Great website, Harvey. I also saved Miami movie ad clippings as a kid and you brought back some great memories. I later worked for an agency that placed many exploitation ads which were often censored by the Miami Herald.
If you adjust the 1965 dollar for 1978 inflation twice as many Americans saw THE SOUND OF MUSIC movie than the GREASE movie. However, THE SOUND OF MUSIC was a failure in most foreign countries and grossed less than 30% of the domestic take with markets such as Germany and Austria taking out the musical numbers altogether to try to break even. GREASE did even better in foreign market than in the US and ended up with almost the same world wide viewers in total.
The first Broadway musical production of GREASE ran for seven years from 1972. Unlike THE SOUND OF MUSIC which was a financial failure even after three years, GREASE has been performed somewhere non-stop since.
I guess if you combine the stage production with the movie GREASE has sold more tickets than any other musical in history including MARY POPPINS and SNOW WHITE.
I have seen GREASE more often than any other movie and I never get tired of it. It is not my favorite film but it is certainly the most tolerable for repeat viewings.
They were “soft core” sex films, the porn of the time. It opened with such films and was never mainstream. The gay screen started when they twinned it in the seventies.
Whatever one thinks of Cineplex and Garth to accuse him of spending undue expense in preserving, booking and keeping single screens open in major cities is hardly a crime profile on this site.
The reason all seats are never sold is that seats break, ticket holders show up late and people with hearing devices and sight impairments move around after the show starts to adjust for their specific needs.
Cineplex Odeon cared for theatres and kept many sites in good shape and open way past their profitable stage. They used their clout to book first runs films at sites that were no longer viable due to their location between zones. The Plaza was such a location.
Having stated that, they also booked all theatres the same with no care taken to audience profiles. As a result the Plaza often played horror and children’s films and wide release specialty titles such as DRIVING MISS DAISY might end up at the Kenmore in Brooklyn.
The New York 20 hour Columbia film marathon consisted of:
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
ON THE WATERFRONT
DR. STRANGELOVE
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
FUNNY GIRL
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
THE PROFESSIONALS
Prizes included movie posters, stills, poster books, soundtrack albums and a free showing of THE ODESSA FILE.
According to the NYT it did just that while the 14th Street location still ran Vaudeville. The article specific states “Keith & Proctors Twenty Third Street”.
In 1952 Brandt sold the Palestine and Charles to Samuel Friedman who then sold them in 1956 to an unnamed company willing to install wide screens and air conditioning.
Great website, Harvey. I also saved Miami movie ad clippings as a kid and you brought back some great memories. I later worked for an agency that placed many exploitation ads which were often censored by the Miami Herald.
If you adjust the 1965 dollar for 1978 inflation twice as many Americans saw THE SOUND OF MUSIC movie than the GREASE movie. However, THE SOUND OF MUSIC was a failure in most foreign countries and grossed less than 30% of the domestic take with markets such as Germany and Austria taking out the musical numbers altogether to try to break even. GREASE did even better in foreign market than in the US and ended up with almost the same world wide viewers in total.
The first Broadway musical production of GREASE ran for seven years from 1972. Unlike THE SOUND OF MUSIC which was a financial failure even after three years, GREASE has been performed somewhere non-stop since.
On video and DVD, GREASE wins every time.
The stage version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC was not a big hit.
I guess if you combine the stage production with the movie GREASE has sold more tickets than any other musical in history including MARY POPPINS and SNOW WHITE.
Palace closings and twinning started way before 1979. GREASE played in shoe-box multiplex theatres all over the US.
I have seen GREASE more often than any other movie and I never get tired of it. It is not my favorite film but it is certainly the most tolerable for repeat viewings.
They were “soft core” sex films, the porn of the time. It opened with such films and was never mainstream. The gay screen started when they twinned it in the seventies.
Whatever one thinks of Cineplex and Garth to accuse him of spending undue expense in preserving, booking and keeping single screens open in major cities is hardly a crime profile on this site.
The reason all seats are never sold is that seats break, ticket holders show up late and people with hearing devices and sight impairments move around after the show starts to adjust for their specific needs.
BEAT THE DEVIL
There was a Turnpike Drive-In at 127th Street.
It is now the New World Stages, Ed.
Cineplex Odeon cared for theatres and kept many sites in good shape and open way past their profitable stage. They used their clout to book first runs films at sites that were no longer viable due to their location between zones. The Plaza was such a location.
Having stated that, they also booked all theatres the same with no care taken to audience profiles. As a result the Plaza often played horror and children’s films and wide release specialty titles such as DRIVING MISS DAISY might end up at the Kenmore in Brooklyn.
The NY one started at 12:01am Saturday night/Sunday morning, October 12/13.
The New York 20 hour Columbia film marathon consisted of:
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
ON THE WATERFRONT
DR. STRANGELOVE
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
FUNNY GIRL
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
THE PROFESSIONALS
Prizes included movie posters, stills, poster books, soundtrack albums and a free showing of THE ODESSA FILE.
The intro should be corrected to reflect that Walter Reade, not Cineplex Odeon, tripled this theatre.
As the Grand Opera House this was showing films at least as early as January 1923 when it ran TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY.
The Squat Theatre, mentioned in the introduction at this location, showed movies in 1984, prior to being razed for this multiplex.
The Irving Place was a double features subrun arthouse from 1941 to 1950 with a heavy emphasis on Russian films during the war years.
Ken, thanks for keeping London history real.
According to the NYT it did just that while the 14th Street location still ran Vaudeville. The article specific states “Keith & Proctors Twenty Third Street”.
This stopped showing films in 1973.
In 1952 Brandt sold the Palestine and Charles to Samuel Friedman who then sold them in 1956 to an unnamed company willing to install wide screens and air conditioning.
Does anyone know which years this operated as the Stuyvesant and whether it showed movies as that?
A 1908 NYT article names the Keith & Proctor on 23rd Street as being renamed Bijou Dream, not this one.