Towne 3 Cinemas

San Jose, United States

1.4

Open now

20 reviews

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 408-293-5034
Website:
www.towne3.com
Address:
1433 The Alameda, San Jose, CA, 95126
Downtown
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
810 ftThe Alameda & Julian
0.7 miSan Jose Diridon
0.7 miSan Jose Diridon Transit Center (Hwy 17 Express)
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Bussiness info

Good for Kids
Yes

Today

Today 4:00 pm – 1:00 am
Open now
Local time (San Jose) 10:51 PM Friday, November 29, 2024

Business hours

Monday 4:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Tuesday 4:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Wednesday 4:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Thursday 4:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Friday 4:00 pm – 1:00 am
Saturday 1:00 pm – 1:00 am
Sunday 1:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Classical Movie Theater

History

Established in 1926.

The History and Promise of San Jose’s Towne 3 Cinemas

Towne 3 Cinemas initially known as Hester Theater opened in 1926 as a neighborhood theater in the Rose Garden district of San Jose.

The Theater name given as Hester theater in remembrance of Craven P. Hester, former district attorney for San Jose and then judge of the Third Judicial District in 1850. A prominent citizen and a resident of one of the mansions on The Alameda, his name lives on with Hester Street. Gone is the Hester Pharmacy, and the Hester Theater is now known as the Towne 3 Cinemas.

The architects of the Towne (which opened as the Hester) were Binder and Curtis. Originally the Hester had a simple Spanish Colonial motif. The current façade dates mostly to a post-​WWII remodeling, as do portions of the interior. However the proscenium is the 1928 original.

Binder and Curtis built several theaters. Most of them are Closed or Demolished. Only Hester/​Towne 3 /​IMC6/​Big cinemas Towne 3 /​T. owne 3 cinemas is open.

Meet the Business Owner

Raman S.

Business Owner

Raman Sanchula who started the exhibiting the movies with other partners purchased the theater in 2005 with other partner. After running the theater for 3 year given lease to Reliance big cinemas. After the lease is completed re opened the theater as Towne 3 Cinemas.

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«Gujarathi Indian cuisine»

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20 reviews of Towne 3 Cinemas

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Place rating: 1
San Jose, CA
This theatre needs a complete revamp. We’ve had horrible experience watching film yesterday. This was worse than a C grade theatre in rural India. Stench was so bad, had no temp control and untidy place.
We started sneezing immediately after we entered the screen 3, avoid this place by all means.
Place rating: 1
Milpitas, CA
Worst theathre in the world. India had much better theathres. the screen has a huge stain. right in the centre. seated were broken and the whole theatre smelled of urine
Place rating: 1
San Jose, CA
Their way of providing heat is to skip providing air so the theater will get ultimately stuffy and warm with no airflow. They are a dying theatre for the last set of crazy customers who come here to experience the Bollywood. Decrepit samosas, soiled seats, dusty floors, twisted chairs provide a variety experience that keep the customer busy wondering what next will go wrong. Lots of suspense, mystery, cobwebs and loud blaring sounds on low watt speskers with broken bass. Welcome to San Jose’s only Bollywood theatre.
Place rating: 1
Des Plaines, IL
— The stench in this place is unbearable.
— The food will most likely upset your stomach.
— Below average visual and sound quality.
— Below average restrooms.
— The only reason this place runs is because people have no other choice to watch Indian regional movies.
Place rating: 1
Sunnyvale, CA
Worst theater ever. Stinky toilets, bad seats, no parking, poor sound and video. would rather go to a theater which is 30 miles far than this.
Place rating: 2
Pleasanton, CA
No option but have to go to watch regional films here. Space is conjusted and parking sucks. Staff is helpful. Need to make line for good movie that may make you to stand in streets for hours. Theater is sone what like stage and projextion is done. Its good screening and sound is ok. Smelly inside auditorium due to lot of popcorn and food items spilled on flour. Exit area is funny and corridor is so small and takes you directly to street in backside. Funny but no options.
Place rating: 1
Fremont, CA
Worst experience. bath room has water break down and stagnant water. Smelly.
Restroom near the entrance don’t have lock. Someone should guard you.
Sound quality is very poor. It’s like n a mono speaker system. Will never visit this again.
Very poorly maintained theatre. Should report this facility to San Jose city for code violation.
Place rating: 1
Cupertino, CA
Really bad maintained place… unfriendly staff and dirty toilets. I had to wear a pricey shirt and did not feel good about that… The seats had stains on them
Place rating: 1
Fremont, CA
Pretty horrible place to see a movie. Lines are long and the staff not very courteous … When the show time is 7;45 you would at least expect to be seated by 7:45. On the contrary we were still standing till 8.
Place is pretty unclean as well. Not to mention about the size and cleanliness of the restroom.
Place rating: 1
San Jose, CA
Unilocal doesn’t let me post a review without selecting a minimum of 1 star. I would give this place a 0.
This is the worst theater that I’ve been to in the US. Unfortunately this is the only choice we have for most Tamil movies. Bad audio, bad screens [I can see patches on the screen], bad seating: $ 12 is a very high price to watch a movie in such conditions. I would prefer to go to AMC or Cinemark if I had the option.
Place rating: 2
Santa Clara, CA
Movie theater and haunted house experience for the price of one. Legend has it that they used to clean this place back in the day!
Place rating: 1
Newark, CA
Screen 3 cooling completely screwed up. First time I saw A/​c vent air flowing pretty strong. Ppl we’re literally shivering. …better. check your temperature..
Place rating: 3
San Francisco, CA
What do to if you want to watch your fav Indian movies? Come here and spend irrationally on tickets and food. Bad seats, very much like a local cinema theater back in India where you hung out with friends in college with bad uncomfortable seats. An opening day show in such a bad theater can go up to 24 $!! Totally not worth it. But what choice. If century etc start screening all the Telugu and Tamil movies, people won’t bother to come here. These guys better invest in interiors
Place rating: 2
Evanston, IL
I am sad to agree with other Unilocalers about this cinema. It was a below average experience in many ways. I went in with a bunch of friends yesterday for the first time and this theatre is the worst one I have seen in the US so far. The restrooms did stink as others have warned before and the seating was just plain bad! And to top it off — the movie tickets were priced at $ 12. (Seriously, I expect better treatment for that!)
They don’t have assigned parking so like most other movie goers — I parked in the school lot opposite to the theater. The management really needs to put in some money to renovate this place in order to improve the business. The only thing that I enjoyed here was the chai tea from the snack stand. I won’t come back if I have another option to catch a regional movie.
Place rating: 1
San Jose, CA
The worst theatre experience you can get in the entire US. Terrible sound system and equally terrible projection quality. This theatre spoils the movie experience altogether especially if you are interested in enjoying background score and cinematography. You’d rather watch those movies at home. Rural places in India have better theatres than this one. The theatre owners & maintenance staff doesn’t seem to know that they have to clean the auditorium at least once a while.
Tickets for many South Indian movies are priced higher than Hollywood movies. With that kind of price, the management has a really good opportunity to improve standards. Especially with so many Indians in bay area, a good theatre will have even better attendance. Unfortunately for some movies the distributors are releasing movies only at this terrible place. I wish they would trash this place and go to AMCs or Cinemarks; I’m sure the audience would be happier.
Place rating: 2
Fremont, CA
After all, you can’t be very choosy with theaters that show Indian regional movies.
The interiors are not very clean. The seats are very bad, it gives me a back ache every time I am here. Audio is poor. You can hear sounds from the screen next to you.
The snacks are a joke. The pop corn used to come in cups before, but now its small paper bags. And for $ 3, I expect better quantity. They also serve samosas and veggie puffs (which most of the time, its just the puff pastry sheet with barely any filling). The samosas are ok. But they can keep it warm. I try to avoid buying the samosas here as much as I can.
Parking can be a hassle in the weekends. The school parking lot in front can accommodate just 15 – 20 cars. The street parking is not reliable.
Probably, if Century Fremont or Great Mall start to show more Indian movies, I wouldn’t come here. But oh, beggars can’t be choosers!
Place rating: 1
San Ramon, CA
Though the Towne 3 Cinemas is too congested, I understand it because its located in Downtown and hard to find some spacious areas.
One of the auditoriums in the theatre gave us the worst experience ever. We went with kids and the cinema hall was very suffocating. The AC and the fans were not working. We complained about this to the management. The next day we went to the same theatre for another movie, they said they were going to screen in the same theatre without AC working. For the price of the ticket, these facilities need to be good. But we had a bad experience.
Place rating: 1
San Jose, CA
One of the worst theatre in Bay area. Dont ever watch movies here.
Screens and restrooms smells so bad. No proper maintainence.
Hope some day they upgrade/​modify to atleast like Serra theatres.
Place rating: 2
Santa Clara, CA
Parking is very bad.
Place rating: 2
Santa Clara, CA
I went there to watch a Tamil movie (Indian language).
= Movie screen quality was good.
— Audio wasn’t close to what you get in a theater. Unfortunately for Indians living in that area, there are not many theaters that release Indian movies, i heard. I am new to Bay area, so i may be wrong.
— Parking was a problem
— definitely not worth the $ 20 they charge.
— $ 3 for pop corn, the size they give, is rubbish. (They give pop corns in something like a Coke cup & thats $ 3).
If there is any other cinemas showing my movie, I would better go there.