TCL Chinese Theatre
6925 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
6925 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
160 people
favorited this theater
Showing 751 - 775 of 1,676 comments
Dang…now I HAVE to spend that extra service charge on Movie Tickets! I liked the luxury of just walking to the box office and buying my Harry Potter 7.2 tickets the day of the show with no worries!
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).
One big error above studios do not ever get 90 % … They have gotten 90 % less house allowance. The house allowance on the Chinese is probably $ 35,000 per week. Rarely used anymore other than Sony.
That’s just more of a hassle if their product remains lackluster because nothing ever sells out.
Interestingly… The Chinese 6 (under the new owners) has implemented reserved seating for all auditoriums. I wonder if that means that Grauman’s could be next. Would be a great thing for seeing movies there (assuming that there are good one booked).
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.
I wonder if we’d be having this conversation if Mann built 10 extra screens instead of 6 during the Hollywood & Highland construction…
Also, the Chinese is not a single-screen. It has moveover capacity. If what I am saying is wrong in the current exhibition climate, explain the Crest. In fact, I believe the LA Times wrote about the leverage issue in an article about the Crest deal. I enjoyed Mr. Dakota’s anecdotes above, but he clearly has no regard for those who are interested in the current state of the market.
Unfortunately the days of long engagements, platform booking and roadshow bookings are long gone. A big part of the Chinese decline (along with the Village, National, etcis because of the huge and ever changing shift in exhibition. Cinemas are just a platform to launch films for optical, streaming, cable and whatever long term life they will have.
When I was growing up a film would play at the Chinese for 2 or 3 months, then go wide and either have a Network TV run a few years later or would get theatrical re-issues years later.
Today a film will make most of its theatrical revenue the first month, and then it is gone from theatres forever. A theatre like the Chinese has to continue to move product through every few weeks and even then if the film sucks it is a large empty theatre. The Cinerama Dome was saved because of Arclight cinemas attached, but sadly the Chinese 6 theatres have not nursed the big theatre.
I give more credence to Danny’s point than Mr. Dakota’s given the state of the industry nowadays. All of Mr. Dakota’s points of reference speak of 40 year old films. The industry has (OBVIOUSLY) changed considerably since then. Leverage does plays a factor.
That is not to denigrate Mr. Dakota’s experience in any way, shape or form. Just agreeing with Danny that the game has changed. Which is exactly why many CT'ers are closely monitoring the Graumans’s Chinese situation. With the constant rumors that it will be turned into a mixed-use facility soon, it’s important to track and hope for it’s longevity as a cinema.
William Dakota… The Egyptian wasn’t the only California theater to play “Ben-Hur” as a roadshow. It also played in San Francisco (Coronet, 75 weeks) and San Diego (Capri, 49 weeks). And the Egyptian run didn’t play “nearly a year”; it actually played 98 weeks, a few weeks shy of two years.
How many years were you a theater manager? I worked at Grauman’s, the open all night Hollywood theater, the Apollo, Butterfield theaters in Michigan, leased a theater in Lima, Ohio and Tiffin, Ohio and the Michigan in Saginaw. Single theaters cannot out bid large theater chains because they are bidding to play the feature in “numerous” theaters across the country. I was offered “CABARET” for $30,000 up front and had to play it for six months. It played the local chain here at the mall for one week and didn’t make any money from it.
I could book independent or controversial films like “SATYRICON,” Genet’s “THE BALCONY,” or “SWEET SWEETBACK’S BADASSS SONG.” Dennis Hopper arranged for me to play his film “THE LAST MOVIE.” It played Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Lima, Ohio and flopped in all of the cities. Independent theaters can usually book foreign films, although bigger chains want them now too. Disney used to get 90% of the box-office gross. Even from the Fox West Coast theater chain.
Outbid the larger chains? Never, if it is a big film. I worked in theaters from when I was 16 years old. And planning on opening mini theaters in Michigan and Ohio. I know theater exhibition. The EGYPTIAN used to have Roadshow engagements. The only theater in California showing “Ben-Hur” for nearly a year. You never see any Roadshow Engagements anymore.
Sadly, there is no significance in opening a film at the Chinese anymore. Pretty much alot of the discussion the past couple years has been about that exact subject. “Was” is the key word.
William, that’s not exactly true. If it always went to the highest bidder, the (extremely wealthy) independent owners could place the high bid on whatever they wanted. The reason big chains often get desirable product is because they have leverage (refusing to book the studios' more undesirable product on their large # of screens if they don’t get the desirable product). This is why Carmike is all of a sudden able to get good bookings at the Crest while Robert Bucksbaum wasn’t.
Many people do care about the ArcLight/Chinese booking situation and, if you don’t, the comments are easily ignorable. It’s relevant, on-topic, and nowhere on Cinema Treasures do I see a mission statement supporting your limited view of what this site should be.
The first older comments on the theater were all very interesting. What I said was regarding the fact, that these comments will be here for many years. I doubt if anyone really cares what movies are playing here or were at the Arc Light chain. I added theater history having been employed there in the late ‘50’s. I’m 2,200 miles away and couldn’t care less what they are exhibiting.
If you knew the exhibiting ways of theaters, you would know that the highest bidder gets the films. And the highest bidders are the owners of large chains. If the new owner is an independent investor/owner, he will have trouble booking major films when competing with the larger chains. I give him credit for keeping the main theater operating as the largest tourist attraction in Hollywood. In the past all the major studios wanted to premiere their feature films there. Fox West Coast, Mann’s etc., were all large chains. Opening at Grauman’s was a most important opening for world wide publicity with the foot and handprint ceremonies.
Hey William, With all due respect… this isn’t YOUR Facebook. The discussion here doesn’t need to fit the requirements of what YOU think should and shouldn’t be discussed. While you feel the purpose of Cinema Treasures is for paying recognition and remembrances of theaters, some of us don’t feel like simply posting eulogies (which is what you posted and are advocating). We had to do so far too often for our liking.
The Chinese and the Arclight exist within their own ecosystem (The El Capitan exists outside of this because of their Disney exclusivity), so what one does affects the other. That’s why people often discuss what’s happening where. And, by the way… the people making those comments are generally people still patronizing the Chinese helping to keep its door open. This site shouldn’t be devoted only to memories of theaters we’ve lost or are losing, but also to the day to day success and struggles of them as well. And I KNOW Cinema Treasures would agree with me.
You cant discuss this theater in a proper way without bring up ARC LIGHT- as the future of the Chinese hangs by a thread.
Posting what is being booked at the Chinese is part of the recent discussion. Over the past few years it has been neglected as far as quility or even quantity of bookings by Mann. Since this is undisputed the Most Famous Movie theatre in the world and is a treasure there has always been discussion about the topic. I do not think anyone uses it to want 15 minutes or turn it into Facebook, it is part of the general discussion quite often in this string.
These comment forums for Cinema Treasurers are supposed to be in regards to the subject theater. Reading many comments here, they are aimed at what films are playing at Grauman’s as opposed to the Arc Light. That is not the purpose of Cinema Treasurers. This isn’t facebook. It is for paying recognition and remembrances of theaters across the country. There are numerous comments here that have nothing to do with Grauman’s. Everyone seems to want their 15 minutes of fame on the Internet. Go to Facebook, not Cinema Treasurers. I think Cinema Treasurers agree with me too. Don’t ruin theater sites with comments that have nothing to do with the topic theater.
I forgot to add. When I left Hollywood six years ago, I noticed that the Chinese theater didn’t have ample light at night for tourists to see the foot and handprints. A few were using cigarette lighters to be able to read them. I had phoned Mann’s several times about this. I was told that there was renovating taking place and that more lights would be added. It was never done. I am glad to see there is a new owner there. I wish I was years younger I would go back there for a job.
I worked at Grauman’s cir. 1960 as doorman. I had to wear the black uniform with the dragon on the front and it snapped on. Ralph Hathaway was the manager. And he had a couple of assistants too. The first premiere I worked was “HEAVEN KNOWS MR. ALLISON.” It played for several weeks. The opening picture for my employment was “Oh Men, Oh Women” and the front of the theatre had the title all across the entranceway in neon letters.
Of course it was exciting to work there. There were two trees on each side of the forecourt that had leaves constantly falling down. I had to sweep them up along with cigarette butts from tourists who walked around looking at the hand and footprint of famous actors. There were two fish ponds by the trees with large goldfish in them.
There was a small private balcony that seated around ten people. A few celebrities were allowed there to avoid fans chasing after them. I remember one time that Lawrence Olivier was there and also Marlon Brando. There was often name stars who came though the front entrance and sat in the audience with other theatre patrons.
I was told I had to sweep the gutter in front, and I felt this was below my job as doorman. The theater was later renovated for a film that flopped. The interior was changed as well as parts of the lobby. I have forgotten the name of the film…….(Windjammer), but Fox West Coast had a turnover of executives after that failure. I never worked there for that fiasco.
The biggest premiere, before I worked there was “GIANT.” Hollywood Boulevard was shut down a block to Highland. It was jammed with tourists and James Dean fans. There was a “canopy” made of Klieg lights that were shown over the theatre and unlike Klieg lights for premieres, they were stationary. It was awesome to see. Like “Oh Men Oh Women” the film’s title with the three star’s names, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson lit up in neon. There was an early ceremony with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and director George Stevens placing their hand and footprints in the cement in the forecourt. It is still there although more worn that the others. The originator of the cement mixture had died and a new mixture for the concrete was used. It wore down pretty fast but it is still readable.
I disagree, The Chinese can stay a movie theatre if utilized correctly. They just need to keep films booked so they are not there a eternity. Mann kept The Book of Eli in the main house for 9 weeks, 7 more than it should have. The Cinerama Dome keeps the flow going and never lets the momentum slow down for it.
The Final Destination 5 3D is up now for Pre-Sale at the Main theatre, an for 2D at the Chinese 6. Opens Aug 12.
There is no way long term this theater can show films. The end is near within the next 2-3 years. Sad but true.
Riot Breaks Out At Grauman’s Chinese During “Electric Daisy Carnival" Premiere
I wonder if this will make the owners change their plans to make this theatre double as a nightclub/concert hall/etc…