every week about the cinema’s offerings. The Quad tends to run almost every gay film that comes out, and brings a guaranteed gay audience every weekend. It’s an easy time for any woman at the cinema when it comes to getting in and out of the b-room quickly, as the patrons are often mostly men.
This is not to say that only gay-themed movies run there. The Quad shows excellent independent and foreign fare here all the time. The main drawback of the Quad is that its seating is very narrow and uncomfortable. Get there late on a weekend night, and you and your cinema companion are likely not to sit together. It’s much nicer during the weeknights.
Golden never built anything – they were a film-booking service and like Lesser and Creative Entertainment, booked other peoples theatres and just put their name on the display ads. They did not build, own or operate any theatres. Their office was at 1600 Bway, in the National Screen Service Bldg. The Quad was built and operated by a guy named Elliot Kanbar.
During the time City Cinemas booked it, the Quad Cinema was THE top Touchstone/Disney house in the Village, booking most of their product during that time. (City Cinemas, to this day, retains a solid relationship with Touchstone, Disney, and Miramax, as well, booking – or having booked – many of its films into the chain’s Manhattan sites, primarily the Cinema 1, 2, 3; the Sutton, before it became mostly a move-over house in its final years of operation; the East 86th Street, both as a twin and presently as a quad; the Murray Hill – or at least until the Loews Kips Bay opened its doors for business in the spring of ‘99; the Angelika; and, albeit less so in recent years, the Village East.)
When Golden first built and opened this theatre the film companies would not give them any first run product. They existed in the beginning playing second run double features, moveovers and believe it or not porn on one screen (Pussycat made porn chic for awhile). A lawsuit against the major distributors finally gave them first run and later art house product. For awhile in the 80’s while they were still constructing the Village East, City Cinemas booked the theatre and it played “A” track first runs.