Rave Cinemas Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza 15
4020 Marlton Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90008
4020 Marlton Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90008
3 people
favorited this theater
Opened in 1995, this was the first theater in the Magic Johnson Theatres chain, a partnership between the former basketball star’s business enterprises and Sony/Loews Theatres. AMC closed the Crenshaw 15 on June 13, 2010.
Taken over by Rave Motion Pictures chain, the theater was completely renovated (for $10 million) and reopened on June 28, 2011 with preview screenings of “Transformers 3”.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 25 comments)
The older N/A megaplexes did that. The Valley Stream and Whitestone
(bronx) was orignilly built as Six pleaxes now through expansion and subdividsion are now 14 screens
N/A had monster auditoriums, consider West Springfield, MA which was cobbled together from 3 older buildings – the two largest theaters which I consider to be monsters for stadium seating era multiplexes (they may even have larger screens that the nearby retrofit IMAX at Buckland Hills/Manchester, CT) – were once one major auditorium. Now that I’d love to see a picture of.
But back to Scott’s point and I’m not sure if in the move to CinemaTour the National sites that Rave just bought this came up. I don’t know how some Cinema De Lux sites were converted, but at Buckland they removed an auditorium for Chatters and the food court, took out the center snack bar and put in a new one at the halfway point the lobby and built a theater in what was once half the lobby. That’s the only example I could think of in the modern stadium era, most Loews additions were add-ons only because the theaters weren’t that large. If anything the stadium era downsized itself when AMC, Regal and Cinemark figured out anything over 20 screens wasn’t really sustainable.
A sad, sad loss not only for the Crenshaw district but also for the LA theater scene in general. Truly the passing of an age. Magic Johnson Crenshaw was one of the last non-stadium theaters, with several large auditoriums (and several small ones too), comfortable seats, good quality projectors, and reasonably clean rest rooms. They also had two stadium theaters at the end of the corridor, but who cares? I HATE STADIUM SEATING! And they always attracted an interesting crowd.
Rave Motion Pictures will be the operator of this theater when $10 million in renovations are completed; the projected reopening is by Memorial Day 2011: View link
Just saw Rave’s blurb about the theatre (re)opening in today’s LA Times ad. It just says that it opens in July 2011. No updates about the theatre available on their website…but the site does say that the upgraded theatre will have a raveXtreme Giant Screen Auditorium (IMAX without IMAX licensing fees!) in the new complex.
Rave’s website now says it will open June 29th.
blog from LA Times with a pic (very few pictures also at Rave’s facebook page):http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/06/former-magic-johnson-theaters-reopens-as-rave-cinemas.html
I took a tour yesterday and uploaded 4 pics to this theatre’s page. The status needs to be changed to “Open.”
As for the theatre itself, it is considerably smaller than it was during the Magic Johnson era. Lobby is drastically smaller with 1 concession area servicing the whole theatre (a nightmare waiting to happen for the poor soul who gets to the theatre 5 minutes before showtime!).
Auditorium seating ranges from 90 to over 300. The 300 seaters are their “raveXtreme” auditoriums featuring nicely wide screens (but not tall like IMAX or even the wannabe Digital IMAX/AMC ETX/Cinemark XD screens) and top notch sound. I caught the 2nd half of “Fast Five” in the X2 Extreme auditorium…pity the poor souls who have to sit dead in front!). Regular auds fluctuate between side masking in some and top masking in others. Theatre is all digital projection with 7 auditoriums exclusively dedicated to Real 3D projection.
IMO, their biggest issue will be controlling the teenyboppers who will crush this place to bits on weekends!
I enjoy that from the photos I can see the leftover elements of Loews with the red atrium dome above the lobby and the outside brick.
I’ve never been to this particular location but I know Loews loved building these theatres with an entrance on both sides of the building. If this was like that, no wonder the lobby is so small, they closed off half of it.
Looks good though. Would love to see some good auditorium photos before the place sees any wear.
Mr Neff,
You should go to the location or call it. I think you know the GM