Pearlridge Cinema I-II-III-IV
98-151 Pali Momi Street,
Aiea,
HI
96701
98-151 Pali Momi Street,
Aiea,
HI
96701
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Opened on screen 1 with “7 man army”, screen 2 with “Ibong Adarna”, screen 3 wuth “All the presidents men”, screen 4 with “Cheerful Yakuza”.
This opened on July 11th, 1976 with Chinese, English, Japanese and Tagalog movies. Grand opening ads in the photo section.
Yes Steve, #3 was the main house for the newer films along with #4,
which were the same size (bigger) houses. #1 and #2 were a bit smallar in size. It was a great place to see a movie, the theatre was clean and well maintained and the projection was state of the art for it’s time. In 1976 it was the first of the multiplexes for Hawaii, previous to that time we had only single screen, and twin theatres like the Royal Marina, and Jerry Lewis cinemas. I always prefered the single big screen theatres, all of which are gone now.
The 4 plex was my hub of movie watching when I lived in the area as a teen. #3 was considered thee main one versus the other 3. I still remember the distinctive colors each theater had. #1 was BLUE, #2 RED, #3 YELLOW and #4 GREEN….. Lost count the rising prices of the tickets but I nevah complained. The opening of the megaplex in Phase II/Downtown was a mistake in the making. I think they should have done it over at the other end of Pearlridge IMO.
I still remember the deal we had with McDonalds across the street, all the coffee and burgers we could consume in exchange for movie passes.
Pearlridge 4 was used for showings of independant surfing
documentary movies. Once or twice a year we would rent out one of the screens for a week to show these very popular fims, which were shown in 16mm.
A few times,when Halloween fell on a weekend night, we would have a horrorfest, the shows would start at midnight and all four theatres would show horror films till about 4am.
Royal theatre
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Sorry Chuck, the Royal was already open when I first arived in 1972
I can only tell you we closed and demolished it in 1982.
Royal theatres, Herman Rosen, originaly wanted to play “South Pacific” for a year or two as a tourist attaction. If there is anything else I can tell you about that grand old theatre, let me know.
As for Pearlridge, as it was being built, we always planned another theatre complex across in the shopping center, the fourplex was supposed to run foreign language films and the one in Pearlridge center itself would run Hollywood films, including day and date with the Kam Drive-in. It took a while for that to happen and when it eventually did Pearlridge 4 was as you said, doomed.
I opened the Pearlridge 4 plex, but I believe it was 1976
When we opened, one auditorium showed Chinese films and another was strictly philipino movies, the other two ran second run American films. Eventually, the theatre ran all American films, some first run day and date with Honolulu. It was a very popular theatre with all four screens often selling out on the weekend.