Westmont Theatre

Located in Haddon Township NJ, the Westmont Theatre opened in 1927. When it first opened, it was showing only silent films and housed 1,600 seats. On Sundays, it was well known that the theatre would always put on a show featuring a 120 piece orchestra and what was then considered to be the largest organ in NJ. The Westmont was taken over by Warner Bros in 1941 and was closed throughout WWII. When it finally re-opened in 1949, it was transformed into a 1,200 seat movie house. Steven Spielberg notes seeing "The Greatest Show on Earth" at the theatre when living in town as a child. He went on to credit this experience as what inspired him to become a director. In 1979, the theatre closed briefly and was re-opened as a twin that same year. The property was purchased by Raymond Posel and was under his ownership until 1986. The theatre was then purchased by the township in 2000 and was converted to seat only 300 guests. In February of 2008, the township made an announcement that they were looking for a new developer of the property. After years of neglect and abandonment, a group out of NYC surveyed the property and determined it would cost $3.1 million to restore the theatre to its former glory. The town rejected this and it was converted to a Planet Fitness Gym in 2016.