Cines Plaza 1 & 2
Plaza Las Americas,
San Juan
00936
Plaza Las Americas,
San Juan
00936
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 19 comments
To Cineast, who posted the picture of Plaza Theaters — Muchas Gracias! It’s interesting to note — the corner closest to the camera has “Restaurant Cervantes.” By the cars I date this very early 70’s. By the time I was a movie goer there, in the late 70s, that restaurant was “Restaurant Sancho Panza.” And in the 1979-1980 expansion, that restaurant gave way to a Burger King and other fast-food joints.
But for all those years, the marquee and facade never changed, and I still remember the glow of that signage.
Thank you for the memories… seeing this picture stopped my heart cold, it was almost like seeing a picture of a love long lost..
The theaters opened in 1968. Plaza 1 showed The Odd Couple and Plaza 2 The Thomas Crown Affair as the opening attractions.
When exactly did these theaters opened?
I was able to enjoy on of the last movie shown on Plaza 1 & 2, Titanic on December 25, 1997 and before that big blockbusters like Superman the Movie, Grease, Back to Future among others. Like it was mentioned before, is a shame that there are no more great theaters like those left to enjoy that kind of blockbusters like we used to.
Thank you for agreeing with me Kishka. Did you live in San Juan ? You have no idea how I miss the old days of cinema ! :)
I agree Manuel; Plaza I y II and Laguna Gardens were something special.
There is nothing SADDER to the movie loving community than having to accept the fact that Plaza 1 & Plaza 2 are gone the way of the Dodo. The same thing happened to the Laguna Gardens theaters. I cannot begin to try to explain to this generation of movie going people the difference between what they think is good enough and the majestic movie theaters of yesterday. Where are those great minds from the 1970’s that made real those awesome movie theaters? We need you now in 2010!! We need them to show this generation how majestic was the mind of men in the 1970’s and how serious was the business of offering the movie going crowds the best in entertainment.
Renewing link/
The name of the current theater at Plaza Las Americas is Caribbean Cinemas, it has 13 auditoriums. Caribbean Cinemas is the biggest and the only movie chain in P.R. They have almost 35 movie theaters around the island, also they have two Fine Arts theaters in San Juan that projects foreigns movies.
I was living there in the 80s…why am I remembering being MORE then 2 screens?!? My memory must be fuzzy. I remember seeing the re-release of E.T. at this theater sometime between 1983-1985.
What is the name of the theater curerntly at Plaza Las Americas? I went to see Pixar’s Up there when vacationing & the Digital 3D auditorium’s volume was on FULL blast! I loved every bit of it! I was almost deaf getting out of there!
These were great theaters: large, huge screens, great sound system. I saw Jaws 2, Conan the Barbarian, Scarface and many others there. Living now in NYC and its current crop of badly maintained theaters, I miss Plaza I y II.
As far as I can remember they where not old, I believe they open sometime in the early 70’s that’s why I was surprise to hear they had been demolished.
I remember the Plaza twin, it was very popular in the 1980’s. I remember seeing “Aliens”, “The Living Daylights”, “Batman” and other big 80’s films. I saw “True Lies” and “Mortal Kombat” in the 90’s. I was shocked to see them demolished. Anyone have any pics of the theaters in its heyday? Anyone knows when it first officialy opened?
Correction: the design made them “look” bigger, not bigger.
Forgot to mention in the previous comment that the Plaza 1 had about 900 seats and the Plaza 2 about 450. The way they were designed made them bigger.
70mm_Forever:
I worked with Cobian/Commonweath Theatres when the Plaza Twins were born. The architect was Angel Aviles, who did all the Cobian Theaters in the 60’s. I can’t remember the name of the interior designer, he was married to actress Marta Romero at the time. Then Wometco came in and bought Cobian and then Cinevista bought Wometco. Wometco was based in Miami and besides owning a movie chain in Florida they also owned the Miami Seaquarium and the local CBS television station. The Wometco name comes from the last names of the owners, Wolfson and Mitchell. Why wasn’t it called “Womitco”? I have no idea where Cinevista came from.
Bill. what you saw was probably an old discoteque originally called “Flying Saucer” which explains the weird shape. The Cinerama was located in Santurce.
Jose, I was in Puerto Rico for a very short time—just enough time to go from the airport to a cruise ship. While on the highway passing through San Juan, I saw a dome structure off to the side. It looked very much like a Cinerama-type dome theatre. Do you know of a building like this in San Juan? And if there is, is this an old Cinerama theatre? Thanks!
These are my favorite theaters of all time, particulary I, with its curved, monster screen — it must have been about 70 ft wide by 35 tall. I think I sat around 1500 or 2000 people. Crisp, snappy presentation with an extremely clear audio system (I think they used Klipsch for speakers, instead of the more common Voice of the Theater Altecs.)
Hearing that they were torn down made me a li'l sad.. I spent a good part of my childhood in those two theaters. ;o)
If anyone knows which architect / firm made ‘em, please contact me — I would love to get photograhps and even blueprints for Plaza I, I’d love to build a small, scale replica as a home theater.