Blue Star 1-4 Cinemas

1701-65 US Highway 22,
Watchung, NJ 07060

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp.

Architects: Maurice D. Sornik

Functions: Retail

Previous Names: Cinema, Blue Star Cinema 1 & 2, Blue Star Cinema 1,2,3

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News About This Theater

Blue Star 1-4 Cinemas

The Cinema opened July 15, 1964 in the Blue Star Shopping Center. The opening movie was Peter Sellers in “A Shot in the Dark”. It was twinned on August 29, 1973. On November 4, 1977 it became a triple screen theatre. On October 22, 1982 it was expanded to 4-screens and closed as the Blue Star 1-4 Cinemas in 1998.

Contributed by dave-bronx

Recent comments (view all 48 comments)

rivest266
rivest266 on October 23, 2016 at 9:01 pm

4 screens on October 22nd, 1982. No ad.

crazyformovies
crazyformovies on January 12, 2017 at 9:16 pm

wow i remember this theater. Miss this theater

dallasmovietheaters
dallasmovietheaters on February 4, 2017 at 8:38 am

Maurice D. Sornik was the architect along with Harold Glucksman

The_Batman_Professor
The_Batman_Professor on June 20, 2017 at 8:25 am

My most vivid memory of Blue Star was waiting in line for three hours to see the first midnight show of BATMAN in ‘89.

markp
markp on June 20, 2017 at 10:15 am

I started there as a part time projectionist during the run of this movie.

The_Batman_Professor
The_Batman_Professor on June 20, 2017 at 6:19 pm

markp, you are responsible for many of my memories! Cheers.

FrankieattheMovies
FrankieattheMovies on August 28, 2017 at 6:32 pm

Miss this Theater i love seeing the old pics thank you! Always like seeing this Theater.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on October 23, 2017 at 8:48 pm

http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2017/08/luxury_cinemark_theater_coming_to_this_central_jer.html

Guodone
Guodone on September 25, 2020 at 9:57 pm

This theater was within walking distance of my home when I was young. During the mid to late 60’s, we saw many movies there, Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, The Dirty Dozen, You Only Live Twice, 2001 A Space Odyssey to name a few. Then in the seventies I worked there as an usher/porter. Some of the big pictures featured were Towering Inferno, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Way We Were, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Superman and Grease. When I started, it was a single theater with a balcony, the second theater under construction. The new theater seated about 600. It was a perfect set up for a twin because the theaters were far enough apart to keep patrons (or sneaky kids) from wandering from one to the other. I seem to recall the manager once saying that the big theater had 1000 seats, so the 1250 seats noted may be incorrect. I know they took out some seats when they split the two theaters but I don’t think they removed 250. (who knows, maybe they did) Once the theaters were split in the late seventies and early eighties, the ‘large screen’ experience was gone.

markp
markp on September 26, 2020 at 11:28 am

Guodone, I worked as a projectionist here from 1989 to 1994. I cant tell you how the theatre looked prior to splitting, but I can tell you when we split the GCC Woodbridge Cinema in 1977, we went from 1500 seats down to 2 theatres of 600 seats each, a loss of 300. So it can happen.

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