BAM Rose Cinemas

30 Lafayette Street,
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Unfavorite 13 people favorited this theater

Related Websites

BAM: Brooklyn Academy of Music (Official)

Additional Info

Architects: Henry Beaumont Herts, Hugh Tallant

Firms: Herts and Tallant

Functions: Movies (Independent)

Styles: Renaissance Revival

Previous Names: Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carey Playhouse, Carey Theater at BAM

Phone Numbers: Box Office: 718.636.4100

Nearby Theaters

BAM Rose Cinemas

The BAM Rose Cinemas at the Brooklyn Academy of Music opened on November 12, 1998 and feature four screens of first-run and repertory art house programming. The seating capacity was 1,400.

Located in the former concert hall of the historic 1908 built, Brooklyn Academy of Music performing art center, the BAMcinematek series is one of its most popular, featuring filmmaker retrospectives and other screenings.

Contributed by Cinema Treasures

Recent comments (view all 23 comments)

vindanpar
vindanpar on March 29, 2019 at 4:58 pm

This is terrible. A wonderful theater cut up into a multiplex. I don’t understand how people can extoll such a place. I saw some wonderful Ingmar Bergman stage productions here. I don’t understand you people.

robboehm
robboehm on March 29, 2019 at 7:25 pm

vindanpar-it happened twenty years ago. I don’t understand why this is only now coming to your attention.

vindanpar
vindanpar on March 30, 2019 at 11:04 am

It’s not just coming to my attention.

It just infuriates me that people have anything good to say about it. This was a great stage theater. And showing films is fine as long as the theater is basically kept intact. Nice to see a blockbuster playing here! I mean come on.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on March 30, 2019 at 11:49 am

Vindanpar… sometimes we just need to be thankful for what we have left. Would you have rather seen the entire room gutted to bare brick and converted to office space? Nice to see a big movie playing here that will bring crowds and keep the theater viable for its owners.

vindanpar
vindanpar on March 30, 2019 at 12:01 pm

What’s the point of saving a beautiful theater if they are going to turn it into a multiplex? I get no pleasure from seeing this kind of nonsense. Honestly tearing it down would have been the same thing. You people have got to be kidding praising this in any way. Nice to see a comic book movie playing in a fraction of its space when I had some of the greatest theatrical experiences of my life here? You clearly did not experience what I did. Otherwise this stupiddagine would make you angry. Like a believer seeing St Patrick’s desecrated.

digital3d
digital3d on March 30, 2019 at 3:32 pm

So since you’re referring to my comment from February let me just say a few things:

  • What I write is not representative of everyone here.

  • The only reason Black Panther played here was because of the “cultural significance”. Normally only smaller, indie films play here. It attracted many crowds that otherwise might never have visited BAM, so I did welcome that. For instance now they’re playing “Us” there, also mainly because of cultural significance.

  • The Harvey theater in here is quite large. It has 837 seats. You can read its history here: https://www.bam.org/visit/buildings/harvey-lichtenstein-theater and its screen here: https://www.bam.org/media/2086882/steinberg_screen_final.pdf

They didn’t divide that one up. That’s the theater that Black Panther played in, so it didn’t play in “a fraction of the space” but in a large, over-a-century-old 800+ seat auditorium.

  • Yes, some people prefer to have a place to watch good movies rather than no place to watch good movies. People can have differences of opinions. I think most people are very happy this location exists. Brooklyn doesn’t have that many good movie theaters, even fewer theaters playing indie films that otherwise only make it to Union Square or the Upper West Side. But again, people can disagree on what they like or dislike.
Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on March 30, 2019 at 3:37 pm

Jeez Louise, the main stage opera house is untouched, but the smaller concert space was carefully and tastefully converted into four screens, two upstairs,and two downstairs. It was hardly haphazardly “cut up” like so many big movies houses were back in the 70s and 80s.

I don’t recall much theater being performed in the concert hall, or at BAM in general, but they do have other spaces now for theater and other live performances, including the restored Majestic Theater and a few smaller spots.

robboehm
robboehm on March 30, 2019 at 6:47 pm

I have been in the main stage opera house MANY times but the former Carey only once. I don’t recall the latter as being more than a utilitarian space. And, there is no need to go to the site proffered by digital for the BAM Harvey when you can get it’s full history right here on CT from the days when it was the Majestic and had double the seating capacity that it does now.

Orlando
Orlando on June 26, 2019 at 8:12 am

Let me put my two cents in here, Mr. Vindanpar. The complete theatre exists behind the walls built forward on the sides and front of stage downstairs. The top procenium of theatre is viewed in the upstairs front stadium cinema and the entire ceiling details are seen in the entrances on both sides upstairs while the cinema ceilings of both upstairs cinemas are painted dark colors but the details can be seen. What I am saying is should the death nell happen to movies in the next ten years, the BAM Rose Cinemas can be put back intact as it was with the alterations removed. The theatre exists like the Loew’s Paradise in the Bronx which was twinned, tripled and quaded before it closed and is now is in it’s original 1929 opening single auditorium. Loew’s covered the original decor and was sensitive in its conversions and that’s why the Loew’s Paradise is a prime example for the BAM Rose Cinemas to follow.

ridethectrain
ridethectrain on September 21, 2020 at 12:21 pm

Please update total seats 754

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