New World Stages
350 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
350 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 48 comments
Please update, theatre open June 16, 1989
Please update, it was Loews Cineplex that closed the theatre.
HowardBHass Theatre 3 when it was a movie theatre was about 366 seats. My source was from Variety and I saw movies in most of the 6 theatres, mostly as a discount theatre. Went there once when it was full price.
I kept theatre capacity information for New York City, but my records prior 2003 got lost. At least Newspapers.com and Proquest I could look back.
I wish I took pictures inside this location, but didn’t start taking movie theatres on a regular since 2003
The Cineplex Odeon Worldwide Cinema open June 16, 1989 with Ghostbuster II. The theatre could not compete with the Times Square theatres and the Chelsea Cinemas. Sometime around 1994, they went to a second run theatre with reduced prices.
The grand opening ad is in the photos section.
I believe these stages are now managed (owned?) by The Shubert Organization.
Thanks, Al & Howard! The Cineplex Odeon Chelsea also had I believe #6 & #7 as THX Auditoriums. Now when you check the THX Website there is not one single theatre in all of Manhattan with it at all. The last two I remember seeing were Lincoln Square & Union Square.
Auditoriums 1 & 2 were identical with 524 seats each & 40 foot wide screens for scope. With full use of the curtain, I saw the restored “Spartacus” road show in # 1 in 70mm 6 track in 1991. # 4 had 208 seats. # 5 had 182 seats. Aud 6 had 366 seats. I didn’t see a movie in # 3.
Theatre fan, it would been the largest screen, whichever that was. It failed certification due to HVAC noise, but later Lucasfilm advertised uncertified theatres in the trade papers. Cineplex Odeon noticed and started to do the same. It was all just one big con job on movie-goers.
When this complex was first opened by Cineplex Odeon in 1989 one of the auditoriums had LucasFilm THX Certification, anybody here remember or know which auditorium number it was?
This was a pretty popular place in my social circles during its second-run phase (I was in my late teens through early twenties), when it was known as “the $2 movie place”, “the $3 movie place”, etc… I remember seeing lots of fun stuff here: Mortal Kombat, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Scream, High Fidelity, etc. I was crushed when they closed it. Good times!
BTW, here is a documentary on the construction of Worldwide Plaza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCKq6r7opNY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuc7ok-4rdo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Z-rfLtYIY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77yhLMUAq-w
I liked this theatre very much. And even more so when it was a $2.00. What a shame it didn’t last. I remember the old Adonis on the next block.
I noticed that Jurassic Park played for nearly five months in second run here. I knew the film was a huge success but to play five months in second run (only being pulled for its first-run reissue) is some staying power.
Funny to mention that the crowds weren’t upscale during its second run phase since they seemed to well with art films.
Encore Worldwide Cinemas is an aka here.
Pretty cool name, looks O.K. from the outside.
Renewing link.
That should say policy, not police.
It began its second-run police on March 4th, 1994 with Geronimo: An American Legend, Addams Family Values, The Joy Luck Club, Beethoven’s 2nd, The Accompanist and The Summer House as the engagements.
The theatre closed on February 22nd, 2001 with Meet The Parents, Charlie’s Angels, Rugrats In Paris (matinees), Dude, Where’s My Car? (evenings), Wonder Boys, Vertical Limit and Proof Of Life as the final engagements.
CO was not above opening screens as they were finished while still in construction on others.
The project ran late and distributors felt the location was too far out west (duh) and didn’t want to risk exclusives of their movies in the zone, so getting first-runs was a problem.
CO was forced to day-date this with the Times Square Warner on “Uncle Buck” and the Warner proved the World Wide was redundant. Universal owned 50% of CO by then so they continued to cooperate for a while.
Usually, they just want to get the place opened no matter what, so even if its 2 or 3 screens, the pencil pushers figure its better than nothing.
This theatre had a rather strange opening. It opened on June 16th, 1989 with only three screens open, showing two prints of Ghostbusters II and Field Of Dreams.
The fourth auditorium opened on July 19th, 1989 with two auditoriums running When Harry Met Sally and the other two running Do The Right Thing (which had replaced Field Of Dreams on June 30th).
The fifth auditorium opened on August 2nd, 1989 with two auditoriums running Parenthood, two running When Harry Met Sally and one running Do The Right Thing.
Finally all six auditoriums opened on August 16th, 1989 with Uncle Buck opening with the same films mentioned two weeks earlier.
What was the reason behind this? Was the theatre rushed into opening for the summer season or did they not have much product due to Cineplex Odeon only running Universal and Columbia titles for most NYC locations then?
There are photos on the NWS website, click the link in the introduction above. It’s an interesting design, but places like this, particularly those that I’ve been in before, always look to me as though they were renovating and ran out of money before the ceiling, wall coverings and carpet were installed.
While I have been and will continue to be highly critical of C/O and the Grand Pooh-bah, THIS was their best theatre in Manhattan. Well laid out and well decorated – and the obnoxious pink neon was kept to a minimum, I always liked this one. Unfortunately they built it in the wrong place.
Recently the company I work for hired one of the auditoriums here to have its pretentious annual meeting where the whole company gets into one room and celebrates itself and expects even its lowest-paid employees to service the corporate crevices with worship and adoration. I fully intended to hide in the back row and flee after 5 minutes but to my horror I found myself in the front row in the thick of the orgy of corporate self-stimulation onstage, and could not escape until it was over. I blanked my mind in order to survive the terrible occasion but do remember that the CEO’s fly was open. I had a front-seat view, and giggled throughout.
The theater is so changed from when it was Worldwide that it is unrecognizable. All that remains familiar is the mall-like layout. Gone are the expanses of carpet and the mood lighting I recall from before Worldwide became a discount sub-run house. The floors are now shiny concrete. The walls are metal and glass. Lighting was harsh. It was like being inside the Death Star, or a post-modern industrial art museum.
I have no complaints about the only three or four viewing experiences I had here, all of them in the early days when Worldwide was first run.
However, I did have one of those annoying bureaucratic experiences.
Because I was in NYC twice a year to review plays and films that eventually would open in my hometown of Pittsburgh, I tried to see a combination of six plays and movies (or a minimum of five) a say. Wednesdays and Saturdays two of them automatically were plays, with the movies before, between and, when possible, after.
To keep expenses down, I’d minimize breakfasts and lunches by getting through most of the day on moviehouse popcorn, large pretzels, etc.
One Monday in 1990 I arrived at Cineplex Odeon Manhattan Twin (as I think it was called then) on East 59th to buy some filling junk food and see both of its then-current features. It was already a minute or so before noon, so I had no time left to dine elsewhere even if I’d wanted to.
The young woman who seemed to be in charge, who wore her indifference like a medal of honor, told those of us waiting at the concession stand that the stand wouldn’t be opening because she hadn’t brought the extra keys. So much for lunch.
The next morning I set out on my Tuesday marathon, which was to begin at Cineplex Odeon’s Worldwide.
I wasn’t even thinking of it being the same circuit, but having just had the experience I had the day before at the Manhattan Twin, I took the precautionary measure of stopping at one of those MOM & Pop delis on Eighth Avenue and purchased a can of Pringles, just as a precaution.
I put it in the deep pocket of my overcoat, bought my ticket and headed to the Worldwide’s concession stand. Damned if a young lady in charge, with attitude to burn, wasn’t telling patrons at the concession stand that it wouldn’t be opening because there was no key.
I couldn’t believe the incompetence or the improbability that that would happen two consecutive days in theaters run by the same company.
It happened that my movie wasn’t to begin for several minutes, and there certainly weren’t many patrons in the whole building, so I strolled in the corridor for a moment, eating one Pringle chip at a time from the can in my overcoat pocket.
The same woman who had announced, without apology or regret, that the concession stand would not be opening, accosted me and told me I had no business bringing in food from the outside and that I would have to leave or get rid of it immediately.
I told her the cirumstances I’ve just mentioned and that it was lucky I has SOMETHING neat and easy to eat since the theater was not selling any of its own snacks that day. She didn’t yield a bit.
The fact that she and her supervisors weren’t satisfying their responsibility to the corporation nor to the patrons apparently hadn’t entered her head.
I saw one or two movies here in the late ‘90’s. The only one that comes to mind is Luc Besson’s bizarre “The Fifth Element” with Bruce Willis in the summer of 1997. I recall at the time that there was very little in theatres that held any interest for me (at least that I hadn’t already seen) and the big new release was “Air Force One.” By that point, the prospect of sitting through yet another by-the-numbers action film where Harrison Ford indignantly defends himself and family (“Get off my plane!”) against terrorists was depressing – I thought the movie looked like “Jack Ryan Goes to Washington” judging from the trailers. I had a desire to see something “different” and settled on the Besson film – which was at the end of it’s run at the Worldwide. Well… I got what I asked for! I’m not saying it’s a great movie (or even a GOOD one), but it sure did seem like a refreshing change of pace at the time – though I wanted to jump up on the screen and strangle the Chris Tucker character at several points!