Coral Ridge Theatre
3339 N. Federal Highway,
Fort Lauderdale,
FL
33306
3339 N. Federal Highway,
Fort Lauderdale,
FL
33306
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With a new shopping center planned for the site, the former Florida State ABC Coral Ridge and its surrounding retail spaces were demolished in May/June 2018, 30 years after its end as a movie theatre. The building subsequently became a sports bar, then a strip club.
Construction photo added courtesy of Dave Votau. It was apparently a strip club in it’s final years.
June 13th, 1963 grand opening ad in the photo section.
This opened on December 24th, 1976 as a twin cinema. Ad in the photo section.
Unbelievable ad! My mother dropped my brother and I off at the Coral Ridge in 1967 to watch Brighty of the Grand Canyon. I remember the theater more fondly than the film.
Thank you both for the updates!
sporridge, this is very interesting information. Where did you get it from?
I often suspected Claughton may have been a phantom operator for Paramount Theatres after the Consent Decrees and you may have found the source.
Local chain Claughton Theaters initiated construction (at $250,000) of the Coral Ridge, but sold the venue to Florida State shortly before opening in June 1963 with “The Nutty Professor.” Florida State’s purchase required the approval of the US Justice Department, under terms of the Consent Decree. Original seating was for 1,000, with 42 inches' leg room between rows. The Coral Ridge’s debut happened simultaneously with the closing of Florida State’s Warnor in nearby downtown Ft. Lauderdale. (From various pages in a search of “Claughton Theaters” on Google News' The Miami News archives.)
Cinemark Theaters took a brief turn at running the Coral Ridge in its final days, their sole entry in the South Florida market until their purchase of several Muvico megaplexes.
Loved going to movies here from 1963 to 1967 when it was new and a single screen: “Help!”, “Lady in a Cage”, “Mirage”, “You Only Live Twice”, the filmed-on-stage D'oyly Carte production of “The Mikado”, and I’m sure many others.
On a visit to Fort Lauderdale years later I was sad to find it had long since been a nightclub (“Baja”?). Is that, or anything else, still operating in the building now?
The Coral Ridge, Sunrise Cinemas, and the Plantation were THE modern theaters there in the mid-60s. I look back on these with a special fondness.
The ABC Coral Ridge opened in 1963, was twinned in 1977 and closed in 1988.
Just as the Coral Ridge Twin essentially replaced the downtown Ft. Lauderdale movie houses shuttered by Florida State in the 60s, AMC Coral Ridge 10 across the street (behind the mall) spelled its demise circa 1987/88 — along with FS sucessors Plitt/Cineplex Odeon’s simultaneous exit from the South Florida market. Second-run operators briefly took over, but not even 50 cent admission on a Friday night drew many takers.
A plain-looking box, to be sure, but home to quite a few premiere and exclusive engagements in its glory days. Briefly catered to alt fare audeinces in the mid 80s, even more so upon the closing of the nearby Manor Art Cinema in 1987.
The building and its adjoning retail area along U.S. 1 still stand, the theatre space since converted to nightclub use.