Grand Avenue Cinemas
1841 Grand Avenue,
Baldwin,
NY
11510
1841 Grand Avenue,
Baldwin,
NY
11510
1 person
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Showing 26 - 42 of 42 comments
I would have thought Loews had better booking power then Clearview and the Fantasy auditoriums are so much bigger. More seats to sell higher grosses. Sometimes this just happens with the tracks that each theatre plays. If one or two companies have big hits and they are on the usual track then that theatre wins out. Look right now at the features in the Grand Avenue VS the Fantasy. Where do you live now, did you leave long island?
“It’s suprising but right now the tiny Grand Avenue has better bookings then Rockville Center.”
RobertR: not arguing with you but how could this be? I hated what they did to the Fantasy but it was inevitable and I felt it was better to keep it going as a screening room mulitplex than have it close all together. But how could the totally lackluster Grand Avenue get better films than the Fantasy? Any theories?
If I still lived on LI, I would NEVER go to the Grand Ave no matter what was playing. It wasn’t all that great when it was a single and it was mediocre as a double. I can’t imagine what it’s like now…
It seems the only day and date that is happening right now between Rockville Center and Baldwin is “Darkness”. It’s suprising but right now the tiny Grand Avenue has better bookings then Rockville Center. This could be fought, these theatres seem far enough away to play day and date. Before Loews closed the Elmwood it could day and date with the Cinemart in Forest Hills and the Center on Queens Blvd.
The Oceanside is not even in the picture, they play all moveover product unless it’s a grade-Z first run.
How do these theaters come to agreements on things like this? Is there some kind of committee? Are there booking agents that control something like this?
The Grand Avenue Cinema is NOT in a ‘free zone’ for booking. It cannot play day-and-date with the Loews Cineplex Fantasy or Oceanside.
RbertR…thanks for the info. I kind of assumed that was the answer but I just wanted to make sure. Nope…there’s no other theater for (I would estimate) two to three miles, maybe more in all directions. That’s why the Grand Avenue Cinemas stays open. Pity.
Regarding Astyanax' comment, the only time you see the limited release patterns of years past is around THIS time of year when the high brow product that’s deemed “Oscar-bait” comes out. From what I understand, the studios want to get their BIG pictures in all the theraters and multiplexes they can. Their Oscar-arty stuff is released in just one or two theaters (usually in NY or LA) simply to qualify for the oh-so-important Oscars.
Booking day & date may make economic sense. The more screens, the sooner a studio can cash in on a hit. Too bad since not too many years ago, a movie opened as an exclusive and got to build by word of mouth. Chicago may have been the last major release that began as an exclusive at the Ziegfeld, before going into wide release several weeks later. It’s a pity that Cinema I is now also just another neighborhood screen. The hype about seeing a movie in it’s exclusive run at a select (and luxurious) theater is now gone.
CConnolly
A free booking zone means there are no other first run theatres in the same booking area that causes the product to be split. An example would be in Valley Stream when RKO-Cineplex had the Green Acres and Redstone had Sunrise Cinemas they competed for the same product. Now that Redstone has the both theatres then can place what they want in each theatre. It’s shocking in Manhattan that the Ziegfeld plays day and date with E-Walk. In the old days the Ziegfeld played exclusive in Manhattan. Then as time went on they were exclusive for the midtown area. Now it’s usually just booked as another screen.
Rob
RobertR: what is a free booking zone and how does if effect a theater’s films?
They are in a free booking zone they can pretty much play anything they want.
46 seats? This wasn’t exactly huge when it was a single screener. Did they take more space from the retail around them like the pizza place? How pathetic. And people must be going here because it’s still open.
The theatre is small houses. The two big screens are cinema 4 and 5 which has 125 seats. Theatres 2 and 3 have 80 seats and Theatre 1 has 46 seats. It probadly the msllest capacity in Long Island.
DTS sound is in screens 4 and 5
The seats are a tight squeeze and the small house cinema 1 has the most comfortable seats of all five
As much as I did not like this theater and preferred the Century’s Baldwin over this one, I did see a lot of movies here. The one strange thing about the place that go to me even as a kid was the fact that there were no doors to the auditorium. The box office was on the left as you entered the front doors. Then you went into a smallish lobby where there was one concession stand and to the right of that was the restrooms. The auditorium was just a few feet up from the concession stand and there were no doors. There was a wide entry area right behind the rear seats. At some point I guess the owners realized the stupidity of this so they installed (get this) louvered doors…you know the kind that fold up against the wall. When the movie would start, they’d pull it closed. But they had to leave part of it open so people could leave and go to the bathroom or concession stand. I remember a lot of times having light flood into the auditorium when someone would go out. It was annoying and I could never figure out why they designed it like that.
Movieman007 is right, 4 ¼ oh sorry 4 ½ screens.
How the HELL this place manages to stay open while the older, nicer Century’s Baldwin closed in the mid 80’s is beyond me.
This was a smallish theater when it was a single screener. I never went there after they multiplexed it.
tthe theater is 4 and a half screens, hee hee hee, realy it is 5.