My first viewing of Manhattan was on opening day — Friday, 4.25.79. (Movies didn’t open on Thursdays back then.) I couldn’t wangle a ticket to the big premiere at the Zeigfeld on 4.18, so I saw it at a modest-sized theatre that I can’t recall the name of, but it was located on East 34th street, perhaps near Third Avenue or Lexington but definitely not as far east as Second Ave.
I waited in line a good 45 minutes or so, enjoying the expectant vibe, and what a surge when the crowd finally began to shuffle indoors. The almost quaalude-like high that rippled through the audience during the opening George Gershwin-meets-Gordon Willis montage was ecstatic, shattering — one of the greatest surges of pure cinematic feeling that I’ve ever experienced.
Wiki excerpt #1: “Very unhappy with the final cut, Allen asked United Artists not to release it. He offered to make a film for no fee instead. He later said: ‘I just thought to myself, at this point in my life, if this is the best I can do, they shouldn’t give me money to make movies.'”
Wiki excerpt #2: “Manhattan premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on April 18, 1979. It opened in 27 theaters in New York City, Los Angeles and Toronto on April 25, then expanded to an additional 256 theaters nationwide on May 4, before adding a further 117 screens a week later. The film was shown out of competition at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival in May.”