Theatre Tokyo
1-11-2 Ginza,
Chuo-Ku,
Tokyo
104-0061
1-11-2 Ginza,
Chuo-Ku,
Tokyo
104-0061
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The Theatre Tokyo is one of the more popular older movie theaters during the CinemaScope and Cinerama eras. The Theatre Tokyo started life as an extension of “Theatre Ginza”, and opened its doors on November 3, 1955 with Marilyn Monroe in “The Seven Year Itch”. It has a total capacity of 1,150 seats and was operated by the Tokyo Kogyo Company chain. There is also a fine arts movie theater in the basement of the same building.
On November 29, 1962, the Theatre Tokyo began screening Cinerama films, and from May 5, 1965 until October 30, 1981, it was a 70mm cinema. A truckload of American smashes were screened there, some notable films the Theatre Tokyo ran over the years include “Ben-Hur”, “How The West Was Won”, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “The Dirty Dozen”, and “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” among others.
The Theatre Tokyo closed for the final time on October 31, 1981 with “Heaven’s Gate” and was last operated as a Dolby theater. The location of the theater is 1-11-2 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
I saw “The Dirty Dozen” there in 1967 when on R&R from Vietnam. Projected in 70mm the image was super big. Interestingly, the film was subtitled but when the Germans were speaking the subtitles were in Japanize. As a projectionist later in the US I was surprised that 70mm prints did not happen there.
Heaven’s gate was the final film played there