Plaza Cinema
751 Black Horse Pike,
Turnersville,
NJ
08032
751 Black Horse Pike,
Turnersville,
NJ
08032
5 people
favorited this theater
When the Plaza Cinema opened on October 6, 1971 with John Phillip Law in “The Love Machine”. It had the Washington Township movie market all to itself. But a year later, a New York firm bought the theater and began showing pornography. A group of churchgoing teenagers set up a picket line around the theater. They carried signs such as, Smut and Filth Out' orGet Out'. A week later, the Plaza’s 26-year-old manager was arrested on `a charge of showing obscene films' after an undercover operation by township. It went back to screening 2nd run mainstream movies from May 10, 1972 and this continued until 1981 under the management of Platt Theatres. It then went back to screening X-Rated movies.
From Summer of 1983 it began screening XXX-Rated movies and this policy lasted for 19-years operated by Cinema Art Theatres Inc of Haverford, PA. The Plaza Theatre was closed on April 20, 2002.
The Plaza Cinema was demolished in the summer of 2008.
Contributed by
tc
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
Listed as part of Milgrim Theatres, Inc. in the 1985 International Motion Picture Almanac.
I had lots of fun at the Plaza in the 1970’s. Saw several films there while it was still a ‘legitimate’ theatre. And I’m certain it hadn’t gone porno until at least 1978…I distinctly remember seeing “Jaws 2” there; I recall vividly walking thru a giant set of cardbord jaws as entrance into the seating area.
I went inside the theater a few years ago with my camcorder. Here’s the footage I shot:
View link
Here’s some more footage:
View link
Man, that is a scary place to drive past still. I drove past it all the time as a teen ager, as it’s parking lot was a short cut to my girlfriend’s house. I also remember the protestes happening very weekend. Why has this not been torn down? I guess because there is really no need for the land. It has got to be one of the oddest locations for a movie theater- the back of a strip mall, where they dump the dishwater.
RIP Plaza Cinema – got torn down a couple months ago. it got replaced with some cement walkways and grass. i had lots of fun times with my friends goin into that place, it was really nasty
Jim7788hitchcock, Are you able to replace your footage of The Plaza Theatre as both of the above links are broken? Thank you.
I would like to hear nursebrittany’s funny story re her and friends entrance into this theatre, if you have time to type details. Thanks
Lived in the area in the mid 1990s and it was a sketchy venue. I drove by but never went in because I think it was a $20 cover charge for entry.
Wish jim7788hitchcock could post the videos on YouTube for us to see
Carrols Development opened its 400-seat automated mini-cinema in the W.T. Grant’s Plaza on October 6, 1971 with Jacqueline Susann’s “The Love Machine.” Its address was 751 Black Horse Pike. Countryside Theaters, Inc. takes on the venue running into major protests and an obscenity charge for showing X-rated film in February of 1972. The theater closes and reopens with second-run Hollywood fare on April 14, 1972 with neither protests or many customers. The theater closes soon thereafter. Platt Showcase Theatres takes on the venue on May 10, 1972 with first-run Hollywood films starting with Dirty Harry.
On July 30, 1982, it shifts to X-rated fare likely on a sublease from Milgrim Theatres. It then switches to unrated XXX films. With Grant’s long-bankrupt, the shopping center changes names to the Route 42 Shop Center. It found its audience as it would become one of the area’s longest running adult theatres. By the turn of the Century, there were just three adult theatres left in all of the Delaware Valley. But on April 30, 2002 at the end of a 20-year subleasing agreement and following a double feature of Avi Scott and Bobbi Barrington in “The Girl Next Door” and Briana Banks and Nikita Denise in “Up the Wahoo” it was over. The Plaza would remain empty until its demolition in 2008.
Such things may not matter too much but the phrase above, “Nonetheless, the cinema survived on this format until it closed on April 20, 2002” is off by ten years (and, technically, more).
The theatre showed 95% mainstream Hollywood fare from May 10, 1972 to 1981 under Platt Showcase Theatres Circuit and then Milgrim Theatres with only a few midnight adult titles. Platt was responding to the picketing that dogged the theater under previous owner Countryside’s X-rated policy.
Under new operators, it returned to X-rated fare in 1982. The Plaza actually returned to the format / policy referenced above only for a little over a year.
Then in the Summer of 1983 it switched to racier, unrated “XXX” films - for the first time - under most likely a subleasing deal. Unrated XXX films are actually a different format than X-rated porno chic films. It stayed with that format 19 years throughout the home video era - the longest period for this venue. And it stayed with the policy longer than most theaters did in the United States. An impressive run for a most unimpressive facility.
Again, probably doesn’t matter but there you have it.