What was obnoxious about the Film Forum was that they roped off that whole aisle where Ms. Carlisle sat for all the screenings. So, no one could sit in those seats for the afternoon/early evening screenings — premium seats — even though the cinema was packed and no one would use those seats until 8 p.m.
I don’t think the Bing Crosby retro will draw flies. Series that show classic Hollywood films at the WR generally don’t draw. They do better at places like AMMI and MoMA where you can buy a membership and then get in for free. I think they could screen film that showed a cow munching on grass for two hours and they would draw a crowd at MoMA. I think some of the people who patronize that place live there.
Speaking of the WR, I was there on Sunday for the 1 p.m. showing of THIEF OF PARIS and the print comes on and I see the UA logo. I made a mental note to myself and say “I didn’t know UA distributed TOP” and then you see the title THIEF and hear Tangerine Dream on the soundtrack. I yell out “It is the wrong movie.” Well, needless to say, they stopped the screening and decided to substitute MY DINNER WITH ANDRE. They were shipped the wrong print, Michael Mann’s “THIEF.” I got a refund, but thought that the WR could have done more to accommodate the people who were inconvenienced by giving free passes or something. After all, we were inconvenienced. And the manager didn’t solicit any opinions on what should be screened. She just announced that they would screen “Andre” when I assume they had a variety of Malle prints to choose from. I probably would have stayed if they screen THIEF. It was a pristine print.
This is the second time this has happened recently. MoMA cancelled its screening of SHEER MADNESS in the Hanna Shuygulla retro and substituted a non-subtitled Marco Ferrari film instead.
I had my problems patronizing the theatre, but when I attended the show the pickets weren’t out there yet. They were there when I exited the theatre, though.
I wish I had waited and gone to see “The You, the Me…” because instead of paying $10.75 to see it at the IFC, I could have seen it for $5.50 at the Kew Gardens Cinema.
Hmmm. I didn’t notice any deterioration in the Walter Reade. I’ve been attending some of the Louis Malle retro screenings and it isn’t drawing all that well. French films at the Walter Reade usually are a tough ticket (try getting a ticket to the annual Rendez-vous With French Cinema ticket; even weekday afternoon screenings in that series sell out.) And I can remember going to a French series in the mid 1990s in the summer and not being able to get into “Police” because it sold out.
I have absolutely no feel for what draws/what doesn’t draw in the revival houses. I thought they would line up down the block to get a chance to see all of Malle’s output on the big screen.
I’ve been sampling the Paramount Pre-code series and it is drawing real well. The screenings I’ve attended haven’t sold out, but I would estimate the theatre is 85/90% full. Even the rare “June Moon” didn’t sell out. If you are a member the Film Forum’s $5 price tag for a double-feature is one of the best bargains, if not the best bargain, is NYC.
I remember back in ‘93 the Film Forum did a similar series, but focused on the Warner Brothers Studio output. I remember those screenings being packed and possibly selling out. I also think they were screening many triple features, for one admission, at that series. Of course movies from that era fun between 65 and 80 minutes or so.
I made my first there this weekend to see “Me & You and Everyone We Know” and really like the theatre, if not the movie. I was in Cinema 2 upstairs and the seats are comfortable and sight lines appear to be pretty good.
One complaint is the bathroom situation. When will these theatre owners learn? Only two bathrooms on the second floor, both unisex, and there are two theatres. There will be long waits if they get any kind of crowd.
“I used to have a photo of the ticket booth of the theater at the time they were showing Jaws 2. The booth was covered by a large head of the shark with the mouth wide open, which was where you paid for your ticket.
posted by JohnG409 on Jun 16, 2005 at 8:25am”
One point about that ticket booth is that it is all closed up. The ImaginAsian folks don’t use the ticket booth. You have to enter the theatre and buy your ticket at the concession stand.
I was here a week ago for a couple of the Subway Cinema offerings. I had to stand in a standby list for one film and they turned people away (not me fortunately). And I attended a second screening that, while not sold out, was well attended.
It is nice to see people in this theatre; the previous time I was there I was the only one there!
Kind of sad, though, to walk abound this area and see how bereft of theatres it now is. Cinema 1-2-3 is the only other theatre still open and that is reportedly scheduled to close. I remember when ImaginAsian was the 59th Street Playhouse and you had the Manhattan Twin on that block. On third Ave. you had the 1-2-3, Baronet/Coronet, Gotham and Pier/East Side Playhouse and the Sutton on 57th near Third.
I moved to NYC in March of ‘82 and remember the wild and woolly days of the eighties/early nineties well. It is mind boggling how the city is changing/has changed. When you really notice it is when you see a film shot on location in NYC in the seventies or eighties. I remember watching “Contract on Cherry Street” I think the name of it was (w/ Frank Sinatra) and seeing a shot of the 7 train. Every car on the train was completely covered in graffiti. I remember when I first moved here that was the rule, rather than the exception, for subway cars. It looks weird to see subway cars covered in graffiti.
And just yesterday I was watching a video, “Sword of Gideon,” and there is a location shot in Times Square and it looks like Stephen Bauer is driving his cab south on Broadway, making a left/turning east on I’m not sure what street but you can see two theatres on the east side of Broadway. One marquee advertised two porno flicks for $2.99 and the other was playing “Violets are Blue.” It must have been shot in the mid-to-late 1980s. I didn’t even recognize the theatres.
I imagine that the combined entity will have to divest itself of some theatres similar to the way Cinemaplex Odeon & Loew’s sold some of their theatres to Clearview when they merged.
In Manhattan, AMC only owns the 25-plex while Lowe’s has a number of ‘plexs, including W. 84th St., Lincoln Square, the E-Walk, the underattended W. 34th Street 'plex, 19th Street, the soon to be closed State and the East Village 'plex. I can’t remember if Kipp’s Bay is Regal or Loew’s and I can’t remember if Loew’s has a 'plex on the Upper East Side.
I imagine AMC/Loew’s will have to divest itself of either the E-Walk or the AMC 25-plex.
I noticed that the Paris has started a midnight screening on Saturday nights. They screened ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN this past weekend and had a fairly big ad in the times trumpeting the screening. The ad was no doubt placed to trigger awareness because I doubt the outlay for an ad of that size in the Times could be recouped with ticket revenue from one screening.
That is a tad too late for me, but I’ll keep tabs on it.
I hate writing this on the Strand page, but there was a theatre on Seventh Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets I believe. It was on the East Side of the street and was long closed. The theater had been converted into a Woolworth’s, then they knocked Woolworth’s down and it was a parking lot for a while before an office building went up. Lehman Brothers is the tenant in the building.
I remember when they were about to take the Woolworth’s down the Times ran a piece about someone who got into Woolworth’s and got above the ceiling and was admiring what was left of the theater detail. The developer was nervous because he didn’t want any obstacles in taking the building down if anything architecturally significant was found.
Was this building a live theater or a movie theater?
I wonder if the Angelika is having trouble getting product? They seem to be booking some schlocky films that normally would have played, pre-Landmark, at the Quad or at the Cinema Village. SECOND BEST played for two weeks solely at the Angelika before closing today. And they had FEELING, MINNESOTA, which closed today after a one-week run. Today WILD SIDE opens exclusively at the Angelika and THE BRIDGE AT SAN LUIS REY is there (also at AMC), which is quietly being dumped into theaters before heading over to DVD land.
You are not thinking of a porno theatre that was on the east side of Third Avenue between 14th & 15th Streets are you? I think there was one there. There was an SRO hotel on the northeast corner of 14th Street & Third Avenue that is also gone.
MoMA screened Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters” last night and it was nice to see some early-to-mid 1980s location shots of NYC. There is a great shot of Woody walking down Broadway right by the Regency where you can clearly ogle the marquee. Also, later in the film, Woody goes into the art deco Metro Cinema. Early in the film you see Barbara Hershey in a cab driving through Times Square and can see some movie marquees in the background but they went by too quickly for me to recognize them.
I thought there were more people Saturday than Friday but thought that there was more than 75 on Friday so maybe my judgment is off.
I am a regular at the revival houses and while I don’t know any of the other people I do recognize faces and I don’t see too many, if any, of the people who patronize MoMA, BAM, AMMI et al in Jersey City. I don’t think people in New York City realize how easy it is to get to Jersey City and how fast you get, in my case, from Herald Square to Journal Square on the PATH train.
Regarding the renovations, they essentially stopped renovating while the Mayor held up the lease so nothing on the renovations front has been done in recent years.
I don’t think Imaginasian has a bright future. I was there a couple of weeks ago on a weekday afternoon and — counting me — there were three people in the theatre.
And in the thousands of times I’ve gone to the movies I had a first at Imaginasian on Friday night. I was the only person in the theatre. That doesn’t bode well because it was the opening night of “Judgement,” a film that received a very good review in the Times the very day. It was a late screening, 10:40 p.m. and it was raining, but in a city of 8 million people to only have one person show up, hmmm. I bet the employees — or employee — who was left wasn’t too happy to see me.
One complaint about ImaginAsian is the sloppy way they project their films. The films are good, though.
I was there Friday and Saturday. I’ve seen “Body Snatchers” so I bolted after “Crack in the World.” And Saturday I was there for “Wrath of Khan.” I had trouble hearing the dialogue at the beginning of “Khan” so I assume there was deterioration in the sound track on the print.
I thought attendance at both screenings was adequate; that theatre is so big it can swallow up a crowd. I know it would be nice to fix the balcony, but they certainly don’t need those extra 1,000 seats!
And I had a Line Rickey at that luncheonette a couple of doors down from the Loew’s. It was good.
I agree about the film’s starting late. That guy who gets up there to talk before the film — overdressed in a suit — goes on and on and on. Start the movie will you please. And that area is not the best. It is like a perp walk across the street on the walk back to the PATH train.
I must have actually been in this theater. I was doing some research in the library and decided to call up the movie listings from the summer of ‘83 to see check out what theaters were open in Manhattan back. There was a whole bunch in Times Square.
I remember that summer catching the film “Blue Thunder” in a Times Square movie house. I always assumed it was the Criterion or the National, but it was playing at the State. I also remember, for a few dollars less, “BT” was playing simultaneously at one of the 42nd Street grindhouses.
There is a picture of the interior of this theater in today’s NY Times Real Estate section. The article is about some of the re-hab work being done in an attempt to revive downtown Bridgeport’s fortunes.
In any even, the group Philip Kuchma is involved with in the “Bijou Square” rehabilitation project included Phil Harman, an owner of the Two Boots restaurants in New York as well as the Two Boots cinema in the East Village, where I’ll be going tonight to catch “Miracle in Milan.”
Boy this theater must be doing real well. In June, they’ve booked or rented part of the theater to the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Festival. That fest is also using the Loews State, a theater on its last legs.
I remember patronizing the Embassy in the 1980s and seeing a film called “The First Time” there as well as that film Robert Altman directed that starred Philip Baker Hall as Nixon. It was a one-person show. I think it was called “Secret Honor.” I remember art house fare screening there.
Could someone point me in the direction of a theatre name that would have been diagonally across the street from the Strand. It was on Broadway on the east side of the street a block or two above the TKTS booth. It was a porno theater in the 1980s/90s before closing. I’d like to read the history of the theatre if it is listed here.
I was here today and not one escalator in the damn multiplex was working. I guess they could shut ‘em down because crowds were light. Everyone must have been across the street where STAR BORES VI was showing on 11 screens. It did boffo box office over the last four days, raking in a record $150M worth of tickets.
Fear not for the E-Walk. They are getting their own tent pole soon. WAR OF THE WORLDS, with Spielberg & Cruise, is coming to the E-Walk. There weren’t too many people at the EXORCIST prequel that I caught.
What was obnoxious about the Film Forum was that they roped off that whole aisle where Ms. Carlisle sat for all the screenings. So, no one could sit in those seats for the afternoon/early evening screenings — premium seats — even though the cinema was packed and no one would use those seats until 8 p.m.
I don’t think the Bing Crosby retro will draw flies. Series that show classic Hollywood films at the WR generally don’t draw. They do better at places like AMMI and MoMA where you can buy a membership and then get in for free. I think they could screen film that showed a cow munching on grass for two hours and they would draw a crowd at MoMA. I think some of the people who patronize that place live there.
Speaking of the WR, I was there on Sunday for the 1 p.m. showing of THIEF OF PARIS and the print comes on and I see the UA logo. I made a mental note to myself and say “I didn’t know UA distributed TOP” and then you see the title THIEF and hear Tangerine Dream on the soundtrack. I yell out “It is the wrong movie.” Well, needless to say, they stopped the screening and decided to substitute MY DINNER WITH ANDRE. They were shipped the wrong print, Michael Mann’s “THIEF.” I got a refund, but thought that the WR could have done more to accommodate the people who were inconvenienced by giving free passes or something. After all, we were inconvenienced. And the manager didn’t solicit any opinions on what should be screened. She just announced that they would screen “Andre” when I assume they had a variety of Malle prints to choose from. I probably would have stayed if they screen THIEF. It was a pristine print.
This is the second time this has happened recently. MoMA cancelled its screening of SHEER MADNESS in the Hanna Shuygulla retro and substituted a non-subtitled Marco Ferrari film instead.
I had my problems patronizing the theatre, but when I attended the show the pickets weren’t out there yet. They were there when I exited the theatre, though.
I wish I had waited and gone to see “The You, the Me…” because instead of paying $10.75 to see it at the IFC, I could have seen it for $5.50 at the Kew Gardens Cinema.
Hmmm. I didn’t notice any deterioration in the Walter Reade. I’ve been attending some of the Louis Malle retro screenings and it isn’t drawing all that well. French films at the Walter Reade usually are a tough ticket (try getting a ticket to the annual Rendez-vous With French Cinema ticket; even weekday afternoon screenings in that series sell out.) And I can remember going to a French series in the mid 1990s in the summer and not being able to get into “Police” because it sold out.
I have absolutely no feel for what draws/what doesn’t draw in the revival houses. I thought they would line up down the block to get a chance to see all of Malle’s output on the big screen.
I’ve been sampling the Paramount Pre-code series and it is drawing real well. The screenings I’ve attended haven’t sold out, but I would estimate the theatre is 85/90% full. Even the rare “June Moon” didn’t sell out. If you are a member the Film Forum’s $5 price tag for a double-feature is one of the best bargains, if not the best bargain, is NYC.
I remember back in ‘93 the Film Forum did a similar series, but focused on the Warner Brothers Studio output. I remember those screenings being packed and possibly selling out. I also think they were screening many triple features, for one admission, at that series. Of course movies from that era fun between 65 and 80 minutes or so.
I made my first there this weekend to see “Me & You and Everyone We Know” and really like the theatre, if not the movie. I was in Cinema 2 upstairs and the seats are comfortable and sight lines appear to be pretty good.
One complaint is the bathroom situation. When will these theatre owners learn? Only two bathrooms on the second floor, both unisex, and there are two theatres. There will be long waits if they get any kind of crowd.
“I used to have a photo of the ticket booth of the theater at the time they were showing Jaws 2. The booth was covered by a large head of the shark with the mouth wide open, which was where you paid for your ticket.
posted by JohnG409 on Jun 16, 2005 at 8:25am”
One point about that ticket booth is that it is all closed up. The ImaginAsian folks don’t use the ticket booth. You have to enter the theatre and buy your ticket at the concession stand.
I was here a week ago for a couple of the Subway Cinema offerings. I had to stand in a standby list for one film and they turned people away (not me fortunately). And I attended a second screening that, while not sold out, was well attended.
It is nice to see people in this theatre; the previous time I was there I was the only one there!
Kind of sad, though, to walk abound this area and see how bereft of theatres it now is. Cinema 1-2-3 is the only other theatre still open and that is reportedly scheduled to close. I remember when ImaginAsian was the 59th Street Playhouse and you had the Manhattan Twin on that block. On third Ave. you had the 1-2-3, Baronet/Coronet, Gotham and Pier/East Side Playhouse and the Sutton on 57th near Third.
I moved to NYC in March of ‘82 and remember the wild and woolly days of the eighties/early nineties well. It is mind boggling how the city is changing/has changed. When you really notice it is when you see a film shot on location in NYC in the seventies or eighties. I remember watching “Contract on Cherry Street” I think the name of it was (w/ Frank Sinatra) and seeing a shot of the 7 train. Every car on the train was completely covered in graffiti. I remember when I first moved here that was the rule, rather than the exception, for subway cars. It looks weird to see subway cars covered in graffiti.
And just yesterday I was watching a video, “Sword of Gideon,” and there is a location shot in Times Square and it looks like Stephen Bauer is driving his cab south on Broadway, making a left/turning east on I’m not sure what street but you can see two theatres on the east side of Broadway. One marquee advertised two porno flicks for $2.99 and the other was playing “Violets are Blue.” It must have been shot in the mid-to-late 1980s. I didn’t even recognize the theatres.
I imagine that the combined entity will have to divest itself of some theatres similar to the way Cinemaplex Odeon & Loew’s sold some of their theatres to Clearview when they merged.
In Manhattan, AMC only owns the 25-plex while Lowe’s has a number of ‘plexs, including W. 84th St., Lincoln Square, the E-Walk, the underattended W. 34th Street 'plex, 19th Street, the soon to be closed State and the East Village 'plex. I can’t remember if Kipp’s Bay is Regal or Loew’s and I can’t remember if Loew’s has a 'plex on the Upper East Side.
I imagine AMC/Loew’s will have to divest itself of either the E-Walk or the AMC 25-plex.
I noticed that the Paris has started a midnight screening on Saturday nights. They screened ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN this past weekend and had a fairly big ad in the times trumpeting the screening. The ad was no doubt placed to trigger awareness because I doubt the outlay for an ad of that size in the Times could be recouped with ticket revenue from one screening.
That is a tad too late for me, but I’ll keep tabs on it.
I hate writing this on the Strand page, but there was a theatre on Seventh Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets I believe. It was on the East Side of the street and was long closed. The theater had been converted into a Woolworth’s, then they knocked Woolworth’s down and it was a parking lot for a while before an office building went up. Lehman Brothers is the tenant in the building.
I remember when they were about to take the Woolworth’s down the Times ran a piece about someone who got into Woolworth’s and got above the ceiling and was admiring what was left of the theater detail. The developer was nervous because he didn’t want any obstacles in taking the building down if anything architecturally significant was found.
Was this building a live theater or a movie theater?
I wonder if the Angelika is having trouble getting product? They seem to be booking some schlocky films that normally would have played, pre-Landmark, at the Quad or at the Cinema Village. SECOND BEST played for two weeks solely at the Angelika before closing today. And they had FEELING, MINNESOTA, which closed today after a one-week run. Today WILD SIDE opens exclusively at the Angelika and THE BRIDGE AT SAN LUIS REY is there (also at AMC), which is quietly being dumped into theaters before heading over to DVD land.
You are not thinking of a porno theatre that was on the east side of Third Avenue between 14th & 15th Streets are you? I think there was one there. There was an SRO hotel on the northeast corner of 14th Street & Third Avenue that is also gone.
MoMA screened Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters” last night and it was nice to see some early-to-mid 1980s location shots of NYC. There is a great shot of Woody walking down Broadway right by the Regency where you can clearly ogle the marquee. Also, later in the film, Woody goes into the art deco Metro Cinema. Early in the film you see Barbara Hershey in a cab driving through Times Square and can see some movie marquees in the background but they went by too quickly for me to recognize them.
I don’t know where to post this, but was the Ed Sullivan Theatre, home to the Letterman show, ever a movie theatre? And, if so, where is it listed?
I thought there were more people Saturday than Friday but thought that there was more than 75 on Friday so maybe my judgment is off.
I am a regular at the revival houses and while I don’t know any of the other people I do recognize faces and I don’t see too many, if any, of the people who patronize MoMA, BAM, AMMI et al in Jersey City. I don’t think people in New York City realize how easy it is to get to Jersey City and how fast you get, in my case, from Herald Square to Journal Square on the PATH train.
Regarding the renovations, they essentially stopped renovating while the Mayor held up the lease so nothing on the renovations front has been done in recent years.
I don’t think Imaginasian has a bright future. I was there a couple of weeks ago on a weekday afternoon and — counting me — there were three people in the theatre.
And in the thousands of times I’ve gone to the movies I had a first at Imaginasian on Friday night. I was the only person in the theatre. That doesn’t bode well because it was the opening night of “Judgement,” a film that received a very good review in the Times the very day. It was a late screening, 10:40 p.m. and it was raining, but in a city of 8 million people to only have one person show up, hmmm. I bet the employees — or employee — who was left wasn’t too happy to see me.
One complaint about ImaginAsian is the sloppy way they project their films. The films are good, though.
I was there Friday and Saturday. I’ve seen “Body Snatchers” so I bolted after “Crack in the World.” And Saturday I was there for “Wrath of Khan.” I had trouble hearing the dialogue at the beginning of “Khan” so I assume there was deterioration in the sound track on the print.
I thought attendance at both screenings was adequate; that theatre is so big it can swallow up a crowd. I know it would be nice to fix the balcony, but they certainly don’t need those extra 1,000 seats!
And I had a Line Rickey at that luncheonette a couple of doors down from the Loew’s. It was good.
I agree about the film’s starting late. That guy who gets up there to talk before the film — overdressed in a suit — goes on and on and on. Start the movie will you please. And that area is not the best. It is like a perp walk across the street on the walk back to the PATH train.
I must have actually been in this theater. I was doing some research in the library and decided to call up the movie listings from the summer of ‘83 to see check out what theaters were open in Manhattan back. There was a whole bunch in Times Square.
I remember that summer catching the film “Blue Thunder” in a Times Square movie house. I always assumed it was the Criterion or the National, but it was playing at the State. I also remember, for a few dollars less, “BT” was playing simultaneously at one of the 42nd Street grindhouses.
There is a picture of the interior of this theater in today’s NY Times Real Estate section. The article is about some of the re-hab work being done in an attempt to revive downtown Bridgeport’s fortunes.
In any even, the group Philip Kuchma is involved with in the “Bijou Square” rehabilitation project included Phil Harman, an owner of the Two Boots restaurants in New York as well as the Two Boots cinema in the East Village, where I’ll be going tonight to catch “Miracle in Milan.”
Boy this theater must be doing real well. In June, they’ve booked or rented part of the theater to the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Festival. That fest is also using the Loews State, a theater on its last legs.
I remember patronizing the Embassy in the 1980s and seeing a film called “The First Time” there as well as that film Robert Altman directed that starred Philip Baker Hall as Nixon. It was a one-person show. I think it was called “Secret Honor.” I remember art house fare screening there.
Could someone point me in the direction of a theatre name that would have been diagonally across the street from the Strand. It was on Broadway on the east side of the street a block or two above the TKTS booth. It was a porno theater in the 1980s/90s before closing. I’d like to read the history of the theatre if it is listed here.
No, CaptRon they are back with the “stupid topping.” No real butter on the popcorn.
I was here today and not one escalator in the damn multiplex was working. I guess they could shut ‘em down because crowds were light. Everyone must have been across the street where STAR BORES VI was showing on 11 screens. It did boffo box office over the last four days, raking in a record $150M worth of tickets.
Fear not for the E-Walk. They are getting their own tent pole soon. WAR OF THE WORLDS, with Spielberg & Cruise, is coming to the E-Walk. There weren’t too many people at the EXORCIST prequel that I caught.