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Renovations loom for the TCL Chinese Theatre
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
February 14, 2013 at 7:55 am
HOLLYWOOD, CA — After reporting last month that the Chinese Theatre had sold its naming rights, there is further word that a stadium seating installation is imminent. There is still no confirmed date as to when renovations may begin.
Read more in Hollywood Elsewhere.
(Thanks to KenRoe for providing the photo.)
Comments (7)
It took a while but they will end up ruining the theatre after all. They will go through all these renovations at they will still show crappy movies. Looks like the Chinese theatre is officially dead.
While I’m a bit uneasy about some of this pending remodel, articles, such as the one linked to here, seem to be overlooking the fact that these changes are being made to features which have already been altered from their original specs. The auditorium floor, screen, box office, etc. are currently significantly different from “Sid’s day”. It’s not really a question of altering areas of historical significance, it’s more a question of whether existing alterations are made better or worse via this remodel.
RIP Chinese, the most famous movie theater in the world.
The writer of that article and it’s (flamers) blog posters PROBABLY DO NOT KNOW that these changes are being made to features which have already been altered from their original specs. :)
The new screen going in is not that big. They can go 120 feet with a curve type but the new screen will be way to small. To bad this is a chance to put in a giant wide curved type screen but they choose not to. You can forget the nice neon signs out front ever coming back. The front is so dull now. If they go with a Imax square type screen It will be tall and not wide enough. Will they wreck the ceiling with all the Dolby Atomos speakers? You may never see the nice curtains again once a Imax type screen is put in with no masking. Go see Graumans before April so you will remember how nice It once was before the new disco managers took over this famous Hollywood movie theatre.
The Chinese has already been altered. If you look at old photographs you will see that the proscenium arch was originally built narrower and there were decorative splay walls either side. These have vanished to make way for a bigger screen. Did anyone complain when this happened?
Let me get this logic of yours straight, ArtDirector… we should allow more alterations to the most famous movie theatre in the world solely because past generations may not have cared about history and preservation as much the current generation?
The proscenium arch needed to be changed back in the 1950s because the movies themselves were changing to a wider screen format. Stadium seating is not a format change, and the slope of the floor in the main Grauman’s auditorium is sufficient enough where the main reason to have stadium seating in any auditorium is moot.
Stadium seating at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre will not make the building a desirable place to see a movie again. Booking the best films at the theatre and cleaning out the scum that has invaded the area just outside the theatre will.