AMC Neshaminy 24 Theatres

Feb 28, 1998 Philadelphia Inquirer stated that AMC Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem would open in 6 months with 4900 love seats. The theater cost $11 million to construct. Auditoriums would range from 100 seats with a 30 feet wide screen to 590 seats with a 61 feet wide screen. The theater will compete with nearby Franklin Mills and Oxford Valley Mall movie theaters.

Well, HDTV267, if that’s how you truly feel, it’s a shame you didn’t get behind the Holme Theatre restoration proposal back when you had a chance to — instead of slamming it the way you did. Because in the business plan I had for it I had all those problems you’re complaining about worked out and resolved. And, I had all the investors lined up to make it happen. But all we needed — ALL WE NEEDED — was enough people such as yourself saying they wanted it. For we were not about to push through something that nobody wanted. In any event, too late now. Enjoy your pizza and made in China trinkets the next time you’re over at what the Holme Theatre’s been converted into now, while perhaps pausing a minute to think what might’ve been. C'est la vie…

The digital projector will be installed tomorrow, 3/21/2007, and will be in operation on 3/22/2007. The first movie to be showned at AMC Nesahminy 24 is digital is Paramount Pictures' “Zodiac”

Thanks for taking the moment to explain that to me, as I was going to say. Over the past several decades the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area has had a very proud record of firmly holding the line against any positive technological progress coming through — I guess fearful of a repeat of when the advent of talkies turned the status quo upside down when they displaced silents — so the very thought of a theater this close to Philly having DLP Cinema came across like David Duke suddenly announcing to the world that he’s been a secret fan of soul and hiphop music his whole life. As in, April fools! Still, it was nice to think there for a moment that an art form as ancient as opera was playing an ironic role in unlocking the future. If you read the Philadelphia Inquirer article I posted a link for above you’ll see how the writer pondered how well opera will come across when presented in high definition, which, of course, made it sound like the AMC Neshaminy 24 now has DLP Cinema. And I did really have to do a double take when I read that part, given how this is the Philadelphia area he was writing about here.

So you’re saying the audience was shown still images put to music?

This great article appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer for Dec. 27, 2006 about Metropolitan Opera being simulcast on the big screen, with the Neshaminy 24 being one of the theaters in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area that will be participating:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/16324360.htm

In order for this breakthrough eventto be possible I would assume the Neshaminy 24 now has digital projection in the one auditorium where this will be occurring? If so, that’s exciting news just in itself as it will make the Neshaminy 24 now the closest theater to Philadelphia that has digital projection, displacing the United Artists King of Prussia Stadium 16, which had been the only one that did up till now.

from Philadelphia Weekly today:

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Rest of the Best
If you’re into cinema as consumerism, the AMC Loews Cherry Hill 24 and the AMC Neshaminy 24 (the top two-grossing screens in the Delaware Valley), the Regal Warrington Crossing Stadium 22 and AMC Franklin Mills 14 all offer a sufficient if not soulless multiplex experience conveniently located near huge shopping centers with miles of free parking and fast food.

And now all the theatres are getting repainted, a dark red/burgundy and a dark olive gray.

The two largest rooms at the Neshaminy 24 (#1 & #24)are IMO the best
theatres in the Phila area, especially for event or big action films.
The screens are very large and have horizontal masking with (most of the time) very good projection and sound. A question for Steve Marcus:
How big are the screens in auditoriums 1 & 24 and do they have the capacity for 70mm projection ?

That figures.

I saw “Dr. Zhivago” at the Premiere soon after it opened sometime in the ‘60s, and you’re right, NortheastPhilly, it was a really great theater! The one feature of it I remember the most was its quadrophonic sound system with speakers at the back at the theater as well as up front. There’s that great scene in “Dr. Zhivago” where he’s in that isolated house in winter up on the Siberian plain and there’s howling wolves off in the distance all around him. And there in the Premiere Theatre during that one scene you could hear those distant wolf howls coming at you from all directions, and it was just so cool!

This might sound a bit strange to some of you — especially those looking at things from a strictly business viewpoint — but in my campaign to restore the Holme Theatre (which is not all that far from the AMC Neshaminy 24, and just a stonesthrow away from the AMC Orleans 8) I’m delighted to hear the AMC Neshaminy 24 draws such huge attendance! As that’s exactly what I DON’T want to happen in the Holme Theatre’s case. Because the Holme Theatre building, unlike the AMC Neshaminy 24 (and also the AMC Orleans 8) is located in a predominantly residential and also highly historic area, it would be an absolute disaster to have too many people coming to it.

Those who are strictly businessminded would surely laugh at my saying this — particularly those who run the United Artists Grant Plaza Cinema 9 which also is not that far from the Holme Theatre, and which doesn’t appear to have much of a customer base at all.

But my thing is not to make money so much, but to really restore and run an historic old theater in the best possible way. And NOT in a way that competes with the AMC Neshaminy 24 and so on, but that will stand as something that is pretty much totally different. I mean, I’m not seeking to take customers away from the AMC Neshaminy 24 and so on any more than the Le Bec Fin restaurant in Center City Philadelphia (ranked as one of the top restaurants in the country) is after the McDonald’s fast food chain’s market. So if anybody’s worried about that they can all pretty much rest easy now. For there are the people who prefer the McDonald’s over the Le Bec Fin, so to speak, And they SHOULD have theaters geared specifically for them. And they DO in the AMC Neshaminy 24, AMC Orleans 9 and so on. And quite frankly I wish there were more. Specifically so that the Holme Theatre can operate without pressures to be that way, too. So at long last I hope that makes sense to y'all.

If 20th Century had given me just one more print of “Sith”, I could have interlocked the remaining 8 houses giving Neshaminy the Nationwide record for attendence. We came in 5th though. Not bad I might add.