Riviera Theatre
1560 S. Dixie Highway,
Coral Gables,
FL
33146
1560 S. Dixie Highway,
Coral Gables,
FL
33146
3 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp., Loew's Inc.
Firms: Peterson & Shuflin
Previous Names: Loew's Riviera Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Opened on February 16, 1956, the Loew’s Riviera Theatre was one of the first shopping center suburban theatres in the country and the first new build allowed Loew’s after it’s divorce from MGM and the Paramount Consent Decrees. The Loew’s Riviera Theatre was well supported by it’s proximity to the University of Miami and the main traffic artery of US 1. The journey from downtown would have taken minutes in the 1950’s. The opening feature, “Picnic” with William Holden, was dated with Radio City Music Hall. Seating in the single screen theatre was provided for 1,281, with 1,015 in the orchestra level and 216 seats in the loge (which was a smoking area). There were large murals of tropical plants along the auditorium side-walls.
I never went in when it became a five-plex, but the GCC twinning on October 9, 1974 could only be described as criminal. It was closed on January 29, 1999 with Michael Keaton in “Jack Frost”.
On a recent visit to Miami I saw an advertisement for the furniture showroom which took over the building, saying they would show a movie while you tried out the furniture. Might the projectors still be there? It was taken over by the Area Stage Company in 2008 who used one auditorium with a total seating capacity for 300. In 2016 the other space was a dance studio. It was closed in March 2020 and demolished in May 2021.
Contributed by
Al Alvarez
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Recent comments (view all 38 comments)
Grand opening ads:
Riviera theatre opening 1 Thu, Feb 16, 1956 – 79 · The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) · Newspapers.com
and
click to zoom in.
This theatre and the Westchester Cinema reopened as Twin cinemas on October 9th, 1974. Grand opening ad posted.
Five screens on May 23rd, 1986. Grand opening ad posted.
My final film here, was “Poltergeist III” in 1988. I wonder where the fifth theater was…
The balcony was split into two theaters, like the main auditorium. Awful.
The Riviera Theatre is closed.
Of the businesses in the Riviera Plaza shopping center, the theater was the centerpiece and the last to go.
In early February 2020, a few weeks before the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, I noticed that all of the Plaza’s storefronts other than the theater were permanently closed, with some posting signs saying they had relocated elsewhere. The Area Stage Company that was using the Riviera Theatre remained, probably until the shutdown, and is moving a block south to a space inside the Sunset Place shopping mall on the second floor near Barnes & Nobles.
When I walked by on July 27, 2020 the stores were still vacant. Curious, I Googled “Riviera Plaza”… and discovered that Gadinsky Real Estate, LLC has plans to turn it into a “70,000 sq. ft. multi-level Publix-anchored shopping center”, that would apparently require the original Plaza to be removed…
I believe that in the immediate area the only businesses that date back to when the Riviera Theatre was a cinema are Swensen’s restaurant and Publix supermarket (before it moves to the new Riviera Plaza).
I remember the Plaza once included Riviera Photo (I think it was called), a photography shop where University of Miami film students had their Super 8mm film cartridges processed for their introduction to film production classes. The store had been there for decades, then closed sometime in the 90’s due perhaps to the rise of digital cameras, and by that time the nice older couple who owned it may have wished to retire.
If the Riviera Plaza is torn down I may miss it, even though it hasn’t been a regular part of my life in many years.
That area was my neighborhood, while I was a film student at UM in the early 80s. We turned in our film to the “Stock Room” in the “Film Shack” on campus, then a person took it over there for us. I never set foot in Riviera Photo myself.
I did go to several films at the theater while in college, but never as a child, when I first lived in Miami from 67 until 73.
I wonder what will happen to the old Publix space, on Riviera Park. I’m guessing condos, etc. I lived in an apartment right on the park. I also worked as a front desk clerk at nearby The University Inn (OWNED by UM at the time). UM had NO idea that the sleazy general manager was allowing porn to be filmed in the Don Shula Suite. There also was a hep C outbreak in the restaurant. I think the building along the canal, now houses business suites.
The Riviera Theatre, as well as the entire Riviera Plaza shopping center of which it was a part, was demolished in the days leading up to May 25th, 2021, when I gazed down from the northbound Metrorail car I was riding on and saw machinery removing the last piles of debris.
Only the marquee still stands alone at the sidewalk on US-1. (I walked by today and confirmed this. I hope the developers leave it there or incorporate it into the new Publix project as I’ve always enjoyed how it sort of had its own identity physically separate from the building.)
Rest in peace Riviera…
Wow, thanks for posting this. I’ll never forget watching “2001: A Space Odyssey” at my San Remo Apartment (now demolished), and rushing to this nearby theater to watch “2010: The Year We Make Contact” in 1984 - with minutes to spare. was a UM student, and went there often.
Closed as a Cinema on January 29th, 1999, per:
Riviera Cinema closing 04 Feb 1999, Thu The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) Newspapers.com
In my comment dated August 8th, 2020, I mentioned that a new Publix was being planned for this property.
As I post this, I am sitting in the dining area of the Riviera Plaza Publix.
On the evening of August 16th, 2025, I walked alone around the perimeter of the soon-to-be supermarket that appeared almost ready to open.
Up close, I experienced a pang of nostalgia, as the way the building and its new, wide sidewalks take up the entire property emphasized the fact that nothing physically remains of the Riviera Theatre/Plaza stores that had been a regular part of my neighborhood life back in the 1990’s. I thought of the stand-alone marquee that I had hoped in my previous comment dated June 1st, 2021, would be preserved in some manner (pictured in the newspaper clipping in rivest266’s comment above this one).
As I left the stillness of the area, I felt a bit haunted remembering that on a Saturday night such as this, there often would have been a line at the box office waiting to see that weekend’s latest releases.
At 7am on September 25th I attended the grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony of the new Publix.
Inside while shopping, I wondered at what points was I standing at a spot where previously I had sat watching movies. When I encountered a customer I knew and mentioned this to her, she related and said she had seen “Grease”(1978) here.
Later, when “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues” by Elton John played on the store’s speakers, I got choked up, though I was missing a relationship to a place, not a person. In my head I started changing the lyrics at the end of the song: “Watching the movies. Eating at Subway. And I guess that’s why they called it Riviera. I used to watch movies. Now it’s a Publix…”
While heading to check out, I noticed I may have been the last of the group of first customers to finish, perhaps due to time spent reminiscing and taking the new place in. Before leaving I tried out the dining area, munching on some of my purchases, where I discovered a sign declaring it to be a wifi hotspot.
I have enjoyed this Publix several times since and feel that visiting the former Riviera Plaza strip mall property on the opening day of its new identity gave me some closure.
I’ll close what might be my final comment on this cinema with a link to a Miami Herald article from August 30th, 2025, via Yahoo News, that includes some memories of the Riviera Theatre:
“A New Publix is Coming to a Familiar Place — Across the Street from an Old Publix”