Lights, camera … inaction. The historic Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard and its adjoining ArcLight Hollywood multiplex have together become perhaps L.A.’s most iconic post-pandemic vacancies.
The venues shuttered in March 2020, at the onset of COVID, prompting public lamentations from filmmakers ranging from Barry Jenkins and Lulu Wang to Edgar Wright and Olivia Wilde. Operator Pacific Theatres soon went bankrupt and liquidated all its locations. While many of the company’s Southern California venues have since been snapped up by other exhibitors, its flagship movie mecca remains a white elephant.
This zombie landmark is under the control of a real estate firm, Robertson Properties, which itself is owned by Pacific’s corporate parent, Decurion. In June, a representative for Robertson Properties explained to the city’s zoning administration at a public hearing that the ownership is “very committed to moving forward to continue redeveloping the site” yet didn’t provide specifics. Neither Decurion nor Robertson responded to The Hollywood Reporter‘s inquiry about the stalled site.
Robertson’s vast regional real estate portfolio grew out of a constellation of postwar drive-ins. Today, these locations are mostly sprawling shopping malls and warehouse complexes along with other large commercial developments, such as a square-block buildout leased by Netflix along Vine Street, between the former ArcLight Hollywood and AMPAS’ Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study.
THR has learned that several major exhibitors have made serious inquiries about both the Cinerama Dome, which from its construction in 1963 to its closure was a popular choice for studio film premieres, as well as the ArcLight. When the multiplex opened in 2002, it pioneered a now-standard array of offerings for upmarket cinemas, including reserved seating, reclining stadium-style chairs, in-house gourmet dining offerings and state-of-the-art picture and sound.
The entrance to the theater in April 2021
Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Two factors are hampering interest among exhibitors. First, the crown-jewel Dome itself isn’t being made available. (It was built by the grandfather of Decurion’s current CEO, Chris Forman, who created the ArcLight chain; he may view it as an heirloom that can only be managed in-house.) Second, Robertson Properties doesn’t appear interested in offering a long-term lease, which exhibitors would require to justify the improvement costs for refurbishing an already aging multiplex whose technology has been all but abandoned for half a decade. Records at the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety show that there’s been little meaningful work done on the facilities in recent years, aside from an overhaul of HVAC systems.
Decurion has long kept a low corporate profile. Its management culture has led to chatter that it is affiliated with Scientology; in a rare public statement, the company denied this in 2013. A grassroots campaign has emerged to advocate for Forman to either reopen the Dome or else lease it to another exhibitor. More than 30,000 people have since signed an online petition. Decurion’s website has been taken offline.
Decurion and Robertson Properties haven’t been in a hurry to reactivate another notable holding, the Hollywood Pacific Theatre (originally developed by the Warner brothers in 1928 to showcase sound), which was later converted to the widescreen Cinerama format. The venue, a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument that’s also recognized by the National Register of Historic Places, hasn’t publicly exhibited films for more than three decades, since the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged the structure.
The courtyard, dressed up for Shrek 2, in May 2004.
Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
Some observers speculate that Forman and his lieutenants are keeping the spaces empty on purpose for tax breaks — like writing off losses, depreciating the buildings’ value and adjusting how much profit that they’ll owe tax on when the assets are eventually sold. Richard Peiser, a professor of real estate development at Harvard, doesn’t think this is the case. “Nobody really makes money on tax strategy,” he says.
Peiser, like others, believes that the unspoken endgame is redevelopment. Keeping the site unencumbered from a long-term lease allows for flexibility as market conditions — particularly for theatrical exhibition — evolve. Privately held real estate firms like Robertson Properties think in decades. The ArcLight-Dome complex was at the vanguard of neighborhood revitalization at the turn of the millennium, before film audiences abandoned cinemas for streaming. Now, perhaps sadly, the site may make more financial sense as just another high-rise mixed-use project with a big-box anchor retail tenant.
This story appeared in the Aug. 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
