Criterion Theatre

1514 Broadway,
New York, NY 10036

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Showing 151 - 175 of 611 comments

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on July 19, 2019 at 3:00 pm

There is no answer to that, bigjoe. If the boxoffice pre-sales were weak the studio would start planning the wide release immediately but run the roadshow for snob appeal prestige. “MARAT/DESADE” and “FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD” would be examples. In the case of “STAR!” they were just tried to salvage whatever income they could get with the edited version entitled “THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES”.

bigjoe59
bigjoe59 on July 19, 2019 at 2:30 pm

Hello-

to Al A.– in our continuing lively discussion about roadshow films a question. would you know what the minimum number of weeks a roadshow engagement had to run to be considered a success? I’m guessing part of the equation was much the film cost to make.

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on July 18, 2019 at 8:23 pm

bigjoe, nobody makes a movie to break even.

bigjoe59
bigjoe59 on July 18, 2019 at 4:09 pm

Hello Again-

we’re having an interesting discussion aren’t we? I was just trying to make the point that a number of people who refer to certain roadshow films as “bombs” probably have never thru them and are just reiterating the long held off reputation. also The Wizard of Oz and Vertigo may have eventually broke even but what people fail to mention is that in their original 1st run engagements they were considered flops.

vindanpar
vindanpar on July 18, 2019 at 4:35 am

Any film containing Lee Marvin singing Wanderin Star is a success in my heart.

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on July 17, 2019 at 7:32 pm

Any film that did not meet their budget AND marketing costs and didn’t even receive many good reviews could be seen as a “bomb”. “HELLO,DOLLY!”, “PAINT YOUR WAGON” and “TORA! TORA! TORA!” failed to do all three. Okay, how about “flop”, “turkey”, “stinker”, “dud” or “failure”? Only until “Heaven’s Gate” made the term epic did this become an issue.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on July 17, 2019 at 11:45 am

It seems as though age of the easily-offended snowflake has even reached the sunny shores of cinema treasures

vindanpar
vindanpar on July 17, 2019 at 11:02 am

I certainly did not mean to offend any individual by referring to a film as a bomb. I will refrain from terming any film as such except a couple of personal favorites which I sadly have to admit were indeed roadshow bombs. Does Paint Your Wagon count?

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on July 16, 2019 at 7:24 pm

Mike (saps) makes a good point. But cinema is a matter of personal choice. “Hello, Dolly” and “Tora!” could have been better. Channing over Streisand or no Japanese opinions could have been better. But “Vertigo”, in my opinion, still sucks, anyway.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on July 16, 2019 at 2:57 pm

But both Wizard and Vertigo went on to eventual critical acclaim and financial success, a fate not achieved by the overproduced and underperforming Dolly…

bigjoe59
bigjoe59 on July 16, 2019 at 2:09 pm

Hello-

thanks to Al A. for your reply. as I said in my original comment in my opinion Tora Tora Tora is one of the best large scale historical I’ve ever seen and one of the best films on WW II. many people love to classify big roadshow films as bombs I bet without having actually seen them. for instance people love to classify Hello Dolly as a bomb and in my opinion its one of the best musical films ever made. we might as well refer to The Wizard of Oz and' Vertigo as “bombs” since both films were big box office disappointments in their initial release.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on July 15, 2019 at 10:46 pm

If only Barbra Streisand had played Gen. Tojo, it would have been the definitive role of her career…

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on July 15, 2019 at 7:59 pm

“The Old Man and the Sea” played for ten weeks. It was followed by another roadshow (“A Night To Remember”) that played only nine weeks. Films are often called “bombs” because they fell short of expectation at the boxoffice, had such huge budgets they failed to make a profit or as in the case of “Tora!Tora!Tora!”, they also had pretty awful reviews nationwide.

bigjoe59
bigjoe59 on July 15, 2019 at 4:18 pm

Hello-

in reference to vindanpar’s 9/9/18 comment about Tora-Tora-Tora. i happen to think its a first rate action drama and one of the best films I’ve seen on WW II. so i wish people would stop referring to films as bombs as if to infer the actual quality of the film. some of the best regarded most loved classics were bombs when they first opened.

bigjoe59
bigjoe59 on July 15, 2019 at 3:49 pm

Hello-

at 87mins. The Old Man and the Sea was the shortest
roadshow film i can remember. how long did the roadshow
run last?

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on May 22, 2019 at 7:31 am

2018 street view does not show a restaurant. But an address search shows a Haagen Dazs ice cream, formerly Scoops R Us.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on May 22, 2019 at 6:32 am

The front of the building is now 2 fashion stores(Old Navy, Gap). Whats the name of the restaurant?

DanMan
DanMan on March 18, 2019 at 3:30 pm

On the 148-150 W 45th street side of the theatre, there was a bar & grill and I think that’s where the bar scene from Midnight Cowboy was filmed??

vindanpar
vindanpar on February 15, 2019 at 2:32 am

I wonder if Funny Girl stayed much longer at the Criterion than it was financially feasible to do so. Columbia already had Oliver set to be its wide release'69 Christmas film for the family trade and they were holding off FG because they didn’t want two big musicals competing against each other. And of course Oliver would do much better at that time. I picture FG playing to empty houses in its last months at the Criterion(my favorite roadshow theater as it was the first one I was ever in and it was a very glamourous event like occasion). One could look at Variety but it was notorious for printing inflated grosses admittedly given to them by theaters.

MSC77
MSC77 on February 14, 2019 at 8:42 pm

On the subject of “Funny Girl,” here’s the link to my recent 50th anniversary retrospective for those of you interested in such things.

HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on February 14, 2019 at 11:02 am

By the time I was visiting NYC as an adult, this theater was divided up & I never saw a movie in it. I did have the pleasure of seeing Funny Girl in a new print at the Ziegfeld in 2001, very appropriate because a bust of Fanny Brice was on display upstairs in a foyer at the Ziegfeld. Last year the Univ of Penn Gazette (alumni magazine) had an article contrasting movies from 1968 or so to current. Classics then, current is not so. My own analysis is that 1980s & 1990s each had far fewer great mainstream films than each of the decades before, but there were still many such great films. But, after the Millennium, mainstream films that are really great hardly exist! There are still excellent “art” films which is what the Oscars mostly nominate & honor. And, the art films are often exhibited in historic movie theaters. Contrast to TV which since The Sopranos arrived in 1999 has had a renaissance of great series. So, no, films are no longer exhibited here or at the Ziegfeld, not at all, and nowhere for many months one film.

CConnolly1
CConnolly1 on February 14, 2019 at 6:46 am

It’s inconceivable nowadays to consider that a movie like “Funny Girl” could play at one theater from September 1968 through February 1970 and then continue into a wide release. Today’s market (not just movies but so much) feels so temporary and disposable. So much feels undervalued or not valued at all. There are always films worth seeing (thank God) but the majority of the ones being funded by “the studios” are throwaway projects that mean nothing years later. Quick: name one or two films released from 2000 thru 2010 that are classics or ones you can watch over and over again? Now name one or two films released from 1960 to 1970 that are classics or ones you can watch over and over again?

vindanpar
vindanpar on October 1, 2018 at 9:00 am

No. The only second run I remember seeing was Superman when it moved over from its long first run at the Astor Plaza. Then I saw Aliens which was the last film I saw there before it was twinned.

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on October 1, 2018 at 8:46 am

“WILLARD” moved over to the Criterion in late July 1971.