L.A. Movie Theaters Ready for a Big Comeback This Year With the Egyptian, Vista and Vidiots

Pat Saperstein
·6 min read

One year after Los Angeles’ beloved Landmark closed, the city’s exhibition scene is looking a little brighter – or at least, it will be when a few long-awaited venues open or reopen in 2023, including the Vista, the Egyptian and the new Vidiots outpost at the Eagle Theatre.

Between grappling with the stratospherically priced L.A. commercial real estate and persuading adults to return to movie theaters, the local exhibition scene has weathered numerous challenges since COVID forced businesses to shutter operations.

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“It’s better than last year for sure, because COVID is officially over May 11,” says Sony Pictures Classics co-president Tom Bernard, referencing the end of the federal public health emergency declaration. “So that is a great piece of information for people — they will probably go out more when they feel the official end to the pandemic.”

Local cinephiles got a dose of optimism with Monday’s announcement that the long-awaited Vidiots non-profit would open June 1 in Eagle Rock, with a remodeled 271-seat auditorium, beer and wine bar and video store in the historic Eagle Theatre.

In Los Feliz, Quentin Tarantino’s Vista has a fresh golden paint job and the remodel is getting to the finish line. Reopening is “certainly going to be this year,” says Lance Alspaugh, who stayed on to oversee the renovation after selling the 100-year-old theater to the filmmaker. Alspaugh promises that all the original artifacts have been kept, and says to expect “nice comfy new seating, new draperies, new everything,” in the theater that seats around 380 and includes a café with outdoor seating.

The plan is to run all first-run movies, all on 35mm or 70mm film, Alspaugh confirms. Purists like Tarantino, who also owns the New Beverly, prefer the look of celluloid prints, but that entails striking a film print for new films, which isn’t often done these days.

“You’ve got to make the experience special, because people have so many different options,” Alspaugh says. “That’s what Quentin has done. Selling to him was the hardest decision I’ve ever made. But he loves film, and it will never be anything but a movie theater. It will be a shining beacon in Hollywood.”

Meanwhile, Hollywood’s historic Egyptian is also getting an extensive update courtesy of new owner Netflix, which took over from the American Cinematheque. The venue is on track to reopen by the end of the year, according to sources.

“It’s a really exciting time for experimental and repertory programming,” says Vidiots director Maggie Mackay. “Northeast L.A. in particular is a blueprint for what is possible,” she says, citing community enthusiasm for cultural fixtures such as the Bob Baker Marionettes.

As far as commercial multiplexes go, the closure of The Landmark on Pico was a big loss to the Westside. “It was their brand. It was one of the landmark theaters in the country,” laments Bernard.

The recovery is taking a bit longer than expected, however. “Clearly it’s still in recovery mode and it’s not been as quick of a process as anyone would have hoped,” says Landmark Theatres president Kevin Holloway.

But Landmark has been busy: The circuit recently took over the Sunset 5 location on the Sunset Strip, with plans to take possession in about a month, Holloway says. The venue aims to quickly reopen and take advantage of the summer season while working on some phased renovations.

Last year, Landmark re-opened Pasadena’s Playhouse 7, operated by Laemmle for many years. “Pasadena has been a great asset for us. We knew the community truly values the arts and this location could perform well with a number of different genres,” says Holloway.

For some other cinemas in the area, there’s good news, bad news and no news.

  • Though the Cinerama Hollywood — the new name of the Cinerama Dome — has an active liquor license, there’s been little sign of activity at the Cinerama/ArcLight Hollywood complex, and no comment from the owners.

  • ArcLight’s former Culver City location is now open as the Culver after being taken over by Amazon, which has its L.A. offices nearby. It’s showing first-run movies and serving as a venue for premieres of Amazon properties like “Daisy Jones & the Six.”

  • Despite parent company Cineworld’s bankruptcy filing, Regal recently announced ArcLight’s former Pasadena location would become a Regal multiplex.

  • Meanwhile, Laemmle will shutter its North Hollywood multiplex, since the building had sold to make way for a new development. But Laemmle Theatres CEO Greg Laemmle says that the Claremont location, 30 miles east of Los Angeles, got a reprieve earlier this year when the company decided to cancel the escrow and keep the five-screen plex open.

“We are fully committed to exhibition,” Laemmle says. “We’re all hopeful that by the end of 2024, we’ll be back to a more substantial percentage of box office and can go into a landlord with some confidence about the rent that can be paid.”

However, Laemmle admits, “We’re still not seeing that traditional art house audience in the same numbers that we saw before.”

After several years of burgeoning streaming options, many people in the exhibition business think some of the hesitancy to return comes down to moviegoers’ confusion.

“I think the audience is still trying to figure out how to know what’s playing in the art house world and what’s worth seeing,” Laemmle says.

That’s partially due to lack of innovation in marketing directly to moviegoers, contends Bernard. “Exhibition is still in the ‘90s, when it comes to promotion and marketing. That is by far the biggest problem,” he says.

Bernard says distributors and exhibitors need to double down on emphasizing that films are playing “only in theaters.”

“Everyone says, ‘Oh, I’ll catch it on streaming,'” Bernard argues. “They have no idea that it’s not going to be streaming for a long time. You might want to come see it. Here is an encouragement to go to the theater.”

Film exhibition should look to the concert business, which uses databases of ticket buyers to tirelessly email music fans about their favorite bands, Bernard says. The exec points to New York’s Angelika Cinema, which analyzes ticket buyer data and maintains a robust website and newsletter, as an example of a theater that thoroughly targets filmgoers.

Tempting filmgoers with events and activations is also key, says Holloway, who booked someone in a bear suit for “Cocaine Bear” screenings and live dancers for a “Magic Mike” party. He’s also looking forward to premiering Tommy Wiseau’s new movie “Big Shark” in Westwood in June. Wiseau, director of cult sensation “The Room,” will be in attendance.

“It’s still in a recovery phase, and you know recovery takes longer than the injury. So we need a little bit of patience,” Laemmle counsels.

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