This is topic Used to be a dump -- now it's a showplace in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 08-27-2001, 11:17 AM:
Two years ago I saw Run Lola Run at the Garden Theatre in Princeton NJ. It hadn't come to my area yet and I figured it was the only chance I could see it. The theater was a dump -- oversize auditoriums, old seats, scratchy mono sound. After that I thought, Why would anyone go to see a movie there?Last Xmas the Garden was closed for refurbishing. It reopened this summer and I paid a visit this weekend to see Ghost World.
This used to be a dump . . . now it's a showplace!
New lobby (though lit a bit too brightly for my eyes).
Stadium seating and Dolby Digital in both halls 
The seating is stadium rear/sloped in front like the UA Union Square. Guardrails in the middle of each aisle, too, to help older people get around.
Nice choice of non-sync music: "The Phantom of the Opera" followed by early Beatles. Good to see a theater playing something that isn't MovieTunes.
Christie package in the booth. I could ID it from the porthole.
Here's to a long life for the Garden Theatre.
Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 08-27-2001, 11:19 AM:
Charles is the theatre operated by an independant or a chain?
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 08-27-2001, 11:22 AM:
It's a 2-screen independent. Their main competition is a 6-screen arthouse 4 miles north and a 9-screen UA on Route 1.
Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 08-27-2001, 11:59 AM:
There was a seven plex in Kendall Park just North of Princton That had been put in where there was once an old A&P. Is that theatre gone now? It was owned by one of the former owners of the Golden Theatre Circuit in NYC. Is this theatre still in existence?
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 08-27-2001, 05:55 PM:
The Kendall Park theater was about halfway between Princeton and New Brunswick on Route 27. It closed in September '99 -- 6 months after Regal opened a nearby megaplex on Route 1.