New Theatre
4120 Laguna Street,
Coral Gables,
FL
33134
4120 Laguna Street,
Coral Gables,
FL
33134
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previous Names: Cinema Take One, Arcadia Theatre, Lumier Cinema, Astor Art Cinema
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A conversion of a former warehouse, this opened as the Cinema Take One in November 1978 with the American premiere of the 1972 Italian film “Indian Summer”. On September 4, 1981 it was renamed Arcadia Theatre. On June 9, 1989 it became the Lumier Cinema. It became the Astor Art Cinema in February of 1992 with “Cinema Paradiso”. Located in Coral Gable’s tony design district, the theater’s highly successful booking policy featured independent, avant garde, foreign, and high quality commercial move-overs played on a split schedule (separate admission for each show).
Proprietor Lorenzo L. Rodriguez brought back to his South Florida roots the benefits of having managed two of Greenwich Villages most famous movie theaters: the Bleecker Street Cinemas and the Angelika Film Center.
The Astor Art Cinema did quite well despite brutal competition from two nearby multiplexes in what has traditionally been an under performing market for specialty pictures. Mr. Rodriguez transferred the lease to his successor who continued the winning formula for another ten years. Eventually, the Astor Art Cinema became the New Theatre, a live theatre. It was demolished around 2011.
Contributed by
Lorenzo L. Rodriguez
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Recent comments (view all 22 comments)
In my opinion the name of this page should perhaps be changed to “Astor Art Cinema”, since that was this location’s last incarnation as a cinema, this website is about cinemas, the New Theater was a live performance venue not a movie theater, and people using Cinema Treasures would generally be looking for cinemas not playhouses.
Someone I know who remembered the Astor Art Cinema was looking for it on Cinema Treasures and “couldn’t find it”.
Thank you, David Schneider. I tried to get this website to change it back to the original heading “Astor Cinema” started by me several years ago. There was no response to my emails regarding the lack of integrity in changing the name of my posting to the New Theatre.
Cinema Treasures usually lists the latest name on top if the venue is still operating as a theatre of sorts. Hence, the Loews Astor Plaza in New York is listed as the Playstation. If you search for the Astor Cinema, the NEW theatre will appear at the bottom as an option.
Al, It’s good to see you’re still on here, however, Loews Astor Plaza came back with no matches. Also, I think I know your sensibilities well enough to suggest you agree with the idea that the original posting should be acknowledged by the website. There has to be a better way to cross reference changing names in the age of lightning fast computers.
Hi Lorenzo. I used the “Loews” just to identify it. It can be searched as Astor Plaza. (This may have to do with the fact that it was built by Walter Reade but opened by Loews.) I remember this discussion a while back for classic cinemas that were now churches with performance spaces. The folks at CT seem to feel that new members trying to find what a building used to be were more likely to search that those who already knew where classic cinemas were located and what they were now. I can see the logic.
All articles about the New quote a seating capacity of 104, significantly greater than that in the heading. Possibly because it was a “heavily renovated movie theatre” according to one article.
Reopened as Arcadia on September 4th, 1981. Grand opening ad posted.
Reopened as Lumière Cinema on June 9th, 1989 with “Murmer of the Heart”. Grand opening ad posted.
This became Astor Cinema on June 22nd, 1990. Another ad posted.
Boxoffice of November 20, 1978, said that the 170-seat Cinema Take One in Coral Gables would open that week. The first movie shown would be the 1972 Italian production Indian Summer in its belated American premier. Theater owners Joel Konski and Alan Martin had spent 60,000 to convert a former warehouse building into the cinema.