Hollywood Galaxy
7021 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
7021 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
11 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: AMC Theatres, General Cinema Corp.
Previous Names: GCC Hollywood Galaxy 6 Cinema, AMC Hollywood Galaxy 6
Nearby Theaters
This six-plex was opened November 29, 1991 by General Cinema. From March 2002 it was run by AMC. It contributed to some of the other Hollywood Boulevard theatres closing like the Vogue Theatre and the Hollywood Theatre. It was closed in fall of 2003.
Contributed by
RobertR
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Recent comments (view all 46 comments)
Since it was called the Galaxy, didn’t star wars play here?
Did this thing even last ten years?
Along with the Northridge earthquake, this complex was probably the final nail in the coffin for the Egyptian and Hollywood Pacific. The Vogue and Fox probably would have closed either way. But the Hollywood Pacific was still doing business with pictures like Silence of the Lambs and Sea of Love. Alien, Aliens and Return of the Jedi were typical premiers at the Egyptian in the 80’s. Instead of finding a way to keep the Hollywood blvd theaters vital, local pols approved this multiplex for one of the best locations on the blvd.
How could the Hollywood Pacific and Egyptian compete?
And this thing didn’t even last 10 years.
Comedian Patton Oswalt does a funny bit about this place in his “Finest Hour” special. It come near the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6oATzbndjE
I found some ticket stubs from Hollywood Galaxy I posted in the photos, for 6 Days 7 Nights and U571.
Great to hear Patton name drop the theater in that bit!
This theater could be seen in the 1992 “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” movie.
Grand opening ad posted.
The $30 million multi-use Hollywood Galaxy project was announced in March of 1987. General Cinema Corporation (GCC) decided to put its stake in the ground just a block and escalator ride up from the venerable Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Making way for the project was the 1919-built Garden Court apartment building - declared a monument and historic landmark in 1981 and then declared an obstacle in the revitalization of Hollywood in 1984 when preservationists lost a hard fought battle to save the neo-baroque complex after it had been unceremoniously stripped of its historic landmark status.
The home that was once home to Lillian Gish, Laurel & Hardy, Mack Sennett and others could at least play those folks' films nearly five years later as the General Cinema Hollywood Galaxy 6 when it finally launched on November 29, 1991. The best value by far that day was a 70mm double-feature of “Alien” and “Aliens” in a THX certified house. Wow! But with the multiplex era soon giving way to the megaplex era, General Cinema would go into freefall collapse watching cinema chains enter the market that decimated the GCC business plan. GCC dropped the “6” from ads as six-plexes were no longer drawing cards, especially with paid parking lots that were sometimes hard for folks to find.
AMC took on the struggling General Cinema Galaxy on April 4, 2002 along with the lion’s share of GCC properties around the country. The theater chain had just 73 theaters representing 677 screens nationwide in December of 2001 when AMC purchased the circuit - that was down precipitously from the 350 theater locations with some 1,500 screens that GCC operated just 15 years earlier according to its annual financial report. After the GCC buyout was approved in 2002, AMC exercised patience at the Hollywood venue before permanently jettisoning it from our galaxy on December 4, 2003.
If remembered, the Hollywood Galaxy was an early effort that helped revitalize what had become a seedy area in Hollywood as even the once-opulent Garden Court had been nicknamed a flop house called “Hotel Hell.” But the movie house would be undercut by a higher visibility annex to the Chinese Theatre in Mann’s Chinese 6, the revamping of the El Capitan Theatre, and the major efforts to keep the Chinese Theatre, itself, vibrant.
The Galaxy suffered from a “looks good in theory/on paper” market, but doesn’t pan out in reality. At first glance, the Hollywood Blvd area appears lucrative; massive foot traffic and dense residential areas near bye. However, in reality, most of the foot traffic is comprised of tourists/pass-through visitors who aren’t interested in staying to watch a movie and locals tend to venture away from the blvd for movies/shopping/etc. due to the perceived hassles of the area. The Chinese 6 has suffered greatly from the same scenario, only getting by on festivals/rentals/special events as a means of survival. The El Capitan and main Chinese are destination theatres which operate in their own unique business model, but the days of the blvd. being a viable location for a standard day to day theatre going destination have long passed.
Beverly Connection (also GCC) across from the Beverly Center (also with a closed theatre!) looked the same way as this one and suffered the same fate! 😳🥺😔
Well to be fair… all GCCs looked the same. That was their thing.