The 425-seat Burley Theatre opened its doors on Christmas Day 1946 with Red Skelton in “The Show-Off” along with the Bugs Bunny Merrie Melodie “Hare Remover” and an unknown musical short. It was closed in 1954.
This started life as the New Drive-In on April 17, 1956 with “Bad Day At Black Rock” and “Kiss Me Deadly” (unknown if extras added), and was first managed by W.M. Curtis. It was renamed the Hiway 55 Drive-In nine days later after a theater naming contest was held at the theater. The name was selected by J.T. Smither of Pleasureville. The second and third place names went with “Parkview” and “North Star”.
The Hiway 55 Drive-In closed for the final time on October 14, 1982 with “Young Doctors In Love” and was last managed by Charlotte Groves.
The 51-seat Cinema Skhole opened its doors on February 19, 1983, and was originally owned by Japanese film director Koji Wakamatsu. Wakamatsu thought that “even if young filmmakers make the kind of films they want, it is difficult to screen them in movie theaters that distribute major works,” and wanted to open a movie theater with the aim of providing a venue for them.
Wakamatsu operated the theater until his death from a vehicle accident on October 17, 2012, and by the end of the year, the theater became the first mini theater to feature 3D installations. Junji Kimata took over operations from Wakamatsu after his death, followed by Atsushi Tsuboi who still operates the theater today.
The Nippon Gekijo Theatre actually had a total capacity of 2,063 seats in three floors, with 1,060 seats on the first floor, 540 on the second floor, and 463 on the third floor. There were ten Royal Boxes (six on the second floor, four on the third floor) along both walls, which, along with the first three rows on the second floor, were the only reserved seats at Nichigeki. When the theater was filled to capacity with standing spectators, people called it a “4,000-seat theater”, but it doesn’t mean that it has 4,000 seats.
Construction of the Japan Theatre took almost five years, but was halted midway due to a lack of funds. The Japan Theatre opened on December 24, 1933 with a grand opening ceremony, but its first main attraction started on December 31, 1933. A second theater, the Nichigeki Underground (later renamed the Nichigeki News Theatre), opened on December 30, 1935 as a newsreel and short subject house, followed by a third theater, the Nichigeki Small Theatre, on November 8, 1941 (first film being the German UFA film “Southern Temptation”).
The Japan Theatre began focusing more on films beginning on July 8, 1943. At the time, balloon bombs were made inside the theater because the seats had to be removed to carry out the work, the theater was restored after the war. When it resumed operations, the theater reopened but had their attendance slowly climbing than before.
The Nichigeki Music Hall opened on the fourth floor on March 17, 1952, followed by the Marunouchi Toho Theater on the basement floor on February 10, 1955. The Nichigeki News Theatre was later renovated and was reopened on August 12, 1955. The Nichigeki News Theatre was later renamed the Nichigeki Culture Theatre on April 20, 1962.
From February 8, 1958 until August 1977, the very popular Nichigeki Western Carnival was held at the Nippon Gekijo Theatre, featuring music artists from Japan and around the world.
On February 12, 1977, 3,000 people evacuated from the Nippon Gekijo after a fire broke out at the Albyon salon on the first basement floor. The fire only damaged the floor of the salon and nothing else.
Because of its closure due to deterioration of the facility and redevelopment projects by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Nichigeki Western Carnival held its last event from January 22-25, 1981, featuring eight performances in four days and nights. It was so popular that it broadcasted on Japanese television twice and the event was released on cassette and CD.
The Nippon Gekijo Theatre ran its last movies, and closed the final time on February 15, 1981. It was demolished afterward to make way for the Yurakucho Center Building which opened on October 6, 1984.
The Totowa Drive-In opened its gates by the Eastern Drive-In Corporation chain on May 28, 1948 with “Her Husband Affairs” and “On The Old Spanish Trail” (unknown if any extras added).
The Totowa Drive-In closed on September 17, 1974 with “Working Girl” and “Single Girls”, and was last operated by General Cinema.
The Marunouchi Piccadilly is also once the flagship movie house for the Shochiku chain until the chain’s relocation to the Togeki Building in 1999. Both Screens 1 and 2 were located on the 9th floor of the Yurakucho Center Building, while Screen 3 was located on the fifth floor and featured Dolby sound.
There are two movie theaters inside the Rise Building. There was the Cinema Rise on the basement floor and the Shibuya Piccadilly on the 2nd floor, and both theaters were directly managed by Shochiku.
The Shibuya Piccadilly on the 2nd floor first opened as the Shibuya Shochiku Central on November 2, 1985. At the time, the Central mainly screened films that came directly from the Marunouchi Piccadilly 2. Shortly after the closure of the Shibuya Shochiku Theater in September 1990, the Shochiku films that normally screened there began screening at the Shibuya Piccadilly. The Shibuya Piccadilly closed on January 30, 2009 with “World Of Lies”. After the closure of the Shibuya Piccadilly, screenings of Shochiku films in the Shibuya area were consolidated at Shibuya Cine Palace.
The Cinema Rise on the basement floor opened on June 7, 1986 as a foreign roadshow house managed by Shochiku. A second screen was added ten years later in 1996, and the Rise closed for the final time on January 7, 2016 with “Woman In Gold”.
Cineplex Odeon last operated the Wayne Twin for a few months until closing on December 3, 1987 with one of the screens playing “Planes, Trains And Automobiles” in Screen 1 (the attraction immediately moved to the Loews Wayne 6 after its closure). Screen 2’s final attraction is unknown.
The triplex actually closed on September 2, 1986 with “Born American”, “Bullies”, and “Mona Lisa”, and the theater went on-sale. This left the Community Theatre the only movie theater in Morristown until the opening of the 10-screen AMC nearby.
Both auditoriums opened two days apart. Screen 1 opened on December 21, 1973 with “Papillion” while Screen 2 opened four days later on Christmas Day 1973 with “The Way We Were”.
The Carousel Twin Theatres is short-lived, and closed on November 2, 1979 with “When A Stranger Calls” in Screen 1 and “Rocky II” in Screen 2.
The Hibiya Theater (located on 1-2-2 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) opened its doors on February 1, 1934 and closed on November 11, 1984. It has a total capacity of 1,375 seats. The Hibiya Theater was notable for the world premiere of “Thunderball” on September 12, 1965.
The Shibuya Pantheon Theatre opened its doors on December 1, 1956 with Walter Hampden in “The Vagabond King” (the same attraction as the Shinjuku Milano Theatre which opened that same exact day). It was a 1,119-seat single-screener, and was one of the very popular movie theaters in Tokyo. The Pantheon Theater also housed the Shibuya Tokyu Theater, a 1,579-seat triplex located on the basement, 5th, and 6th floors of the building, while the Pantheon is on the main 1st floor.
Some notable films the Pantheon ran over the years include “Sleeping Beauty”, “101 Dalmatians”, “Cleopatra”, “The Towering Inferno”, “Jaws”, “Airport 77”, the Superman series, “E.T.”, “Gremlins”, “The Goonies”, “Beverly Hills Cop”, the Lethal Weapon series, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”, “Major League”, the Batman series, “The Bodyguard”, “JFK”, “Pulp Fiction”, “Jumanji” and “Men In Black”, while some of the notable films that ran at the Shibuya Tokyu include “Footloose”, “The Exorcist”, “West Side Story”, the first three Rocky films, “Tootsie”, “Flashdance”, “Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade”, “Ghostbusters 2”, “Jurassic Park”, “Apollo 13”, “Toy Story”, “Pearl Harbor”, “Titanic”, “The Mask of Zorro”, “A Bug’s Life” and “Monsters, Inc.”
The films that were listed above were screened at the Pantheon and the Shibuya Tokyu. Out of all the movies that screened there, “E.T.” was the most attended in the Pantheon’s history since its first showing on December 4, 1982. It was so popular that one of the Shibuya Tokyu’s auditoriums also screened the movie so that way people won’t wait in line. In total, a grand total of 597,687 people attended to see “E.T.” throughout the whole six-month run at the Pantheon. “Flashdance” was in second place with 353,725 attendees and was the most popular movie at the Shibuya Tokyu. This was followed by “The Great Escape” with 309,948 attendees, “Sleeping Beauty” with 293,676 attendees, and “The Bodyguard” with 266,931 attendees.
The Shibuya Pantheon originally housed 70mm projection and was known for its stage curtain in the 1956 Japanese film “Bullfight No. 14”. It was notable for many of its events including the Tokyo International Film Festival. In its final years, it mainly screened films from the Marunouchi Louvre chain.
The Shibuya Tokyu, which had 1,579 seats in total, had several different names with its auditoriums. Screen 1 had 824 seats. Screen 2 had 381 seats and was originally named the Tokyi Meigaza until June 1986 when it was renamed the Shibuya Tokyi 2 and was converted into a roadshow theater affiliated with Shochiku. Towards the end of its operation, it mainly screened films from the Marunouchi Piccadilly 1 series. Screen 3 however has 374 seats and was originally a primary newsreel/secondary low-budget house under the name Tokyu Journal until July 5, 1969 when it was operated as Tokyu Rex, a roadshow theater affiliated with Shochiku Tokyu. The Rex name lasted until October 1990. Since then, it screened movies from various companies, but in its final period, it formed a chain with a small number of theaters, including Marunouchi Champs-Élysées (now Marunouchi Toei 2).
The Shibuya Pantheon Theatre on the main first floor closed for the final time on June 30, 2003 with a final 70mm presentation of the Julie Andrews smash “The Sound Of Music”.
The Shibuya Tokyu on the basement, 5th, and 6th floors closed that same day with the Japanese film “College Of Our Life” in Screen 1, “Two Weeks Notice” in Screen 2, and the French film “The Plunderer” in Screen 3.
The Theatre Tokyo is one of the more popular older movie theaters during the CinemaScope and Cinerama eras. The Theatre Tokyo started life as an extension of “Theatre Ginza”, and opened its doors on November 3, 1955 with Marilyn Monroe in “The Seven Year Itch”. It has a total capacity of 1,150 seats and was operated by the Tokyo Kogyo Company chain. There is also a fine arts movie theater in the basement of the same building.
On November 29, 1962, the Theatre Tokyo began screening Cinerama films, and from May 5, 1965 until October 30, 1981, it was a 70mm cinema. A truckload of American smashes were screened there, some notable films the Theatre Tokyo ran over the years include “Ben-Hur”, “How The West Was Won”, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “The Dirty Dozen”, and “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” among others.
The Theatre Tokyo closed for the final time on October 31, 1981 with “Heaven’s Gate” and was last operated as a Dolby theater. The location of the theater is 1-11-2 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
The Starlite Drive-In opened its gates on August 24, 1950 with Dennis Morgan in “My Wild Irish Rose” along with the Bugs Bunny Merrie Melodie “Rebel Rabbit”, the specialty “Celebration Days” and the novelty “Sun Valley Fun”.
The Caprice Showcase Theatres opened the Caprice Twin Theatres' doors in late-1981 after several months of construction. Construction of the theater building began on May 15 of that same year.
It originally housed 668 seats when it opened (with 373 seats in Screen 1 and 295 seats in Screen 2), and Screen 1 features a Dolby sound system with 27 speakers installed around the auditorium. Their original seats were 38in seats and 22-23in width to prevent leg room.
It last operated with 622 seats (348 and 274) until its Spring 2006 closure.
The 425-seat Burley Theatre opened its doors on Christmas Day 1946 with Red Skelton in “The Show-Off” along with the Bugs Bunny Merrie Melodie “Hare Remover” and an unknown musical short. It was closed in 1954.
Opened as early as 1919, closed in 1937.
Closed in 1968.
This started life as the New Drive-In on April 17, 1956 with “Bad Day At Black Rock” and “Kiss Me Deadly” (unknown if extras added), and was first managed by W.M. Curtis. It was renamed the Hiway 55 Drive-In nine days later after a theater naming contest was held at the theater. The name was selected by J.T. Smither of Pleasureville. The second and third place names went with “Parkview” and “North Star”.
The Hiway 55 Drive-In closed for the final time on October 14, 1982 with “Young Doctors In Love” and was last managed by Charlotte Groves.
The 51-seat Cinema Skhole opened its doors on February 19, 1983, and was originally owned by Japanese film director Koji Wakamatsu. Wakamatsu thought that “even if young filmmakers make the kind of films they want, it is difficult to screen them in movie theaters that distribute major works,” and wanted to open a movie theater with the aim of providing a venue for them.
Wakamatsu operated the theater until his death from a vehicle accident on October 17, 2012, and by the end of the year, the theater became the first mini theater to feature 3D installations. Junji Kimata took over operations from Wakamatsu after his death, followed by Atsushi Tsuboi who still operates the theater today.
Closed on January 11, 1993.
The Nippon Gekijo Theatre actually had a total capacity of 2,063 seats in three floors, with 1,060 seats on the first floor, 540 on the second floor, and 463 on the third floor. There were ten Royal Boxes (six on the second floor, four on the third floor) along both walls, which, along with the first three rows on the second floor, were the only reserved seats at Nichigeki. When the theater was filled to capacity with standing spectators, people called it a “4,000-seat theater”, but it doesn’t mean that it has 4,000 seats.
Construction of the Japan Theatre took almost five years, but was halted midway due to a lack of funds. The Japan Theatre opened on December 24, 1933 with a grand opening ceremony, but its first main attraction started on December 31, 1933. A second theater, the Nichigeki Underground (later renamed the Nichigeki News Theatre), opened on December 30, 1935 as a newsreel and short subject house, followed by a third theater, the Nichigeki Small Theatre, on November 8, 1941 (first film being the German UFA film “Southern Temptation”).
The Japan Theatre began focusing more on films beginning on July 8, 1943. At the time, balloon bombs were made inside the theater because the seats had to be removed to carry out the work, the theater was restored after the war. When it resumed operations, the theater reopened but had their attendance slowly climbing than before.
The Nichigeki Music Hall opened on the fourth floor on March 17, 1952, followed by the Marunouchi Toho Theater on the basement floor on February 10, 1955. The Nichigeki News Theatre was later renovated and was reopened on August 12, 1955. The Nichigeki News Theatre was later renamed the Nichigeki Culture Theatre on April 20, 1962.
From February 8, 1958 until August 1977, the very popular Nichigeki Western Carnival was held at the Nippon Gekijo Theatre, featuring music artists from Japan and around the world.
On February 12, 1977, 3,000 people evacuated from the Nippon Gekijo after a fire broke out at the Albyon salon on the first basement floor. The fire only damaged the floor of the salon and nothing else.
Because of its closure due to deterioration of the facility and redevelopment projects by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Nichigeki Western Carnival held its last event from January 22-25, 1981, featuring eight performances in four days and nights. It was so popular that it broadcasted on Japanese television twice and the event was released on cassette and CD.
The Nippon Gekijo Theatre ran its last movies, and closed the final time on February 15, 1981. It was demolished afterward to make way for the Yurakucho Center Building which opened on October 6, 1984.
No moviebuff82, “Return Of The Jedi” ran at the Totowa Twin Cinema. I looked at showtimes and I don’t see the film running in Wayne.
This actually opened on January 26, 1966 with “Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines”, not January 19.
The Totowa Cinema closed on January 17, 1993 with “The Muppet Christmas Carol” and “Toys” in Screen 1 and “Leprechaun” in Screen 2.
The Totowa Drive-In opened its gates by the Eastern Drive-In Corporation chain on May 28, 1948 with “Her Husband Affairs” and “On The Old Spanish Trail” (unknown if any extras added).
The Totowa Drive-In closed on September 17, 1974 with “Working Girl” and “Single Girls”, and was last operated by General Cinema.
This was also the first movie theater to open by the Warner Mycal Cinemas chain.
The Marunouchi Piccadilly is also once the flagship movie house for the Shochiku chain until the chain’s relocation to the Togeki Building in 1999. Both Screens 1 and 2 were located on the 9th floor of the Yurakucho Center Building, while Screen 3 was located on the fifth floor and featured Dolby sound.
There are two movie theaters inside the Rise Building. There was the Cinema Rise on the basement floor and the Shibuya Piccadilly on the 2nd floor, and both theaters were directly managed by Shochiku.
The Shibuya Piccadilly on the 2nd floor first opened as the Shibuya Shochiku Central on November 2, 1985. At the time, the Central mainly screened films that came directly from the Marunouchi Piccadilly 2. Shortly after the closure of the Shibuya Shochiku Theater in September 1990, the Shochiku films that normally screened there began screening at the Shibuya Piccadilly. The Shibuya Piccadilly closed on January 30, 2009 with “World Of Lies”. After the closure of the Shibuya Piccadilly, screenings of Shochiku films in the Shibuya area were consolidated at Shibuya Cine Palace.
The Cinema Rise on the basement floor opened on June 7, 1986 as a foreign roadshow house managed by Shochiku. A second screen was added ten years later in 1996, and the Rise closed for the final time on January 7, 2016 with “Woman In Gold”.
Cineplex Odeon last operated the Wayne Twin for a few months until closing on December 3, 1987 with one of the screens playing “Planes, Trains And Automobiles” in Screen 1 (the attraction immediately moved to the Loews Wayne 6 after its closure). Screen 2’s final attraction is unknown.
The triplex actually closed on September 2, 1986 with “Born American”, “Bullies”, and “Mona Lisa”, and the theater went on-sale. This left the Community Theatre the only movie theater in Morristown until the opening of the 10-screen AMC nearby.
Closed on December 23, 1993 with “Wayne’s World 2” in Screen 1 and “The Nightmare Before Christmas” in Screen 2.
Both auditoriums opened two days apart. Screen 1 opened on December 21, 1973 with “Papillion” while Screen 2 opened four days later on Christmas Day 1973 with “The Way We Were”.
The Carousel Twin Theatres is short-lived, and closed on November 2, 1979 with “When A Stranger Calls” in Screen 1 and “Rocky II” in Screen 2.
The Pantheon is located on 2-21-12 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002.
The Hibiya Theater (located on 1-2-2 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) opened its doors on February 1, 1934 and closed on November 11, 1984. It has a total capacity of 1,375 seats. The Hibiya Theater was notable for the world premiere of “Thunderball” on September 12, 1965.
The Shibuya Pantheon Theatre opened its doors on December 1, 1956 with Walter Hampden in “The Vagabond King” (the same attraction as the Shinjuku Milano Theatre which opened that same exact day). It was a 1,119-seat single-screener, and was one of the very popular movie theaters in Tokyo. The Pantheon Theater also housed the Shibuya Tokyu Theater, a 1,579-seat triplex located on the basement, 5th, and 6th floors of the building, while the Pantheon is on the main 1st floor.
Some notable films the Pantheon ran over the years include “Sleeping Beauty”, “101 Dalmatians”, “Cleopatra”, “The Towering Inferno”, “Jaws”, “Airport 77”, the Superman series, “E.T.”, “Gremlins”, “The Goonies”, “Beverly Hills Cop”, the Lethal Weapon series, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”, “Major League”, the Batman series, “The Bodyguard”, “JFK”, “Pulp Fiction”, “Jumanji” and “Men In Black”, while some of the notable films that ran at the Shibuya Tokyu include “Footloose”, “The Exorcist”, “West Side Story”, the first three Rocky films, “Tootsie”, “Flashdance”, “Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade”, “Ghostbusters 2”, “Jurassic Park”, “Apollo 13”, “Toy Story”, “Pearl Harbor”, “Titanic”, “The Mask of Zorro”, “A Bug’s Life” and “Monsters, Inc.”
The films that were listed above were screened at the Pantheon and the Shibuya Tokyu. Out of all the movies that screened there, “E.T.” was the most attended in the Pantheon’s history since its first showing on December 4, 1982. It was so popular that one of the Shibuya Tokyu’s auditoriums also screened the movie so that way people won’t wait in line. In total, a grand total of 597,687 people attended to see “E.T.” throughout the whole six-month run at the Pantheon. “Flashdance” was in second place with 353,725 attendees and was the most popular movie at the Shibuya Tokyu. This was followed by “The Great Escape” with 309,948 attendees, “Sleeping Beauty” with 293,676 attendees, and “The Bodyguard” with 266,931 attendees.
The Shibuya Pantheon originally housed 70mm projection and was known for its stage curtain in the 1956 Japanese film “Bullfight No. 14”. It was notable for many of its events including the Tokyo International Film Festival. In its final years, it mainly screened films from the Marunouchi Louvre chain.
The Shibuya Tokyu, which had 1,579 seats in total, had several different names with its auditoriums. Screen 1 had 824 seats. Screen 2 had 381 seats and was originally named the Tokyi Meigaza until June 1986 when it was renamed the Shibuya Tokyi 2 and was converted into a roadshow theater affiliated with Shochiku. Towards the end of its operation, it mainly screened films from the Marunouchi Piccadilly 1 series. Screen 3 however has 374 seats and was originally a primary newsreel/secondary low-budget house under the name Tokyu Journal until July 5, 1969 when it was operated as Tokyu Rex, a roadshow theater affiliated with Shochiku Tokyu. The Rex name lasted until October 1990. Since then, it screened movies from various companies, but in its final period, it formed a chain with a small number of theaters, including Marunouchi Champs-Élysées (now Marunouchi Toei 2).
The Shibuya Pantheon Theatre on the main first floor closed for the final time on June 30, 2003 with a final 70mm presentation of the Julie Andrews smash “The Sound Of Music”.
The Shibuya Tokyu on the basement, 5th, and 6th floors closed that same day with the Japanese film “College Of Our Life” in Screen 1, “Two Weeks Notice” in Screen 2, and the French film “The Plunderer” in Screen 3.
The Theatre Tokyo is one of the more popular older movie theaters during the CinemaScope and Cinerama eras. The Theatre Tokyo started life as an extension of “Theatre Ginza”, and opened its doors on November 3, 1955 with Marilyn Monroe in “The Seven Year Itch”. It has a total capacity of 1,150 seats and was operated by the Tokyo Kogyo Company chain. There is also a fine arts movie theater in the basement of the same building.
On November 29, 1962, the Theatre Tokyo began screening Cinerama films, and from May 5, 1965 until October 30, 1981, it was a 70mm cinema. A truckload of American smashes were screened there, some notable films the Theatre Tokyo ran over the years include “Ben-Hur”, “How The West Was Won”, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “The Dirty Dozen”, and “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” among others.
The Theatre Tokyo closed for the final time on October 31, 1981 with “Heaven’s Gate” and was last operated as a Dolby theater. The location of the theater is 1-11-2 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
First operated by Charles M. Lane of New Haven, who also operated the New Haven Drive-In nearby.
Still open in 1986, but was gone by the 1990s.
The Starlite Drive-In opened its gates on August 24, 1950 with Dennis Morgan in “My Wild Irish Rose” along with the Bugs Bunny Merrie Melodie “Rebel Rabbit”, the specialty “Celebration Days” and the novelty “Sun Valley Fun”.
The Starlite closed on September 23, 1973.
The Caprice Showcase Theatres opened the Caprice Twin Theatres' doors in late-1981 after several months of construction. Construction of the theater building began on May 15 of that same year.
It originally housed 668 seats when it opened (with 373 seats in Screen 1 and 295 seats in Screen 2), and Screen 1 features a Dolby sound system with 27 speakers installed around the auditorium. Their original seats were 38in seats and 22-23in width to prevent leg room.
It last operated with 622 seats (348 and 274) until its Spring 2006 closure.