Eric Twin
690 Whitehead Road,
Lawrenceville,
NJ
08648
690 Whitehead Road,
Lawrenceville,
NJ
08648
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In May 1989 it was sold to UAB II, Inc. and managed by Creative Entertainment Consultants Ltd. and closed in 1994.
I’m late to the game – From the 5/4/1988 edition of the Allentown Morning Call. A representative from UA was attributed as saying “The sale did not include five Sameric theatres in Harrisburg and Princeton, N.J.” The U.S. Justice Department prohibited United ARtists from acquiring those because the company owned enough theaters in those markets,"
Am trying to find reference to who may have operated it after Sameric, if indeed this is one of the five UA never operated. I see it continuing as the Eric Lawrenceville until around 1992, so interesting that if it wasn’t UA, they were able to continue to call it the Eric Theater.
Does anyone know why this cinema seems to have been exempt from UA’s takeover of the SamEric chain? Who owned it post-SamEric?
the memories, location is incorrect but I remember watching Super Mario Brothers and after the movie you got a chance to get a movie ticket for free if u got the furthest into the game without giving up a life. Where does the time go.
Realgone222 nobody believes me it is a theater either lol
I setup an account for this site just to comment on this theater. I was amazed to find a photo and commentary on this one. Its a Retro Gym now but for the life of me I always recalled it being a movie theater from when I was a child. I could never confirm it with friends and family and who didnt believe be because the structure is so small. But indeed it was a theater. I saw some movie there perhaps ‘Harry and the Hendersons’ with friends of my family. I distinctly recall the shopping center as well which I think had a ‘Dunhams’ which is now the BCF.
It is the Eric Lawrenceville Theatre. It is an exact replica of the Eric Concordville Theatre, with a few difference, including the entrance is the reverse of the Concordville. The small marque under the “ERiC” sign looks like was added after the theatre was twinned.
I’ve added 2 photos to the gallery. Not absolutely sure they are this cinema, but probably are.
I was driving home from Maine the other day and decided to take a short cut down rye206 thru Princeton. Driving thru Lawrenceville got me feeling a little nostalgic. I was the Manager/Operator for this twin house for several months in 85/86. I was from Bucks County so this was a bit of a drive. I stayed here until another twin house closer to home opened up, another Eric theatre in the Lincoln Plaza next to the Oxford Valley Mall. It was a long time ago and I think I remember my crew more than the movies I showed. But I do remember “Short Circuit” being a big deal. Its still one of my favorite movies. Good Times. :)
July 23rd, 1969 grand opening ad has been posted here
I saw Star Wars here on opening night in 1977. Will never forget it. I also stood in that long line for Return of the Jedi on opening day. Others I saw here include Airport 77, Silverstreak, For your eyes only, and Goodfellas, which must have been near the end.
I remember how hot that summer was because I was working at the General Cinema Woodbridge. It was still a single screen, to be twinned that fall. I worked also at the General Cinema Menlo Park Twin where we were showing “Star Wars”. The reason I remember the heat was because I always changed the marquee signs, and even at 10:00 at night it was blistering hot.
When I was seven years old, in 1977, it was a hot summer in New Jersey. Our home had no air conditioning back then, so the family decided to go to the movies to escape the heat. I remember the drive down to Lawrenceville in our dented brown Plymouth Satellite and the welcoming doors of the Eric Twin theater. I had never heard of the movie we were going to see and my father only picked it because a coworker told him it was good. Little did we know that the Eric Twin would become forever cemented in our memories as the place we saw the most important film in history, George Lucas’s “Star Wars”.
This was THE movie theater in the early eighties they managed to get almost all the big blockbusters: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rambo II, Return of the Jedi, Temple of Doom, Rocky IV. I know I also saw Broadcast News and Day of the Dead here. I think they also had For Your Eyes Only.
It was the farthest neighborhood theater from central Princeton. But it was the only one showing some of the biggest movies.
This theater (and the Garden Theater in Princeton – also an Eric theater at the time) got crushed when the UA Movies at Marketfair opened in 1987. At first the Erics showed the same movies playing at other theaters. I guess hoping to attract local customers only.
The Garden probably survived because of its proximity to the University (who now owns it).
Listed as a 2 screen in the 1991 International Motion Picture Almanac under the United Artists' listing.
Paul – I remember all of the theaters that you list. One small correction: the Kings Fair was located near the Trenton/Hamilton Twp border on the old Trenton Fairgrounds property.
Theatre #1 (actually, I think it was labeled #2) of the Eric Twin was a favorite of mine in college days, as I went to school just about a mile from the theatre and would sometimes walk there. At that time it was the only theatre in the Trenton/Princeton area equipped with 70mm projection. I remember going there on opening day for “Return of the Jedi” in 1983 and waiting out in the lobby with several hundred other moviegoers for about two hours, while the previous showing was in progress. (Loud explosions and music crescendos, punctuated by bursts of applause, were audible from the auditorium.) The other auditorium seemed to be about one-third the size and must have been an add-on. No 70mm, no stereo sound, and the “Exit” sign cast a distracting glow on the screen.
Like almost all of the theatres I went to at college (with the exception of the Garden Theatre in Princeton), the Eric is long gone. Anybody remember the AMC Quaker Bridge 4 (one of AMC’s typically minuscule early attempts), the Budco Prince Triplex, the GCC Mercer Mall triplex, the Director’s Chair Twin in Hamilton Square, or the Kings Fair Twin in East Windsor?