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The 12 Biggest Houses in Town Manhattan's first-run movie theaters, by number of seats and owner Astor Plaza 1,525 Loews
| Ziegfeld 1,151 Cineplex Odeon |
| Criterion 2 1,090 Moss |
| Criterion 1 1,075 Moss |
| National 2 1,000 Cineplex Odeon |
| Orpheum 1 994 Loews |
| Movieland 850 Moss |
| Cinema I 700 City Cinemas |
| Columbia 600 City Cinemas |
| National 1 600 Cineplex Odeon |
| 34th Street Showplace 3 600 Loews |
Orpheum 2 599 Loews NEW YORK is a town in love with the movies. People in the city and its suburbs went to movie theaters about 100 million times last year, and they contribute about 12 percent of the nation's box office receipts. It's even common to see Mayor Edward I. Koch lining up at local cinemas - although theater owners say his aides hold a seat for him inside.
"This is a great location for movies," says Bernard Goldberg, vice president of Golden Theater Management Corp., a circuit that operates 28 screens in the city. "Anything within reason does business in Manhattan."
New Yorkers may be the most enthusiastic supporters of this most American of popular arts. But, this being New York, the business of running movie theaters is different here than it is anywhere else in America. Land is expensive, especially in Manhattan, so New York has been the last holdout against the spread of the lucrative multiplexes that now line suburban highways.
Yet, thanks to the city's movie mania, theaters still make good money here. That has long attracted some of the nation's largest theater chains, and lately, some new big players have entered the scene as well. United Artists Communications, based in East Meadow, L.I., is the nation's largest chain with about 2,000 screens. It has 66 in the city. Loews Theater Management Corp. of Secaucus, N.J., ranked 12th in the United States with 300 screens, has 35 in New York. Tri-Star Pictures bought Loews last fall, partly to get those lucrative New York theaters.
The most recent entrant to the market is Cineplex Odeon Corp. of Toronto, whose 1,008 screens in the United States rank it fourth in the nation. Since last September, the company has accumulated 49 theaters in the city by buying the RKO Century Warner and the Walter Reade circuits, as well...