Cinemagic Movies at Middletown
2105 Route 35 and Palmer Avenue,
Middletown,
NJ
07748
2105 Route 35 and Palmer Avenue,
Middletown,
NJ
07748
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The theater closed due to competition from modern multiplexes, namely what is now Cinemark Hazlet. A Target now occupies the site.
KGordonMurray, there is a guy named Jimmy Letts who does rigging at the arena in Newark. He is a 536 member and works at the Arts Center during the summer. I asked him once if he had a projectionist in the family and said he did. He also stated to me that I as a projectionist was a loser. I now go out of my way to avoid him. I have been doing the job for 43 years.
Fond memories. I was the weekend relief projectionist (12 noon-6p) for a couple of years in the late 70s. The primary projectionist for many, many years was James Letts. A nice guy who could fix anything.
Just to capture some of the comments above: The Town Theatre was a Walter Reade-Sterling project architected by David Marner. Marner was at the groundbreaking of the theatre along with Mayor Ernest G. Kavalek. The lobby featured an art gallery to promote local artists.
Launched June 30, 1965 with a special screening of “The Art of Love.” Walter Reade circuit added to the complex on August 18, 1971 with a second auditorium called the Town East playing “Le Mans” with the Town West playing “Morgan the Pirate.” David Marner also architected the 500-seat Town East which shared a common box office with the Town. Its new name was the Town Theater East & West.
In 1974, Walter Reade sublet the theaters to Coast Theatres Circuit which operated the duplex until going out of business in October of 1975. After returning to Reade for a month, the Town East & West was sublet to S.W.K. Theatre Circuit of Pleasantville in November of 1975. The theatres were returned to Reade in the Summer of 1976.
In November of 1976, UA took on the theatre calling it the UA Town East & West. But the circuit closed the East Theatre and twinned it. When it re-emerged on March 16, 1977, UA called the triplex the UA Middltown Theaters 1, 2 & 3. Theaters 2 and 3 were each 300 seat auditoriums. The $250,000 renovation also included new automatic projectors and a light machine producing multiple colors on the screen between shows.
In July of 1980, United Artists Theatre Circuit broke around to add four screens to the complex bringing the seat count to 2,200 with auditoriums ranging from 186 to 248 seats. The additional screens came online on December 19, 1980 with new projectors and Dolby Stereo in all auditoriums under the new moniker of The Movies at Middletown.
Competition from modern multiplexes caught up to the theatre which tried different pricing policies including a flat fee with free popcorn followed by a sub-run, deep discount pricing policy. UA closed the theatre on August 19, 1996.
On October 4, 1996, Cinemagic took on the theatre continuing its operation as a sub-run discount theatre called Cinematic Movies at Middletown. The theatre struggled and finally was shuttered on May 7, 1998.
I watched the Star Wars Special Editions there, all 3 of them. Since this was a 2nd run theater at the time and Jedi came out in May, it would have been at least summer 97 that it was open. It wasn’t open long after that so chances are it was at least in calendar year 97 that it closed.
Not much effort was being put into it at that point. The seats were broken down, the place was disheveled and some nights they weren’t bothering to sell you tickets, they just let you in.
I’d imagine that was after Target was well on it’s way..
December 19th, 1980 grand opening as Movies at Middletown in photo section.
August 27th, 1971 grand opening ad for Town East in photo section.
June 30th, 1965 grand opening ad in photo section. It has a picture.
Wow, Tinseltoes! Thanks for that BOXOFFICE cover with the Town auditorium on the front. It was pretty neat to see it again. I remember sitting in that 1,000 auditorium to see AIRPORT back in 1970 (June, I think), and it was so crowded that some members of our family had to sit separately from us.
The horror movie Night of the cREEPS PLAYED HERE IN AUGUST OF 1986…
The original name of this theatre, now demolished, was the Towne and opened in July 1965 under the Walter Reade Theatre banner. It became, under Music Makers, Town East and West and then gave birth to multiple screens over the years. As National Amusements, Sumner Redstone, replaced the Rte 35 Drive-In with the Hazlet Multiplex Cinemas in August 1992, the decision was made to have the property used for other commercial ventures.
This cinema dates back to the 1960s when it was a single screen and called the Town Theatre. I remember THE ODD COUPLE playing there, with images of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau attached to the marquee!! They used to put sandwich signs with yellow backgrounds and black lettering along route 35 advertising the movies that were playing there.
A second auditorium was added in the 1970s which was later cut in two. There were another four auditoriums added during an extensive remodelling sometime in the 1980s, bringing the total up to 7. Fortunately the main auditorium was left intact during all of the renovations and changes. I believe Ectojedi is correct in that it closed in 1997.
Listed as a 7 screen in the 1991 International Motion Picture Almanac.
You’re right about the name. However the close date is subject to debate. The UA sold the theatre to Cinemagic Theatres which kept it open a while longer as a discount theatre. I still have the ticket stubs for “Austin Powers,” “Mimic,” and “Chasing Amy” which all came out in 1997 and were shown there. The admission price was $2.83 and it included a small free popcorn. Talk about a deal.
The last couple of movies to show there that I found via an online newspaper search were on December 13, 1997 – Men in Black, Seven Years In Tibet, Gattaca, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Fairy Tale: A True Story, In & Out, Kiss the Girls, Red Corner, Full Monty, Bean, & Starship Troopers. The theatre was knocked down shortly after that. I have a small piece of the rubble.
Original name was UA Movies at Middletown. I think it was six screens and closed long before ‘97.