TCL Chinese Theatre

BRADE48 on October 14, 2011 at 8:20 am

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/10/hollywood-chinese-theatre-upgrades.html.

Mark, not really sure

In Hollywood, face-lifts are pretty common, especially for an icon that is nearly 85 years old.

But this upgrade is expected to cost at least $2 million and draw close inspections by thousands of fans.

The Chinese Theatre in Hollywood is undergoing a renovation that will include a restaurant to serve gourmet food and a renovated lobby that will be used to host parties of up to 1,000 guests, according to the new owners of the theater. The theater recently added a new seating reservation system as part of the upgrades.

The face-lift should be completed by early November, said entrepreneur Elie Samaha, who bought the theater in May along with movie producers Don Kushner and Steve Markoff from a partnership between Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures parent Viacom Inc.

Samaha called the theater Hollywood’s most popular tourist attraction and said he wants to see it enjoyed by out-of-town visitors and Hollywood insiders.

“What we love about Hollywood is the history,” he said. “And we want to preserve that.”

The theater is scheduled to host about 40 movie premieres by the end of the year. With its upstairs lobby converted to a ballroom, the theater will be able to host after-parties and other private events, Samaha said.

“We pretty much want to do more premieres,” he added.

The single-screen theater — known for its giant, red Chinese pagoda, signature Chinese dragon guard dogs and cement footprints and handprints of Hollywood celebrities — was declared a historic and cultural landmark in 1968.

Warner and Viacom acquired the theater in 2001 along with six other theaters owned by Encino-based Mann Theatres after the chain declared bankruptcy in the face of rising competition.

Warner and Viacom have been trying to sell the theater for more than a year but had struggled to find a buyer. The details of the deal were not disclosed.

bigjoe59 on October 13, 2011 at 4:28 pm

Hello to my fellow posters. i discovered this website the end of January and have greatly enjoyed it ever since. now if i’m not mistaken the golden age of movie palace building was approx. 1913 to 1941. now i set up a project for myself using this website. its simple-of movie palaces build during this period and still standing how many have not been gutted for retail space, turned into 2nd or 3rd run grind houses, never showed porn, never used as a radio ot t.v. studio, never converted into concert halls or performing arts center, or twinned, tri-plexed or quaded but have stayed in more or less there original condition as 1st run movie theaters since the day they opened. using this website i have only come across 2-Grauman’s Chinese and the Uptown Theater in D.C. can they be the only 2 in the whole country? so does anyone know of any others that fit my criteria? thanks in advance.

dtrigubetz on October 7, 2011 at 9:53 am

Graumans Chinese has a great lobby exhibit of costumes worn by Marilyn Monroe, Vivian Leigh, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Humphrey Bogart, and others. Check it out with a PAID admission.

It makes no sense that Grauman’s booted out high grossing “Dolphin Tale”, after only one week, to bring in the flop “What’s Your Number?”, and carry it over for a second week! It’s a terrible movie but at the costumes and gorgeous theater made my $9 senior admission worthwhile.

Chris Utley on October 5, 2011 at 3:34 pm

It’ll attract a lot of horror fans!

Danny Baldwin on September 29, 2011 at 9:02 am

Ah yeah, totally blanked. Was thinking WB.

BRADE48 on September 29, 2011 at 6:00 am

No. Real Steel is booked at the El Capitan for 2 weeks.

BRADE48 on September 28, 2011 at 12:30 pm

The Chinese 6 appears to be dropping early matinee shows during the week (or at least next Monday through Thursday). They seem to be picking up new product though with What’s Your Number and will host Screamfest 2011 at the Chinese 6 on Oct 14.

Chris Utley on September 28, 2011 at 10:57 am

Chinese ain’t picking up JACK until they book some movies that people actually want to see! Then again, it’s not (entirely) their fault.

Chris Utley on September 21, 2011 at 3:37 pm

I hit their Facebook page last week and asked them directly about their Fall booking plans.

Danny Baldwin on September 21, 2011 at 9:37 am

Like anything will ever be so full to need a reserved seat… Unless they improve bookings…

Cliffs on September 21, 2011 at 3:19 am

Grauman’s is now reserved seating. Kind of excited by that, although it means the end of an era for long lines on Hollywood Blvd (although you could argue that Mann’s running the theater into the ground the past several years killed long lines on the Blvd).

Danny Baldwin on August 27, 2011 at 10:34 am

That’s just more of a hassle if their product remains lackluster because nothing ever sells out.

Cliffs on August 16, 2011 at 4:01 pm

I actually said that same thing a long time ago. Mann built a great 80s/90s complex, except they built it in 2001. 6 adjacent theaters wasn’t enough in the current exhibition climate and only a few months later Arclight added 14 screens to the nearby Dome. Arclight’s booking power over The Chinese actually often has less to do with ‘chain vs non-chain’ and about how many seats/weeks Arclight can offer studios that The Chinese just doesn’t have the capacity for. The Chinese doesn’t have the move-over space/power to one-up Arclight a lot of time. For example, Arclight Sherman Oaks is now currently showing Harry Potter 7.2 on one screen with less than 100 seats per showtime. The Chinese, by comparison, still has it on 3 of the 6 adjacent screens (2 of them still 3D) and well over 100 seats per show. That’s more than likely what they had to offer Warner to book HP 7.2 back in mid-July.