163rd Street & Patio Theatre
1245 NE 163rd Street,
North Miami Beach,
FL
33162
1245 NE 163rd Street,
North Miami Beach,
FL
33162
4 people
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Closed at the end of April 1994.
This theatre was split into two screens and the Patio theatre became cinema no. 3 on July 3rd, 1981. Grand opening ad posted.
Opened September 28th, 1960
Grand opening ad and an ad from Loew’s
163rd St. theatre opening Wed, Sep 28, 1960 – 32 · The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) · Newspapers.com
So, Linda Gray actually did the poster?
Here’s the ad.
Found on Newspapers.com
“The Graduate” opened here fifty years ago today. The film went on to play a successful four months while playing concurrent in a few other area venues. And to commemorate the classic film’s golden anniversary, here’s a new retrospective article which includes some exhibition history (and other) details.
163rd circa 1961
I Just posted a Photo of Wometco’s 163 rd Street and Patio Theatres. I Did This Marquee in 1980 for their Holiday Attractions.
The 163rd St. was a single screen until it twinned around 1983. Yes, The Patio screen was completely separate. It had 850 seats. both sides had 70mm capability. In fact, during the end of RETURN OF THE JEDI’s run, an attempt was made to run the 70mm print in one of the now 300 seat sides, since the projector had been left upstairs during the twinning. It…did not go well. We would often get 70mm exclusives before the other theaters.
it was demolished and became a home depot
I have uploaded some ads and a picture of this theatre.
Loved this theater. When I was a teen-aged mall rat in the early-mid ‘80s, I used to take the bus to N. Miami and hang out, shop and go see movies at these cavernous barns of a theater. Saw Class, Brainstorm, Easy Money, The Mel Gibson version of The Bounty, Hannah & Her Sisters, Ruthless People and Aliens before I moved out of the area. It was really an event to go to this theater.
“So what’s the story?”
It was big hit at the time.
The Patio had a separate boxoffice and entrance. When the theatre was tripled, the main boxoffice sold all tickets but the Patio (screen # 3), still had a separate doorman. Wometco did a nice job twinning their main screens. They were not sloppy rush jobs like General Cinema did in Florida.
Did the “Patio” have a separate entrance? I finally saw that “Lovers and Other Strangers” on TCM – hated it. Would probably be a PG13 today.
Bea Auther was in the openeing movie,Arrrrggggg!
Patio grand opening ad October 29th, 1970 at View link
Article with picture September 25th, 1960 View link
Grand opening ad View link
I saw Nightmare on elm street 2 there as a kid. I dont think the neighborhhod suffered from “west indian” folks. i think it was the hatins, and the other blacks. they destroyed that area. Now it is a walmart, and a home depot in its place.
Yep, remember “Oliver!” there. Again, we never went to Miami Beach/Bay Harbor. “The Bible: In the Beginning” had a big rerelease showing at Dadeland – I know it wasn’t the initial 1966 release – wasn’t in Miami then. In 83, I stood in line five hours for “Return of the Jedi” – number five in line. Unfortunately, it was with a bunch of sci-fi nerds in costume – I hid from the news cameras.
The Dadeland Twin ran “FUNNY GIRL” and “OLIVER!” on roadshow although they were added runs after both had played a while in Miami Beach/Bay Harbor.
I attended a few roadshows at Dadeland Twin in the late 60s. I’ll check out Sunny Isles – to a mere six year-old, all I remember was 163rd Street – it was Siberia to a kid who rarely traversed north of the airport (except Westland). In college, though, it was indeed the 163rd Street Theater where I say “Eddie…”
This theatre opened in 1960 with the exclusive South Florida roadshow engagement of “SPARTACUS”. The run was a failure and Wometco refused to book roadshows for several years at any of its theatres as a result.
Ripshin, that “CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG” roadshow actually ran on both screens of the nearby SUNNY ISLES TWIN further down 163rd Street. It had staggered showtimes there.
Roadshows eventually settled back on South Beach where they always did best with the tourists keeping them going for months, sometimes years.
I only went here twice, as we lived down in the Fairlawn area (Flagler & Red), and it was too far. My family saw the roadshow engagement of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (with Intermission) in 68, then while attending UM, I caught “Eddie and the Cruisers” in 1983. It was definitely a triple by then.
This is from Boxoffice magazine in April 1962:
Members of CORE staged a 40-minute demonstration April 3 at Wometco’s 163rd Street Theater in the 163rd Street shopping center. The Committee of Racial Equality sent some 30 Negroes to the box office to purchase tickets. When they were refused, the demonstrators formed a revolving line which continued the requests until the ticket window closed for the night.