Mann Festival Theater
10887 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
10887 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
25 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 72 comments
You have to wonder if they considered it at one time. The lease on the Village and Bruin are quite steep and to take on another screen that is not as popular made be too much for them. It has been a year already this month since Mann closed it. I’d wonder also if the owners would drop the lease amount in order to have it operated. Westwood is in a sad state now, owners will not get top dollar now for rents.
Wonder if Regency is interested in the Festival to broaden their booking power in Westwood…
There is a For Lease sign, so it looks like it is still being utilized as a theatre. I noticed that the The Gardens (aka Hamlet Gardens) has closed.
I would be interested in running it if someone was willing to invest in it with me.
I’m curious if anyone has shown interest in reopening the Festival. Anyone know what is going on with it?
I saw the 20th anniversary screening of Lost Boys here in 2007 to a sold out crowd. Feldman showed up. No Haim. (RIP)
It’s all about booking. Especially in a college town. The Nuart has lines around the corner for it’s midnight shows.
When UA ran it, they booked alot of eclectic films like The Man Who Fell To Earth, 3 Women, Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, etc. The best era of that theatre was during the 70’s when they had it. But the 70’s was the coolest time for film in general. Westwood was the perfect location for the type of films produced during that time period.
The only real time it made any money was under the UA chain. Mann mainly used it as a move-over house most of the time. Cineplex over paid to get into the Westwood market.
I have a feeling this theatre will stay vacant or eventually turn into retail or a resturant space. It is a shame, because this is a nice theatre. But at this point there is really no way to turn it into a money maker.
What an ugly ceiling.
I hope so. Indeed the balcony was a nice place to see a film, aside from the Cineplex Odeon color scheme and marble tile. Something should also be done about the ceiling in the place as well. If my memory serves it looks like sagging pieces of 4 x 8 cork board painted Cineplex grey.
One wonders if maybe the Festival could be picked up by whoever takes the Bruin and the Village. It’s a longshot, but one worth hoping for. I always loved the balcony here.
Has anything been planned for the vacant Festival space?
Westwood was great in the mid-80s, when I used to go. It was a combo of the tourist getting shot and killed in the village in 1988, and the SM promenade gearing up around the same time.
Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable, to any of us who knew and cherished Westwood Village in (in my case) the 1970s and 1980s. That this kind of area in any decent city, let alone one on the scale of L.A., could see this kind of change so rapidly, is shocking to those of us who have been away for some years. It’s unimaginable.
I was heartbroken to find out about this. I was looking up the listings at the Mann site to see what was playing there today, only to find out they are closed. Early in 2007 I went to see Children Of Men starring Clive Owen. That movie was very special not only to me, but also to the staff working at the Festival. I saw it several times, both from the main floor and also from the balcony, and enjoyed hot dogs and soda while I was there. I have the movie on Blu Ray and I know a tear will come to my eye when I watch it again.
Here are some photos from this weekend:
http://tinyurl.com/m29h6f
http://tinyurl.com/mpluar
http://tinyurl.com/lujgtk
http://tinyurl.com/nn97y8
Has there been any buzz about the future of this property?
I worked as a relief projectionist once at the then UA THEATRE. The movie was the the first run engagement of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. with Reserved seats yet! at the 8pm show there were only 7 people in the audience.
Oh man, some scary news to be found here about Mann. Simply unimaginable.
Meanwhile, on the subject of the UA THEATRE, as I knew it in the 1970s, I’d like to add my remembrance of “1984”, as well as (I think): the Herzog/Kinski “Nosferatu”, “High Anxiety”, and “Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother”. There were surely more, but some of them stick in your mind and others don’t. And I definitely remember the balcony, and appreciative full houses for the Brooks and Wilder.
I think the Vista and Aero will also be with us for a while. I worry about the Egyptian, between the Cinematheque’s two houses.
LA times reports Mann will not renew leases on Westwood’s Village and Bruin:
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I really seem to think Mann is slowly closing shop. They are not renewing any leases in SoCal. All plans for new venues have been cancelled. The Chinese is getting mostly awful bookings. Before too long Mann theatres will be a thing of the past.
Hmmm…I wonder what the future will be? Could someone take the lease? Westwood has so many empty retail spaces so converting it to a retail outlet is not logical. But at the same time it costs a pretty penny to operate the theatre. Sad, because this is a very nice screen.
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