Mall Theatre
W. Spring Valley Avenue,
Paramus,
NJ
07652
W. Spring Valley Avenue,
Paramus,
NJ
07652
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 30 comments
When this theater opened it was the first in Paramus to show art house fare and the first ever indoor movie theater in Paramus, NJ.
This opened on July 13th, 1960
Paramus Mall Theatre opening Wed, Jul 13, 1960 – 14 · The Record (Hackensack, Bergen, New Jersey, United States of America) · Newspapers.com
Click to enlarge.
Two screens opening on March 8th, 1978. No ad found in the Newark newspaper.
And nobody is answering you because here knows! Maybe it was installed the same year the arcade was.
And by that I meant the 1982 John carpenter remake .
When was dolby stereo installed ? I saw an ad for the thing that had this theater showing it in 35mm dolby stereo.
Yup. This theater sometimes had a mix of commercial and indie movies during its long run.
I forgot – Cinema 35 is listed here on Cinema Treasures as “Paramus Picture Show.”
I remember seeing “The Natural” starring Robert Redford at this theater in the summer of 1984 (I believe that was the second – or third – film released by the then-fledgling TriStar Pictures, now a division of Sony).
If I remember correctly, this auditorium had what I thought was a precursor of stadium-style seating. Very unique.
Too bad there wasn’t anything else playing here I liked until I left Jersey in June 1986; I was almost about to see “The Purple Rose of Cairo” in the spring of 1985 when it played at the Mall, but I wasn’t able to because of time and money. I was then completing my junior year of college at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck right down Route 4; I returned to the area in September 1985 and the first movie I saw upon returning was an encore of “Back to the Future” at Cinema 35, itself down the street from the Mall but going west (see my comment about that at the listing for Cinema 35).
Sad both of these theaters are now history.
Nearly 35 years ago the John Carpenter remake of the Thing played here while Cinema 35 had E.T. and Stanley Warner had Blade Runner and Tron and Century had Rocky III.
At one time RKO once owned the theater when they took over the venue from BS Moss before Cineplex Odeon closed it in the early 90s.
Saw several shows there in the 70’s and 80’s including Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I worked there as an usher/ticket taker in the late 60’s. I remember filling the popcorn vending machine from huge plastic bags of stale already popped corn!
Over saturation.Let just hope that Regal and AMC will show art and foreign shows in a couple of its theaters
With next year’s opening of Regal’s theater in Paramus Park Mall, could Bergen Town Center get a new art house theater?
hotwaterbottle: thank you for answering my questions about exactly where the theater was located and when it closed. On that note: Paramus or the area of Bergen in general (Paramus, Fair Lawn, Rochelle Park, etc) could use another theater and the Bergen Mall’s location would be a good place. It likely would not detract much from the Garden State Plaza theater provided the movies shown were not exactly the same.
The theatre was located on the south side facing Spring Valley Ave. As you can see in the Boxoffice article, that’s how it looked on the outside. There was never a traditional marquee telling patrons what was playing anywhere outside the theatre. If I’m remembering correctly, the theatre closed sometime between 1987 and 1990.
A couple of questions about this theater:
Was this theater located on the north (Route 4) or south side (Spring Valley Ave.)parking lots of the mall (or neither)?
What year did the theater close? I don’t see any mention in any of the comments about it?
My brother & I went to many Saturday “kiddie” matinees in the early 60s, left there while my parents did their shopping at the mall. The films were usually a few cartoons and a B horror or scifi movie with a western thrown in every once in awhile. I once won a winter parka when they did a ticket stub drawing – the ONLY time in my life that I’ve ever won anything. :)
Boxoffice of April 25, 1960, has a rendering of the Mall Theatre and says that it was being designed by architect Drew Eberson.
The Bergen Mall has recently (kind of) “reopened” and it’s actually very nice. As I posted on the site for the Garden State Plaza 16, Paramus is big enough and attracts enough of a crowd that another (perhaps smaller) theater could do well. For reasons I can only guess at, the Plaza 16 never seems to show any unusual (read: “art”) films like the Palisades Center does sometimes. I assume it is because the Palisades has 21 screens vs. the Plaza’s 16. Considering this, it would’ve been cool if they’d opened a smallish multi screen theater at this mall perhaps to handle movies that the Plaza wouldn’t or couldn’t run.
Nowadays you could find an art house film playing at the Garden State 16 under the AMC Select banner. As for the bergen mall theater, it was to Paramus what the Clairidge is to Montclair today.
Good article in today’s Bergen Record about the BERGEN MALL.
7/28/07
Yes, believe it or not, the Bergen Mall was the first mall in the area, predating the GSP by about 3 years. The cinema was located outside, with no entry from inside the mall. They did show films not easy to see, unless you lived in NYC, like Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane, The Last Wave,The Man Who Fell To Earth, etc. I recall the theatre was rather nice inside, with the entrance being in the middle of the theatre, along the right side of the wall. Unusual.
Today these is absolutely no trace that there was ever a theatre there. Also, there was never a marquee outside the theatre, either.
Listed as part of B.S. Moss Theatres in the 1970 FDY & 1976 International Motion Picture Almanac.