RKO Twin Wayne
80 NJ-23,
Wayne,
NJ
07470
80 NJ-23,
Wayne,
NJ
07470
No one has favorited this theater yet
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Cineplex Odeon, RKO, Stanley-Warner Theatres
Nearby Theaters
The first twin theatre in the state of New Jersey. It opened November 20, 1968 with Richard Harris in “Camelot” showing in both screens with staggered showtimes. Each screen had 393-seats. It was located in the S. Klein shopping center (today renamed Wayne Towne Center) where Route 23 meets Route 46.
Contributed by
Bill Huelbig
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 7 comments)
Pretty undistinguished in terms of decor and ambience—probably similar to some of the contemporary RKO Twins on Long Island—and at the time (25-30 years ago) the screens seemed undersized to me. Of course, that was before so many of the single-screen theatres I frequented got cut up into even smaller twins, triplexes, etc., so by comparison to those, the screens at the RKO Twin would look spacious and the auditoriums would feel roomy. Projection and sound were never less than adequate, although AFAIK only theatre #1 was ever equipped for stereo surround. Not certain when this twin closed, probably in the late ‘80s or early '90s. I seem to recall it succumbed to competition from the nearby Loews Wayne sixplex (which later became an eightplex, and is now a 14-plex) earlier than the Totowa Cinema and Cinema 46, which were also nearby. I’m pretty sure that the space it once occupied was given over to expanded parking for the adjacent shopping mall.
Here’s a November 1968 Bergen Record ad announcing the revolutionary new concept of the twin theater, before the concept really caught on (perhaps too well):
View link
The aformentioned shopping mall is the Wayne Town Center, where the defunct department store of the same name is now the Fortunoff, where one of my stepsister’s classmates from high school, Misty, worked.
I saw “The Outsiders” at the RKO Twin. It became a second run theater a few years later. If my friends didn’t feel like waiting in line to pay full price at Loews we would go over to RKO.
This opened on November 20th, 1968. Grand opening ads in the photo section.
nearly 40 years ago.
Cineplex Odeon last operated the Wayne Twin for a few months until closing on December 3, 1987 with one of the screens playing “Planes, Trains And Automobiles” in Screen 1 (the attraction immediately moved to the Loews Wayne 6 after its closure). Screen 2’s final attraction is unknown.