Dover Theatre
Route 37 and Route 166,
Toms River,
NJ
08753
Route 37 and Route 166,
Toms River,
NJ
08753
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May 7, 1967 image credit the Asbury Park Sunday Press, courtesy Randy Rossman. Shows front of the theater after the grand opening.
Mike Rivest’s newspaper clipping from the Asbury Park (NJ) Press indicates that the Dover opened on Friday April 28, 1967 with “Hombre” starring Paul Newman.
According to a July 27, 1979 article in the Asbury Park Press (Page 37) the Dover Theater was the site of the (world) premiere of “The Amityville Horror” (1979) on Thursday July 26, 1979. Much of the movie was filmed in the Toms River area.
Now demolished. I was down there on Friday. The mall building that the theater was in is gone, and the land already being reconfigured for another complex of some sort. The Marquee still stands on County 166, but I don’t know if it will remain.
The Music Makers circuit acquired the Dover and Community theaters in Toms River from SWK Theatres in 1976, according to a report in Boxoffice of October 18 that year. Music Makers planned to give the 800-seat Dover a complete modernization and redecoration. It would operated as a first run house with a $3.00 admission price, while the larger Community Theatre would become a sub-run house charging $1.50.
Prior to Music Makers Group, this was a Walter Reade Theatre.
Demolished as of this date 3-7-11 to make way for a Super ShopRite supermarket.
Dover I & II CLOSED ? 1980-? 1998
Owners:
1980-1985 Music Makers Group, Inc., The
1990 Loew’s
1995-1998 Sony Theatre Management Corp
excerpted from http://movie-theatre.org/usa/nj/tomsriver.pdf