Sunny Isles Twin
3025 Sunny Isles Boulevard,
North Miami Beach,
FL
33160
3025 Sunny Isles Boulevard,
North Miami Beach,
FL
33160
3 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: ABC Florida State Theatres
Architects: Robert E. Collins
Functions: Furniture Showroom
Nearby Theaters
Opened on December 15, 1966 with Zero Mostell in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, presented in 70mm. This twin theatre featured the then common ABC Florida State Theatres design that was made up of two diagonally attached rectangular auditoriums and a round lobby with a large glass front.
Opening as the Aquamarine and Driftwood auditoriums, they soon became Twin I and II. At opening both screens played alternating showings of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”.
The round glass lobby featured a unique ceramic floor tile design with an aquarium motif. Photos featuring ABC’s waterfront attractions Weeki Washee and Silver Springs parks were on display and were also advertised on the screen before each film.
Each auditorium featured high-back rocking chair seats and excellent sight lines on huge screens. The seats and carpets were colored burnt orange and aqua blue to match their names with the Aquamarine screen being the largest seating over 700. Reserved seats were common in the early years, a practice that was abandoned when roadshow releases became rare.
Following closure in 1984 it became a furniture showroom and by 2019 was still a furniture showroom.
Contributed by
Al Alvarez
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 41 comments)
The current Scandesign web site clearly shows the old theater as one of its showrooms.
Grand opening ad:
Sunny Isles twin theatre opening Fri, Dec 16, 1966 – 117 · The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) · Newspapers.com
That “Cinderella” in the opening ad was one of a small handful of films distributed by Barry Yellen’s Childhood Productions in 1966, each a hastily dubbed U.S. premiere of a foreign language film. Thus, LOW budget, and quite lame. The Miracle in Coral Gables usually had better matinees, although a few of the lower end products slipped in.
Ripshin, that was released as Aschenputtel in 1955.
Yes, I know.
It wasn’t released in the US till 1966.
In 1978, Henry Plitt formed Plitt Theatre Holdings with some partners to buy ABC`s Southern Circuit of theaters includng ABC’s Florida State Theatres for $49 million including the Southern Isles Twin. Plitt operated the venue from December of 1978 until closure on February 2, 1984 as as Plitt’s Sunny Isles Twin.
It reopened as an independent as the Sunny Isles Twin the next day. It closed on March 4, 1984 with “Boarding School” and “Angelo, My Love” placing a “Closed for Remodeling: Returning on May 3d.” But the venue thought better of the plan making the March 4th closure permanent. Following its conversion to retail operationes, the Sunny Isles Twin theatre was in the news one last time in 1986 as Plitt lost a $1 million lawsuit for a 1982 injury incident in its parking lot.
Dallas, I believe the lawsuit was for the Plitt Suniland, and not the Sunny Isles.
It may well be but the local paper reports that the Valentine’s 1982 incident occurred at the Plitt Sunny Isles Twin Theatre and that the movie the man and his wife were on their way to attending did play at the Sunny Isles Twin on Valentine’s Day, 1982. The jury award payout occurred in June of 1986.
This was one of the last theaters, if not the last, designed by famed architect Robert E. Collins.