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 Interactive map of Ziegfeld Theatre | |
| Former names | Ziegfeld Ballroom |
|---|---|
| Address | 141 West 54th Street |
| Location | New York City |
| Coordinates | 40°45′46″N73°58′44″W / 40.7627°N 73.9788°W /40.7627; -73.9788 |
| Owner | Fisher Brothers |
| Operator | Core Ziegfeld L.L.C. |
| Type | Movie theatre |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 17 December 1969 (1969-12-17) |
| Renovated | 2013 |
| Closed | 2016 |
| Architect | Emery Roth & Sons |
| Website | |
| ziegfeldballroom | |
TheZiegfeld Theatre was a single-screenmovie theater located at 141 West54th Street inmidtown Manhattan inNew York City. It opened in 1969 and closed in 2016. The theater was named in honor of the originalZiegfeld Theatre (1927–1966), which was built by theimpresarioFlorenz Ziegfeld Jr.
On December 17, 1969, a few hundred feet from the site of the original Ziegfeld Theatre, a new Ziegfeld opened as a single-screen movie house with the New York premiere ofMarooned.[1] It was the flagship of theWalter Reade movie theatre chain.[1]
Constructed byEmery Roth & Sons from designs by Irving Gershon[2] it was built on part of the old theatre and was the first new theatre in the Times Square area sinceRadio City Music Hall was built in 1932.[1] It was one of the last large-scale, single-screen movie palaces built in the United States.[2] The gold and maroon interior was designed byJohn J. McNamara at a cost of $600,000.[1]
The theatre had 1,152 seats (825 seats in the orchestra section and 306 seats in the tiered rear section).[2]
AfterMarooned it showed reissues until July 1, 1970, when it had the world premiere ofWalt Disney Productions'The Boatniks.[3][4] From then it was often used for world premieres and big-event press screenings, such as the November 1977 opening ofClose Encounters of the Third Kind.[2]
In 1987,Cineplex Odeon Corporation acquired the Walter Reade Organization and took over operation of the theatre.[2] The theater underwent extensive renovations in the late 1990s. It was a centerpiece site during the 2008New York Film Festival because of reconstruction work atLincoln Center that year. During the 2000s, digital projection was installed. The theater became the largest single-screen cinema operating in New York. The screen was 20 feet tall and 52 feet wide,[2] making it the largest non-IMAX screen in New York City.[5]
From 2013 until its closing, the Ziegfeld was managed byBow Tie Cinemas, on behalf ofCablevision, which owned the theater. The theater was previously part of theClearview Cinemas chain, which was owned by Cablevision, prior to the chain's sale to Bow Tie; the actual ownership of the Ziegfeld building was excluded from the sale. In an April 2015 interview, Cablevision CEOJames L. Dolan said the theater "loses a lot of money" and might be shuttered.[6][7]
On January 20, 2016,Fisher Brothers (which owned 141 West 54th Street) announced that the Ziegfeld would close shortly due to dwindling attendance and revenue, which caused the operators to lose their lease.[7][8] Eight days later, the Ziegfeld Theatre closed as a large single-screen movie theater with a final showing of the filmStar Wars: The Force Awakens.[9][10] The theater underwent a major renovation and reopened in November 2017 as a luxury event space called the Ziegfeld Ballroom.[11]
