Odeon Newcastle Closure Date Now Official

posted by Ross Melnick on October 30, 2002 at 9:56 am

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, ENGLAND — November 26, 2002 will be the final day of the 71-year-old Odeon, according to The Journal.

The now four-screen theater, which has a historic link with the James Bond series, will host a gala charity event and screening of the new Bond film, “Die Another Day” on November 19th — just one week before its final end. (Tickets are still available for 7.50.)

According to the Journal, “The charity premiere of the latest Bond film which stars Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry, is in aid of the Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund.” Peter Talbot, who has served as the general manager of the Odeon Newcastle since 1976, is on the board of the Fund.

The closing of the old theater on November 26th will take place one day before the grand opening of a new 12-screen Odeon cinema in Newcastle named The Gate.

According to Ian Grundy, the Odeon Newcastle originally opened on September 7, 1931 as the Paramount and was built by the US-based theater circuit. It bears a strong aesthetic similarity to the Paramount in Aurora, IL.

In 1939, Paramount sold the Newcastle palace, along with the rest of its UK theaters, to Odeon Cinemas. In the 1970s, the theater was converted to a triplex and then in 1980, a fourth screen was converted out of the former stage area.

Grundy writes, “In 1999, the Odeon was grade 2 listed with English Hertitage stating ‘[It is] the best surviving Paramount cinema in Britain, with well composed facade and rich interior with Lalique glass fittings.’

The future of the theater is now uncertain.