On December 18th, 1987, Cineplex Odeon opened this movie theater as "Cineplex Odeon Newport Center Cinemas”, originally with nine screens on the top of Jersey City’s Newport Centre. The first movies to show here were “Planes Trains and Automobiles”, “Wall Street”, “Three Men and a Baby”, “Overboard”, “Empire of the Sun”, “Throw Momma from the Train”, “Batteries Not Included”, “Nuts” and “Broadcast News”. On December 18, 1992, it was expanded into eleven screens. Over the years, this theater would be taken over by Loews after the Loews Cineplex merger and would eventually be taken over by AMC after their acquisition of Loews.

On a personal note, during the 1990’s, I had never actually gone inside this theater. My parents would take me and my brother and sister to the food court and serve me Burger King, which is now gone from the mall. I remember the big Cineplex Odeon sign above the escalators. My first time going in was when my mother took me to see “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” during the summer of 2000. On November 17th of that year, my parents would took me to see “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and it was an experience I will never forget. Because of that film, this remained as one of my absolute favorite venues to visit and I have seen plenty of movies here.