Cineplex Odeon Route 17 Triplex
85 South Route 17,
Paramus,
NJ
07652
85 South Route 17,
Paramus,
NJ
07652
16 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Century Theaters, Cineplex Odeon, RKO, Stanley-Warner Theatres
Previous Names: Century's Paramus Theatre, RKO Stanley Warner Triplex, RKO Century Paramus Theatres
Nearby Theaters
Located at the Garden State Plaza Shopping Center. Century’s Paramus Theatre opened as a single screen on June 30, 1965 with James Garner in “The Art of Love”. It was twinned on October 29, 1971 in the waning days of the RKO-Stanley-Warner circuit. On December 9, 1983 the theatre was triplexed and renamed the RKO Stanley Warner Triplex.
In its later years, this hard top box was run by Century Theatres which once had a strong presence in the New York metropolitan area.
Every chain that once occupied the theatre is still represented on the theatre’s signage with the façade bearing the name "RKO Century Paramus Theatres".
The theatre was operated by Cineplex Odeon (Loews Cineplex) in its later years. The Stanley-Warner name can still be seen in the entrance of this shopping center cinema which is at the junction of Routes 4 and 17 in Paramus.
A true "Cinema Treasure"? Maybe not. But with 70mm projection and a dated, throwback quality, the Cineplex Odeon Route 17 was a reminder of a less glamourous but rapidly vanishing world in which two, three, and four-screen theatres ruled the moviegoing landscape.
The Route 17 was closed in January 2006 and demolished in May 2007.
Contributed by
Cinema Treasures
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Recent comments (view all 129 comments)
That Stanley Warner Triplex in that ad is the Route 4 theatre, not the Century Route 17 twin.
Superman made its debut here 40 years ago when it was a twin in Dolby Stereo.
June 30th, 1965
Century Paramus theatre opening Wed, Jun 30, 1965 – 40 · The Herald-News (Passaic, New Jersey, United States of America) · Newspapers.com
This was the second theater in Paramus to use 70mm projection when it opened.
The theatre was very similar to the Century Green Acres Theatre, Valley Stream, NY
And Also Century’s Roosevelt Field
Please update, theatre became a triplex on December 9, 1983. RKO Century Warner also triplex it’s sister theatre the Green Acres Cinemas the same month. Grand Reopening ad posted.
Anyone have pictures of this theatre as a Cineplex Odeon?
Maybe not a cinema treasure? It most definitely was during its brief period as a single screen theater. Very elegant with a large screen and spacious auditorium nicely designed. As soon as it was spit in half it felt like a dump. Small screens that you had to look at at an angle. Too sad. 70MM here would have been a joke. Totally pointless. Even as a single screen it never showed a genuine 70mm film at all as far as I know. Had it been built sooner it would have been a great hard ticket house. Even in the second half of the 60s it could have shown reserved seat films. NJ suburbanites wouldn’t have had to drive up to NY State to see films like Zhivago, Lion in Winter, Oliver and Funny Girl. Strangely they didn’t play in Bellevue, North Jersey’s big reserved seat center.
I never saw it as a single screen theater. It wasn’t that terrible when they split it into 3. A little bit rundown but still decent size screens and pretty good sound. It was kind of spooky inside. Stepping back into a time warp even in the 2000s