Rialto Theatre
172 Main Street,
Ridgefield Park,
NJ
07660
172 Main Street,
Ridgefield Park,
NJ
07660
4 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Independent Theater Service Inc.
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News About This Theater
- Jun 16, 2008 — Last night at Rialto
The Rialto Theatre was opened prior to 1923. This single-screen, Main Street theatre, was located in a town which today also boasts a modern multiplex.
The theatre last featured art-house fare. Sadly, the Rialto Theatre was closed on Friday 13th June 2008.
Contributed by
Damien Farley
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Recent comments (view all 27 comments)
This week, June 9 – 13, The Rialto will have it’s final program. They will be showing, rather appropiately, Cinema Paradiso. Bergen County will be losing it’s last single screen theatre. I don’t know if it will be sold to new owners and reopened, or gutted for retail space, or demolished. I hope it can be reopened at some point. Personally, I feel the current owners really dropped the ball by not considering a classic film program, like the Lafayette in Suffern offers. The Rialto clientele is mostly + 65 yrs old and would appreciate seeing the old classics they remember from their youth. Also, the parking situation in downtown Ridgefield Park is really tight. So, another one bites the dust. Too bad; I’ll miss it.
I read it was being converted into office space.
Also, the final show was June 8. They are not open until the 13th. I just called their number and the recording verified this.
They will be open this Saturday and Sunday for visitors to “walk through and take their final looks and goodbyes”. They will also be selling memorabilia, like seats, for those interested. I’ve already seen the projection equipment and sound gear is for sale. I think the hours were until 5pm each day, but call 201-994-0618 for details.
I don’t think they could have done what the Lafayette is doing in Suffern. That’s the whole point. They were already showing non-mainstream films and could not cut it. Showing the “classics” wouldn’t have been any different – sad to say.
Here is a June 2 article regarding the closure:
http://tinyurl.com/6mbrzw
The Rialto Theatre in Ridgefield Park, NJ is now officially closed. As the owners of the property and the theatre we tried to keep the movies playing; but short of dividing it into little boxes we had to sell to stop the losses…and yes we tried almost every idea you can come up with.
The property was purchased by a developer who will re-purpose the interior into retail space. Fortunately, the exterior will remain the same as it is in a historic district of Main Street.
The official website will remain operational:
http://www.rialtoarts.com/
View link
As this theater is long gone, the ridgefield park megaplex will survive in the near future
In the early 2000’s I cleaned the screen here once. It was a beautiful theatre. It was nice to clean a huge screen, quite a departure from the small screens I was use to cleaning in the clearviews.
The Rialto was in operation by 1923. An item datelined Ridgefield Park, NJ, in the January 4, 1924, issue of The Film Daily said “About $20,000 will be spent in improving the Rialto.”
The Daily of January 11, 1928, reported that the Rialto had been sold to sold to Sobelson & Rosassy by the C. & V. Amusement Company.
I believe I saw “Out of Africa” at this theater on May 13, 1986. (Four weeks later, on June 1, I graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck. I was then living in Fair Lawn, but I now live in Charlotte, Michigan, which is between Lansing and Battle Creek.)
Sorry to hear the theater is closed.
This is a great theater that I went to often. Nice big screen. Lots of good things at the concession stand. Wonderful art house and independent movies. Lots of senior citizens went here. They really didn’t bother to buy concessions most of the time. I try to explain to them that’s the way the movie theater can make or makes a profit from. The theater hardly makes anything from sales of tickets. They still didn’t stop the senior citizens from bringing in their own snacks and drinks etc. The people who ran the theater were the nicest people. They were trying really hard to do everything to keep the theater open.