Route 9 Cinema Four
4345 US Highway 9,
Freehold,
NJ
07728
4345 US Highway 9,
Freehold,
NJ
07728
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Brandt Theaters, Loews, Music Makers
Functions: Retail
Previous Names: Pond Road Cinema
Nearby Theaters
This was a one story building made of cinder blocks that looked like a garage. At one time it was in a free booking zone so it got A-track first run. The Pond Road Cinema was opened by Music Makers Theatres on May 16, 1973 with “Cabaret”. Later taken over by Loews.
Eventually when new multiplexes were built, it became a $3 second run house and closed on August 28, 1997. It has been gutted and is now a Petco store.
Contributed by
Robert R
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Actually, Loews didn’t build this theatre in the beginning. It was a small chain called Music Makers, which built small theatres in Bricktown and Freehold. The other Freehold theatre complex, the Freehold Cinemas, was also owned by Music Makers before Loews took over the two theatres.
This theatre is now a Petco, and has been for quite a while. There’s no trace of its ever having shown movies. In fact, I shop there and often forget that myself :) What most likely killed this and the other theatre TMQ mentions were the 8-screeners at the nearby Freehold Raceway Mall (which did not exist until 1989) and Marlboro, the next town over (run by Regal, not Loews).
As for the other complex, it has been gutted to become a gym. My boyfriend works out there and I recall him telling me something about how he believes an upstairs cardio studio may have been the projection room. I can ask him again if you like.
A teeny correction on my last post…the marquee in the shopping center where the movies were displayed now showcases Petco in the lower part and Staples (in another part of the strip mall, not part of the theatre) where the Loews/Music Makers brand was.
Listed as a 4 screen Brandt Theatre in the 1985 International Motion Picture Almanac.
Anyone know when this originally opened and when the Freehold Cinema 6 opened? From what I remember these two theaters split first run films between them before the Metroplex opened, can anyone with a better memory back this up?
Another former Loews.
Yes – I worked at the 6 at the end of HS and when home from College. Filled in at this one now and again too. They did indeed split 1st run movies. Debbi – the only upstairs areas at the Cinema 6 were indeed projection rooms. One staircase (behind the concession stand and accessible from there and through theater 2) led to the projectors for the first 4 theaters, and then there was a staircase near the back that had the projectors for the last two theaters. Neither theater was any great shakes, particularly compared to the way they look now, but I remember the Quad having a particularly small lobby. With that tiny ticket booth right inside the door and a really small concessions stand too. They were both converted to $2 theaters (I never really know if that was the intent when they opened the Metroplex or an experiment….and it didn’t happen immediately) though I had to guess that Loews expected them to not be first run (or even keep them) when they decided to build the Metroplex. Theaters like those at the time were rapidly giving way to brand new multiplex’s. Same in Boston where I worked at another Loews during college.