worth noting re David R’s comment that AMC has rolled out in-lobby ticketing machines in most of their NYC theatres which give the screen #s. They had this at the Empire for a while, more recently now at the Kips Bay and Lincoln Square etc. Still not ideal because you have to be at the theatre to look on the machine, and can’t check on the internet. But it is an improvement over when the only way to find out was to call or to wait on line and ask at the box office.
I first attended the Midway in the late 1980s, and I hated going to the long tunnel-like main floor theatres that ended in little tiny screens with sometimes tinny sound. The balcony theatres were nicer as others have pointed out above because of the stadium-type raking and the larger screens. But as in so many of the conversions of this type, the geography of balcony seats facing toward the wall in the middle of the theater while the projection booth threw an image out from the center toward a screen curved toward the middle required a head tilt during the entire movie. I don’t get out there all that often now since the part of Queens I’m in now is more convenient to Manhattan than to Forest Hills, but every time I do (and I saw two films there yesterday) I am reminded of how good a job they did when they rebuilt the theatre in the late 1997. The auditoriums aren’t particularly big, but they’re more pleasant than 11 of the screens at the Kips Bay or any of the screens at the Kaufman Astoria and many other newer theatres. Comfy seats, nice sound, decent size screens even in the small auditoriums. And still with a grand staircase in the lobby and the nice people watching from the balcony level.
Just for the record, after the theatre became a 4-plex, it became a 7-plex with the extension added on the front of the building with 3 screens that kind of ruined the lobby. I believe this may have opened in 1984 because I think that area was still new when I saw Passage to India on one of those screens. And then I am pretty sure it became an 8-plex with the twinning of the upstairs balcony theatre, and the breaking up of the main screen by building 2 small auditoriums in one end of it was the final and most tragic act that turned it into a 10-plex but also reduced the size of the wonderful main downstairs screen. But definitely screens #5/6/7 in the new building pre-dated the additional subdividing of the original.
I saw Frost/Nixon there over New Year’s weekend, in no small part because it was playing at the Uptown. Decent crowd for a Sunday matinee, around 40 people with me in the balcony. But maybe they’re still waiting for that new bulb? The image seemed a little dim to me.
And I can confirm the “Closed” notation in the above lists for September 1996. Loews did do a remodel then; I remember how thrilled I was with the new sound system when I saw Ghost in teh Darkness after it reopened.
I’ve long thought it might be a nice idea to add a list of my Astor Plaza movies to the obituary I had done for the theatre (see May 25 2005 post for link thereto) so I totally appreciate the list of movies to have played the theatre. It just bums me that I couldn’t start attending regularly until 1986; how I’d have loved seeing some of the movies that played the joint in its earlier years. And getting back to the May 25 2005 comment on my obituary, I may be wrong on the block the RKO National was on, but the Roxy Deli at 47/B'Way still stands right beneath the grandfathered marquees for the entrance passage to the Movieland, and I’m near certain of that.
worth noting re David R’s comment that AMC has rolled out in-lobby ticketing machines in most of their NYC theatres which give the screen #s. They had this at the Empire for a while, more recently now at the Kips Bay and Lincoln Square etc. Still not ideal because you have to be at the theatre to look on the machine, and can’t check on the internet. But it is an improvement over when the only way to find out was to call or to wait on line and ask at the box office.
I first attended the Midway in the late 1980s, and I hated going to the long tunnel-like main floor theatres that ended in little tiny screens with sometimes tinny sound. The balcony theatres were nicer as others have pointed out above because of the stadium-type raking and the larger screens. But as in so many of the conversions of this type, the geography of balcony seats facing toward the wall in the middle of the theater while the projection booth threw an image out from the center toward a screen curved toward the middle required a head tilt during the entire movie. I don’t get out there all that often now since the part of Queens I’m in now is more convenient to Manhattan than to Forest Hills, but every time I do (and I saw two films there yesterday) I am reminded of how good a job they did when they rebuilt the theatre in the late 1997. The auditoriums aren’t particularly big, but they’re more pleasant than 11 of the screens at the Kips Bay or any of the screens at the Kaufman Astoria and many other newer theatres. Comfy seats, nice sound, decent size screens even in the small auditoriums. And still with a grand staircase in the lobby and the nice people watching from the balcony level.
Just for the record, after the theatre became a 4-plex, it became a 7-plex with the extension added on the front of the building with 3 screens that kind of ruined the lobby. I believe this may have opened in 1984 because I think that area was still new when I saw Passage to India on one of those screens. And then I am pretty sure it became an 8-plex with the twinning of the upstairs balcony theatre, and the breaking up of the main screen by building 2 small auditoriums in one end of it was the final and most tragic act that turned it into a 10-plex but also reduced the size of the wonderful main downstairs screen. But definitely screens #5/6/7 in the new building pre-dated the additional subdividing of the original.
I saw Frost/Nixon there over New Year’s weekend, in no small part because it was playing at the Uptown. Decent crowd for a Sunday matinee, around 40 people with me in the balcony. But maybe they’re still waiting for that new bulb? The image seemed a little dim to me.
And I can confirm the “Closed” notation in the above lists for September 1996. Loews did do a remodel then; I remember how thrilled I was with the new sound system when I saw Ghost in teh Darkness after it reopened.
May 17, 2005 post; sorry.
I’ve long thought it might be a nice idea to add a list of my Astor Plaza movies to the obituary I had done for the theatre (see May 25 2005 post for link thereto) so I totally appreciate the list of movies to have played the theatre. It just bums me that I couldn’t start attending regularly until 1986; how I’d have loved seeing some of the movies that played the joint in its earlier years. And getting back to the May 25 2005 comment on my obituary, I may be wrong on the block the RKO National was on, but the Roxy Deli at 47/B'Way still stands right beneath the grandfathered marquees for the entrance passage to the Movieland, and I’m near certain of that.