Multiplexes No More

I am through with going to the Multiplex everytime I go to the movies.

First of all, I saw Spiderman 2 on Friday, at one of the crappiest theaters ever. I paid $8.50 for no leg room, mono audio system, and a poorly lit projection. If you live in New Jersey, avoid the Pascack Theater in Westwood.

With that said, I also had one of the best movie experiences the next night, when I saw Spiderman 2 again at the Lafayette Theater in Suffern, New York. There is only one screen, and for good reason: they only need one. This theater looked like an opera house--they have a chandelier hanging from the ceiling of the screening room. The row of seats were spread out for more leg room, the whole room itself was ornately decorated like they used to be in the 20's and 30's--like when Indy himself would have gone to see a movie. They also had balcony seating, and a Wurlitzer organ for their silent movie festivals.

The audio system was terrific, the picture quality was crisp, clear and well-lit. Check out http://www.galaxy-movie-theatre.com/suffern/index.html to see what I'm talking about.
And the best part is i paid 50 cents less, and I got at least 50 percent more.

Also, no adverstising, no Coke commercials, no car commercials, no cell phone commercials. Just organ music a half hour before the movie, and one (1) trailer.

I am so in love with this place right now.

What's Multiplex?

Our local theatre is made in 1955.

My town currently has two theatres. The first is an art deco styled theatre built in the 1940's. It's not as fancy as say the Hollywood Chinese theatre, but it is nice. It has one huge screen and they keep the sound system to the newest and best system available.

The second is a 14 screen multiplex. All of the screens have at least Dolby digital Surround, with the two larger screens featuring THX certified systems. Some of the screens also have Sony's digital sound system. all of the screens are stadium seating. I know which screen to request when buying tickets in order to get the best viewing possible because my brother used to work there. I also know where not to sit in the theatres (for very unsanitary child realted reasons.....think about it).

I prefer the art deco theatre. It always gives me a better experience. Plus they show older films there, and I was recently able to see LC again on the big screen, which was awesome.

Luke

Lucky, you should search back into the Film Classics forum for my rant on the current state of American cinema...I think you would like it.

Mann's Chinese here in L.A. is similar to the one you describe, (though it has 4 or 5 very large theaters) I have only been to them a couple of times many years ago, but it has the same decor. And the sound system...penultimate, it's where I first saw Heat.

One of sad-fates facing many of the old time stand-alone theatres is that they've had to carve themselves up into two or three multiple screens inorder to survive. My local theatre in Bronxville met with such a fate (and I know the one in downtown Gettysburg PA did as well). My local theatre was once a great old venue but it was cut down the middle to make two screens and the balcony was closed off (by adding a ceiling over the main theatre) to add a third screen. Sad? Yes. But I accept it because I'm just happy to be able to still walk to the theatre -- and have three features to chose from. How many people these days can still walk to the threatre?

When I lived in New York City, my wife and I were within a less than 15 minute walk of something like 24 screens. Our favorite, the Sony at Lincoln Center is a huge urban multiplex that was furnished better most throwback theatres that have been constructed in the last ten or so years. Each screen has (admittedly somewhat plasticky, sp?) decor that is themed to match an old-time classic theatre. The lobby is a huge multi-story affair with sweeping escalators and a huge multi-level mural of Hollywood. Due to massive volume, it's starting to get a run down in the past few years, but it's still a great place to be opening night. And it's nicer than over huge multiplexes that have opened more recently in other parts of the city, like Times Square.

For anyone who's ever complained about ticket prices, there's a somewhat interesting epilogue to all those modern warehouse suburban theatres that were built in the last ten years (the ones with the great stadium seating and sound systems). All that overbuilding bankrupted most of those chains. I think at one point in the last four years some huge percentage of screens in the U.S. were controlled by companies that were debtors in Chapter 11. Now those companies have pretty much reorganized or liquidated at this point, with their assets sold off. But in the end, it was the movie-going public that really got the benefit because a whole lot of theatres that should never have been built got built in the 1990's, their investors lost their shirts, and now most of the theatres are operating under new ownership who are not shouldered with the true costs of building.

Pale Horse said:

Mann's Chinese here in L.A. is similar to the one you describe, (though it has 4 or 5 very large theaters) I have only been to them a couple of times many years ago, but it has the same decor. And the sound system...penultimate, it's where I first saw Heat.

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Mann's Chinese has the one original screen and 4 newer screens which were built behind the existing building around 10 years ago. I have only been in the main theatre there (5 times for Star Wars Ep1 and once for Ep2). I'll be there for opening day of Ep3 next year.

The Architecture of the Chinese theatre is beautiful. Classic Hollywood Art Decco. The El Rey Theatre I was speaking of in my earlier post is nowhere near as elaborate as the Chinese, but it is still considered Art Decco.

Luke

There's another theatre in my town, the Senator, which was one of the old Art Decco single screen theatres built in the 30s or 40s. It was split into 5 screens (3 downstairs, 2 upstairs where the balcony had been). About 10 years ago the theatre was sold by United Artists to a local businessman and was closed. It has since been renovated back to one auditorium. The Decco marqee tower was removed several years ago and is being retrofitted with new steel structural members and is going to be replaced later this year. Unfortunately, The Senator will no longer be showing any movies. It is now owned by a local theatre company (read drama/acting) and will only be used as a play house.

Luke

skywlkrinc said:

Unfortunately, The Senator will no longer be showing any movies. It is now owned by a local theatre company (read drama/acting) and will only be used as a play house.

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Same thing happened in Pittsburgh to the Stanley Theatre. It was great old movie house that fell on hard times. For a time during the '60's/'70's it was used as a parking garage (there's photos of cars driving past the ticket window) before reverting to a dirty/tired concert venue for mostly rock acts in the '80's. Eventually it was refurbished and is now the city's center for the performing arts. Much better fate than the wrecking ball . . .

That's pretty cool (the first post). We have the Louisville Palace, and hopefully some of you Raveners got to see Raiders there last year. The cool thing is it doesn't play current movies. It either has shows or plays old movies. We have an annual classic movie festival, too, and this year both Raiders AND Last Crusade are being played! I hope I get to go, but... They're showing some other good ones like To Kill a Mockingbird and such. Check out louisvillepalace.com to see the list and times. Lucky, does the Lafayette play serials before the movies (the classic ones?)? I remember we went to see Singin' in the Rain a few years back and they played an old Captain Marvel/Shazam serial before the show. It was pretty cool.

They tore our old 2 screen cinema down years ago and built a 'retirement community' on it. Now my local cinema is a 14 screen multiplex with inflated prices and air conditioning that makes the whole place several degrees too cold. There is never enough loo roll in the ladies toilets and the vinyl flooring in the screens is always sticky with spilt pepsi and popcorn. I used to work there, haha! It sucked.

I just saw King Arthur in the Toms River Seacourt Pavilion (New Jersey). I am surprised at the security. I bought a ticket several hours before it began (it had only been in theaters for a day or two), but did not even need to, because no one checked for a ticket. Of course, I arrived late, and had to sit in the back of the theater, with horrible speakers. Fortunately, it was not that bad of a movie.