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Out of towners to visit Movie Theater?
23
October
10/23/2009:
Would you drive into Hoboken for our tiny theater?
If you had the intestinal fortitude to sit through the latest City Council meeting on October 21, 2009 – you’d know that an extensive amount of time was spent discussing parking spots surrounding the Clearview Cinemas, which officially opens up tonight. Many assumptions were made that “people will come to Hoboken’s theater.”
Additionally, arguments ensued that it wasn’t Hoboken’s responsibility to give two craps about whether parking was available around the theater, since the project was approved, it was deemed a “residential” and “walking” theater, not one that was built to cater to out-of-towners and their cars and SUV’s.
After much thought, I remembered that each surrounding town already has larger, multi-screen theaters, along with ample parking (such as Jersey City, Edgewater, North Bergen, etc.) So what towns will people be coming from exactly?
Furthermore – a brand new FOURTEEN screen theater (LA Theaters Showplace 14) just opened last week in nearby Secaucus, NJ – a mere FIVE minutes from Hoboken. So other than perhaps a few Jersey City Heights residents walking from the 9th Street Light Rail elevator, I don’t imagine how Hoboken’s theater would ever be considered a “destination” for anyone else, unless they already had “dinner and a movie” type plans (i.e., first dates, etc.)
Do you think many out-of-towners would suffer through Hoboken parking nightmares to see a movie?
31 Responses to ** Out of towners to visit Movie Theater? **
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October 24th 2009 - 09:46:08 |
Second half of your post: yes. Spot on.
First half, no.
The reason why the theater downtown failed was because it was a hole. And, as Nick correctly pointed out, first-run films were few and far between. But I remember seeing Sixth Sense there and there was a line out the door. I also remember seeing several other films there when the sound cut out, the film simply stopped playing or “audience participation” made it impossible to follow the film.
In response to plywood who said:
Can you imagine the planning meetings for this new theatre: “let’s go with full lot coverage and no parking. No one will notice or we’ll spin it as a local audience base. Then once it’s built everyone will realize what a mistake it is to have no parking, but then we’ll have them over a barrel. We’ll then get metered parking from the city or ask for some crazy give-backs to build an adjacent parking lot. Mixed occupancy parking with theatre goers and local monthly parking. Sneak in some residential units. City will help fund it, we’ll run it and be heroes. Let the guy we hired yesterday run this project, I’ve got to go file the new batch of condo variances”.
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October 24th 2009 - 10:27:07 |
What then is your prognosis for this place if they go “first run”? Will it be a horror show (hint, hint)? Don’t get me wrong, I’m one that will go here at least 6 – 8 times a year. And, yes, in the age of Netflix and beyond an art house is by and large a quaint memory in a town like this.
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October 24th 2009 - 10:36:31 |
Couple of comments:
1) Hoboken is a small, urban city, not a suburban town. As in NYC, it’s completely appropriate to have a theater w/out parking. IMO, when evaluating amenities, etc. folks should compare Hoboken to NYC, not a suburban (or even purely residential) community.
2) As homeworld pointed out, the downtown theater was in complete disrepair and had been for years. That was the reason I and others I know stopped going.
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October 24th 2009 - 10:59:43 |
I think the theater is a good idea with or without parking. It gives locals another choice of “what to do”. I myself look forward to walking a few blocks to see a movie in a clean new facility instead of going to Newport and having my feet stick to the floor. Last time I went there a mouse tripped me an a roach took my wallet.
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October 24th 2009 - 11:42:03 |
I remember going to see kill bill at the old movie theater and it was just me and my wife. It was like having your own private screening room.
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October 24th 2009 - 19:19:59 |
Since this is a Clearview theater, it is part of the “Optimum Rewards” program.
http://www.optimumrewards.com/whatare.do?q=4#q4
The free movie night is likely to bring folks to town. The discount on other nights might be enough for someone to decide on Hoboken instead of Edgewater for a movie.
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October 24th 2009 - 19:28:42 |
We need this entertainment occupancy. The new mayor and our governing body have to make it work. Hire pros and/or listen to our volunteer civic minded citizens to help solve the problems of parking and surroundings. It is here now and it can work. It’s about time that we have some confidence in the public’s ability to get our elected officials to do things right!
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October 25th 2009 - 15:26:24 |
I would be for the parking meters only if they use ripped out ones from Sinatra Drive where only a bunch of inbred morons would have approved them.
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October 25th 2009 - 15:32:30 |
I think they already removed them!
In response to elainetyger who said:
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October 25th 2009 - 19:21:04 |
I saw them removed. The whole time they had a boom box blasting Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter”.
In response to justaview who said:
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October 26th 2009 - 16:12:38 |
i really hope it succeeds – i’m looking forward to having the option in town. for locals it’s great – but, i know it would need more than just hoboken residents to frequent it to realistically survive. i think some other towns – weehawken, some parts of jersey city, even some parts of edgewater that are closer to hoboken than their cinemas – would check it out if it has good movies and hours… i hope!
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