\n<\/p>\n
\n\tLights, camera \u2026 inaction. The historic Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard and its adjoining ArcLight Hollywood multiplex have together become perhaps L.A.\u2019s most iconic post-pandemic vacancies.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe 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\u2019s Southern California venues have since been snapped up by other exhibitors, its flagship movie mecca remains a white elephant.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis zombie landmark is under the control of a real estate firm, Robertson Properties, which itself is owned by Pacific\u2019s corporate parent, Decurion. In June, a representative for Robertson Properties explained to the city\u2019s zoning administration at a public hearing that the ownership is \u201cvery committed to moving forward to continue redeveloping the site\u201d yet didn\u2019t provide specifics. Neither Decurion nor Robertson responded to The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>\u2018s inquiry about the stalled site.<\/p>\n \n\tRobertson\u2019s 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\u2019 Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study.<\/p>\n \n\tTHR<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tThe entrance to the theater in April 2021<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGenaro Molina\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n \n\tTwo factors are hampering interest among exhibitors. First, the crown-jewel Dome itself isn\u2019t being made available. (It was built by the grandfather of Decurion\u2019s 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\u2019t 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\u2019s been little meaningful work done on the facilities in recent years, aside from an overhaul of HVAC systems.<\/p>\n \n\tDecurion 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\u2019s website has been taken offline.<\/p>\n \n\tDecurion and Robertson Properties haven\u2019t 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\u2019s also recognized by the National Register of Historic Places, hasn\u2019t publicly exhibited films for more than three decades, since the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged the structure.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tThe courtyard, dressed up for Shrek 2<\/em>, in May 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJon Kopaloff\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n \n\tSome observers speculate that Forman and his lieutenants are keeping the spaces empty on purpose for tax breaks \u2014 like writing off losses, depreciating the buildings\u2019 value and adjusting how much profit that they\u2019ll owe tax on when the assets are eventually sold. Richard Peiser, a professor of real estate development at Harvard, doesn\u2019t think this is the case. \u201cNobody really makes money on tax strategy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\tPeiser, like others, believes that the unspoken endgame is redevelopment. Keeping the site unencumbered from a long-term lease allows for flexibility as market conditions \u2014 particularly for theatrical exhibition \u2014 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.<\/p>\n \n\tThis story appeared in the Aug. 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lights, camera \u2026 inaction. The historic Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard and its adjoining ArcLight Hollywood multiplex have together become perhaps L.A.\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[8320,5886,8319,4401,8321],"class_list":{"0":"post-14710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cinerama","9":"tag-dome","10":"tag-iconic","11":"tag-l-a-s","12":"tag-reopen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}