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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: What is the most ridiculous multi-plex in your area?
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Adam Martin
I'm not even gonna point out the irony.
Posts: 3686
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 04-12-2002 12:25 AM
While I'm on the subject, here's a couple of my picks:Northgate Cinemas, Cincinnati, Ohio: This is now a 7-plex, but has been added to so many times that the hallways are literally a maze, including up and down stairs for no apparent reason. Studio 28, Wyoming (Grand Rapids), Michigan: The Beltline 3 Drive-In was so successful on this property that Jack Loeks built a single screen indoor theater to complement it. The indoor was successful enough to warrant a second huge auditorium, followed by several more additions, making the Studio the first of its kind several times including being the world's first 20-plex and the largest movie theater complex in the western hemisphere for a while. The drive-in was paved over along the way, giving the indoor theater a parking lot to rival many shopping centers. And then there's always the travesty of the Michigan Theater in Detroit. The owners of the Michigan Building converted the movie palace into a three-level parking structure. Much of the lobby, upper balcony, stage and projection booth are still intact.
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Charles Everett
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1470
From: New Jersey
Registered: May 2001
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posted 04-12-2002 05:25 PM
Ridiculous but historical is the Clairidge Cinema in Montclair NJ.Long ago it was the only Cinerama theater in New Jersey. When Cinerama faded the Clairidge became a giant single-screen like that UA in Berkeley. Later the Clairidge got chopped into 3 screens. Around 1996 it became a 6-plex set up much like the UA Berkeley 7. Now the Clairidge is run by Clearview Cinemas and the most important arthouse/upmarket venue in New Jersey. How important? It got to open Amelie on 2 screens one week after that picture opened in NYC. Also, any arthouse movie in the national top 20 is usually playing the Clairidge. Not to mention most of the recent Oscar winners!
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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 04-14-2002 10:42 PM
I managed a few of the poor multiplexes when I worked for Regal in South Florida. It's sad that they used to be grand showhouses and they were split up multiplexes:Byron-Carlyle 7, Miami Beach R.I.P.
- Opened as a two screen in 1968. Jackie Gleason cut the opening ribbon.
- Wometco theatre split it to 7 (yes 7!) Changed hands to Cobb and to Regal. Miller Square 8, Kendall, Florida R.I.P.
- Orignally opened as a 4 screener, At one point it had some the highest per-screen grosses in the nation.
- Womecto, Cobb, and Regal ran this one - into the ground. California Club 6, Miami (still open)
- When I managed it - it was the only ALL THX theatre in Florida (6 Screens)
- Opened as a Muvico, then Regal bought it.It is now a poorly run independant. Britton 8, Tampa, Florida
- Was originally a GCC 1 screener - split into 8 screens.
- Muvico did an amazing job with this one, then Regal got a hold of it. That is just a few of them.
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"Running through life at 24 frames per second"
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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 04-15-2002 12:25 AM
The Byron was a respectable theatre, but Miller Square was never ever a showplace. Many of Wometco's big theatres were on their last legs or closed before Cobb bought in. Some of those weren't multiplexed, but probably should have been.Miami Lakes was the theatre that was so confusing ushers had to direct people at a point midway down the hall. Oh yeah, Miller, Miami Lakes, and Byron all passed through Theatre Acquisitions, L.P. before being bought by Cobb. The Fox in Tuscaloosa Alabama was another chop job, as was Midfield, near Birmingham. Chopping saved many locations from an early death.
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Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted 04-15-2002 09:49 AM
quote:
The Fox in Tuscaloosa Alabama was another chop job, as was Midfield, near Birmingham. Chopping saved many locations from an early death.
Jerry, was it you, long ago, that noted that the Fox 12 in Tuscaloosa had 12 screens and 11 separate booths? Was the theatre originally a twin, with one theatre on each side, with each eventually split into 6? It is difficult for me to imagine the auditorium or booth layout there, since I've never been in the theatres. These are in the older Macfarland Mall, which was probably the first mall there. I guess I should make it a point to visit the Tuscaloosa library and see when the current theatres there were built and investigate the history like I've done locally and started doing in Nashville and Birmingham.
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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site
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John Pytlak
Film God
Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 04-15-2002 10:34 AM
Richard Fowler said: "...it was orginally equipped with Norelco AAII and as a child and early teen saw "Around the World in Eighty Days",
"Oklahoma", "South Pacific", "Mad,Mad,Mad,World", in glorious 70mm....I was hooked"A story shared by many!: 
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/reel/december98/pppp.shtml
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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion
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Tom Fermanian
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 101
From: Sainte Adele, Quebec, Canada
Registered: Dec 2001
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posted 04-15-2002 10:48 AM
I figure that now with DTS, 70mm prints shouldn't be as expensive to make as before, If I remember correctly, the major expense before was to magneticly stripe 6 tracks of fer/ox on the print, then record the sound in real time. Nowadays, I suppose that putting an optical control track could be done same time as picture like in 35mm, not making 70s that much more expensive than 35, Plenty of Norelcos, Centurys and Cinemeccanica's still around that would be adaptable for 35 /70, platters are also adaptable cheaply,That would be "Film done Right" especialy for the new king sized screens!   ------------------
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Wes Hughes
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 175
From: Raleigh, NC, USA
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 04-15-2002 05:15 PM
Janus Theatres in Greensboro, NC is an odd theatre. It started in the 70's as a twin consisting of two octagonal (yes) shaped theatres with a central lobby. Then they took in a ranch style office building (which I suspect used to be a house)that was immediately behind it and added 3 more screens, two of which had sofas instead of fixed chairs. The main entrance was moved to the side where the offices were, and the old, larger lobby was just a big room you had to go through to get to the original two big theatres. The projection room stairs just dropped from the ceiling into the middle of that part of the complex. Then the owners bought another building across the parking lot and called it the CineBar. I think it had three or four screens, one of which they called the "penthouse screening room." It was upstairs, and the projector was on the roof in a little shack. It used rear projection.But you can't see it. They tore the whole thing down a few months ago, and now the mixed use condominiums/retail space are almost done  I used to run a small screening room style theater called Studio I&II in Raleigh, NC. It is located in the basement of this now defunct three story downtown mall across from North Carolina State University. Screen one: 51 seats, screen two: 59 seats. It was very small and you had to go in through a very long hallway to the rear of the basement. Had a lot of good times there. We closed it in October of 2000 when we bought a closed UA 5 screener on the other side of the university. It is still there and up for lease, but the booth is stripped. People loved that theater...partially because we sold beer, and partially because it was so odd. I'll try to find some pictures.
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