O Cinema Miami Beach
500 71st Street,
Miami Beach,
FL
33140
500 71st Street,
Miami Beach,
FL
33140
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 41 comments
The city is again talking about converting it into a mixed use location but similar plans were floated before. Not sure if anything will come to pass this time around but the surrounding area is experiencing many changes.
Al, it was until the early 1990’s when Cobb took over. See the clipping below with the Cobb Byron Carlyle clearly listed in 1994. At some later point in the 90’s Regal took over. (See the Loew’s Bay Harbor page for more) Wometco pretty much jettisoned a lot of their beach theaters in the late 1980’s (The Surf and Normandy were closed by then)
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49433024/the-miami-herald/
Nope. This was a major Wometco Cinema.
PS Just a minor footnote, from 2001 to 2011, the theater was sometimes used for live productions though infrequently. From 2011 to 2014, it was used by the Broward theater company as a playhouse and O Cinema completed its full 5 year term lease from 2014 until its closure in late 2019.
Last developer effort/bid has been rejected by the city commission. Based on the article below and Al’s earlier comment, the main summary above should reflect that it closed in 2000 and was purchased by CMB in 2001.
https://www.remiamibeach.com/north-beach/miami-beach-commission-slams-door-on-byron-carlyle-redevelopment/
7 screens opening on Christmas day, 1986. no grand opening ad found.
Three screens on October 19th, 1979. Grand opening ad posted.
The O Cinema website no longer lists North Beach (called Miami Beach on the site before they opened South Beach) as a location, meaning this O Cinema is closed, leaving South Beach (the former Miami Beach Cinematheque) as the only O Cinema for the time being.
So for now Miami-Dade County has 4 art cinemas left, down from 7 a couple years ago. Those remaining are: Coral Gables Art Cinema, Bill Cosford Cinema (on the University of Miami campus), Tower Theater (on 8th Street in the Little Havana neighborhood), and O Cinema South Beach.
Also here’s a webpage regarding art film screenings at various locations around South Florida that might be useful:
https://www.miamiartguide.com/category/cinema-1/
This Miami Herald article about O Cinema having taken over the Miami Beach Cinematheque, says this location will close at the end of October because the city will not renew a lease for a building that needs to be recertified since it is more than 50 years old:
“The Next O Cinema is Opening At a South Beach Location Already Beloved by Film Fans“
It also says the property may be redeveloped into something that is required to include ten thousand square feet of cultural space that might house a new O Cinema.
Miami New Times article:
“O Cinema Cofounder Kareem Tabsch on Expanding to South Beach After Leaving Wynwood”
Two bids for redevelopment of the Byron/O. If the bids are accepted, it looks like the end is likely near for this venue.
https://www.remiamibeach.com/north-beach/two-bids-to-redevelop-byron-carlyle-theater/
Does the O in O Cinema stand for anything?
Regal operated it when it was sold in 1999 and then closed in 2000. Wometco probably still owned the property.
By the by, in the summary written up top, I don’t believe Wometco was the final owner before the city took over the property in the early 2000’s. I think Cobb owned it among others. Wometco sold the Byron at some point in the 1990’s.
CMB and O Cinema are squabbling over their 5 year agreement. Also, a shot of the new pink paintjob.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article205132174.html
The color scheme has been changed on the marquee from the mustard orange hue seen in photos to a shocking pink within the last several weeks. It was originally a shade of blue when the marquee was redesigned in the 1990s.
New official web site.
It ceased being a playhouse about a year or two back. O Cinemas took over last year and it is now a single screen venue. Sometime in the early 70s, it was split into three screens and then in 1986-1987 it became the Byron Carlyle 7. Does anyone have a photo of the marquee in the 70s or 80s? The “new” nautical marquee installed sometime in the 90s leaves something to be desired.
So it isn’t used as a regional theater anymore.
I recently visited this theatre (Feb 2015) I found it to be a very enjoyable experience. They actually sell beers along with the popcorn etc. The lobby is very clean as well as the bathrooms. The theatre has two levels, I went for the balcony and it was great. Not really the traditional balcony “way up there” but good. Seats were comfortable with plenty of legroom. The picture and the sound were very good. See the pictures I took outside (at night) and at the end of the picture.
One screen?
O CINEMA is bringing films back to this theater!
Read about it here: http://bit.ly/1uujVEE
December 18th, 1968 grand opening ad had been posted in the photo section.
The Broward Stage Door Theater company (which operates in the former Holiday Springs movie theater in Coral Springs), has signed a five-year lease on this theater and will rename it the Miami Beach Stage Door Theatre. Productions originating at its Coral Springs location will be remounted here.
Miami Beach is basically made up of reclaimed swamp land and dredging and pumping is often still needed during heavy rains. I worked at the Sunny Isles theatre which was built on stilts upon dredged up swamp land. Although the theatre never flooded, the parking lot was sinking and we sometimes had to removed crabs and walking catfish out of the auditoria before opening for the day.
Sub-pumps probably became a standard feature of Dade’s shoreline theaters. See what “generalcinemainfo” has to say about the 170th Street:
/theaters/15996/