National Theatre
10925 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
10925 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
57 people
favorited this theater
Showing 701 - 725 of 746 comments found
Yes, what about Star Wars II & III, Superman Returns…
“Zodiac was the first movie to be shot totally in digital…” SAY WHAT???
The National did not open Zodiac because it doesn’t have digital projection. Zodiac was the first movie to be shot totally in digital,thus the Bruin opened it(It has digital projection).
I saw Rocky VI there back in January and it is the same. Personally for me I like the retro 60’s interior just the way it is. Part of it’s charm. The only thing I would do is put in new seats and paint the ceiling.
What is the interior like now? They could have spent this time remodeling the theatre for the summer blockbuster season. Now it seems the National won’t be able to book any first-run blockbuster hits (Shrek the Third, Spiderman 3).
This week you can see “Zodiac” at the National. It moved over from the Bruin. Now you watch the movie at the theatre where filmed scenes! Too bad they didn’t just open “Zodiac” at the National. In earlier days they probably would have as its a Paramount Picture. Now the National just seems to get the leftovers and the move-overs. Sad.
The National shows up in “Zodiac” posing as a theatre in San Francisco (for the 1972 premiere of “Dirty Harry”). Looking back on the film, the shot they use for the exterior (which is a more traditional entrance and marquee) clearly does not match the interior (The National’s two floors and large windows).
The production designer/location scouts must have realized that no theatre screams “Early 70’s” like the National. If they do end up closing it or, God forbid, getting rid of its funky 70’s decor, at least it will always be preserved on film. And “Zodiac,” with its spot on cinematography and production design, is likely to become the gold standard of filmic representations of that period.
I’ll truly miss this screen. The only movie I ever saw here was the secret Dolby Digital test of “Star Trek VI.”
Actually, now that I think of it, I take that back; I also saw “Single White Female” there.
At any rate, it’s a shame they’re shutting this one down. One less single-screen palace.
Saw a matinee of Superman Returns as a “farewell” to the theatre this weekend and found out that Mann has signed an additiona 6 month lease! That would get it through the holidays.
I got deeply nostalgic watching the traditional Superman opening credits in the National glorious 1970’s decor auditorium. Even the smell of the place reminded me seeing the original Superman as a kid at the Tacoma Mall Twin in 1978.
The National’s presentation was excellent as usual.
I was wondering myself and was thinking about making a visit this weekend. It sounds like a short term agreement has been made but would imagine the National’s days are numbered. Mann has been trying to build a Stadium seating Multiplex in Westwood for a while. If they succeed in that they will probably drop the National and the Festival and keep the Village and Bruin. They could make money on the National if they booked more premieres there, but I guess most studios want the Village and Bruin. I could never understand why they let the National get so run down. They could have at least put new more comfortable seats in it. I’m happy it will be around a bit longer; it is a great theatre and last of its kind.
I was wondering myself and was thinking about making a visit this weekend. It sounds like a short term agreement has been made but would imagine the National’s days are numbered. Mann has been trying to build a Stadium seating Multiplex in Westwood for a while. If they succeed in that they will probably drop the National and the Festival and keep the Village and Bruin. They could make money on the National if they booked more premieres there, but I guess most studios want the Village and Bruin. I could never understand why they let the National get so run down. They could have at least put new more comfortable seats in it. I’m happy it will be around a bit longer; it is a great theatre and last of its kind.
I had heard that it was closing at the end of July, but I just called today to ask if Clerks II is going to be the last film they show and was told by a manager that something had been “worked out.” Has anyone else heard about this? The manager didn’t seem fully confident about what he was saying, so maybe it is just going to be open on a month to month basis. He didn’t seem to really want to talk to me, so maybe someone else could get more information. The direct number to the box office is (310) 208-3946.
It’s all about the real estate it sits on. I would love to see revivals in the theatre. It was a fun theatre to run the booth during those days. It’s like those days when the Cinerama Dome was stuck with one of those lame bookings and running to 10 people per show. What saved the Dome was that the Forman family owned the land that the Dome and B of A and Wells Fargo buildings sit on. And was able to turn the project into a real winner. During the last years UA operated the Egyptian Theatre. They had on the planning stage a new complex for that block. They were to keep the original house with the large D-150 screen and build a 8 to 10 screen complex next door. But the city zoning turned it down and UA trashed the theatre, by turning it into a budget house and then dumping it. The National sits on a large piece of land and the landlord knows. The zoning in that area is the biggest problem, you can’t add screens with a new complex. If Santa Monica and Century City had not became the new movie going areas on the westside and if Mann still had the 5 mile clearance. The National would be a moneymaker. So with the studios opening films on so many screens in all these areas around the National. The National’s slice of the profit pie is so much smaller now.
I second the notion of 70mm revivals here. I saw Titanic here in 70mm – with all the masking expanded to full capacity (unlike Chinese)! Truly an epic experience!
I love the above idea! Lots of 70mm engagements.
Question is: If Mann can’t make the National work, what could Regent do better?
Reading this makes me want to cry. As someone who grew up in the 70s and 80s, The National, more than any other theater in Westwood, could instantly transport me back to those wonderful, informative years as soon as I entered the lobby. The theater has a wonderful, nostalgic, retro vibe, while still giving you a state of the art presentation, which is only found in a few other houses in LA. If it is truly going to be going, I’ll be very sad indeed.
I think the perfect use for this theater would be as a revival house (but a nice one) to offer people another chance to see some of these films on a wonderful, giant screen. I’d love to have the opportunity where I could show up and see Alien, Superman, 2001, Top Gun, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark… They could even start it off with another engagement of The Exorcist! I have to believe this town, more than any other, could support that. If I had the money, I’d do it myself.
thx for the info. I guess it was a glitch in movietickets.com. For about the past week or so, when you tried to see what was playing at the Village it would say ‘info unavailable for this theater’ if you chose dates up to the 26th. But, then if you chose the 27th or after it would show you showtimes for Superman. But now shotimes for Lake House are listed.
The Village is not dark-far from it…It is showing “The Lake House” and at the end of the week, will have the Premiere of Superman (Wed 6/21) and the opening night of the LA Film Festival(THUR 6/22).
do you happen to know why the Village is dark this week? Superman Returns opens there next tuesday at 10:00PM, and there are a couple premiers scheduled this week, but there isn’t anything playing there until Superman. Are they upgrading maybe? Seats? Sound?
It appears The National will be open in July. Two premieres are scheduled; “Little Man” July 6 and “You Me and Dupree” July 10th. I believe it will cease as a Mann Theatre end of July. I’m not sure if the Regent Entertainment rumor is true or not, but there is talk they are interested in taking over the National lease.
does anyone know how many subwoofers the National has?
ANOTHER ARTICLE REGARDING THE NATIONAL:
Marked Mann: Theater chain won’t renew National lease.
Source: Los Angeles Business Journal: Feb 6, 2006 issue
Author(s): Riley-Katz, Anne
Mann Theaters will not renew its lease on the landmark Mann National Theatre, continuing its exodus from Westwood.
The National, the last single-screen theater built in Los Angeles, was the site of numerous glitzy film premieres since its opening in 1970.
After exiting the National, Mann will be left with only three one-screen theaters: the Village, Bruin and the smaller Festival theater.
“The lease is coming to an end, and they were looking to raise the rent,” said Mann Theaters Chief Executive Peter Dobson. “We just can’t afford the money they want.”
Simms Commercial Development, which manages the property, declined comment.
The Mann chain, co-owned by Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Studios and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., will exit in August from the 1,107-seat venue. Mann previously abandoned the four-screen Westwood Theatre complex in 2001, which was replaced with a Whole Foods Market, and subsequently left the Regent and Plaza theaters.
“At one point, Mann controlled all 10 screens in Westwood Village proper,” said Steve Sann, a longtime Westwood business owner, real estate consultant and partner in the Nine Thirty Restaurant at Westwood’s W Hotel.
The first premiere at the theater was in 1970, when “The Boys in the Band” bowed. Since then, it’s been the site of scores of high-profile Hollywood film debuts, including “The Exorcist,” “Indiana Jones” and “Spider-Man.”
Westwood was once dominated by large, single-screen theaters. But the advent of stadium-seating cineplexes and competition from the ArcLight in Hollywood, Century Theaters' new 15-screen flagship operation in Century City and The Bridge all cut into attendance.
Mann executives had hoped to keep the classic picture palace. “We looked at renovating the theater or turning it into four screens and none of the business models worked,” Dobson said.
One plan discussed in 2004 called for Mann to be the anchor tenant of a five-screen theater project in a $60 million, mixed-use development on Broxton and Le Conte avenues. That project, however, recently stalled when the development partners filed lawsuits against each other. The reported price of renovating the National at the time was about $5 million.
Overhauling the National could be expensive due to required seismic and Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades, asbestos removal and other improvements. Parking and traffic concerns and lack of retail appeal also have made Westwood less appealing to theatergoers.
Sources said one potential tenant would be Westwood-based Regent Entertainment, which occupies the penthouse floor of the KB Homes building at Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran Avenue. Regent is the world’s largest independent distributor of television movies …
I’ll have to try to see Posiedon this weekend for one last time at the National. I doubt anybody will take it over at this point, it would not be logical. What is going on with the proposed Mann Stadium 5 plex behind the Bruin? Pretty soon Westwood Village will be down to only the Village and the Bruin unless someone builds someting new. If ANY theatre needs to go it is the Avco. That theatre lost any lustre it had when the chopped it up.
Mann is still going to close it at the end of June or in July. But it will go out with a bang (as a Mann at least). As of now, the last two films booked for the National will be Poseidon starting 5/12 for a week, then the big one——THE DA VINCI CODE starting 5/19, and it looks like DA VINCI will be the final farewell for the National (4-8 weeks), unless someone steps in fast and takes it over.
I’ve have been trying to go again before it closes but MANN has been using the National as a dumping ground for crappy movies. “RV”, “Silent Hill”, “ATL”, “Larry The Cable Guy…”, “The Hills Have Eyes”, “Take The Lead”, “Ultraviolet”, none of these are what I want to see as one of my last films at this great theatre.