Cinerama Hollywood

I’ve been to the Dome a few times. It is similiar in terms of screen to the Washington D.C. Uptown. LA also has huge screens, though not curved, at Village (Westwood Village) and Grauman’s Chinese.

Here are some photos from the LA Library, circa 1980s:
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Here is a letter from an unhappy Arclight customer back in May 2002, via the LA Times:

I have swallowed—hook, line and sinker—the idea of Arclight Cinemas. I bought into the $14 tickets. I joined the membership club even before I set foot into the theater. I first went to Arclight to see “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” and I loved every minute of the experience: the sound, the seats, the lack of advertisements, the picture. Going to the movies is a redefined experience.

Then comes the first blockbuster of the summer, “Spider-Man.” I cannot wait to see this at Arclight, and this time I want to see it at the Dome—the refurbished Cinerama Dome. According to the Arclight Web site, it has even more added features than the multiplex auditoriums. I sold my friends on the idea of $14 tickets by reciting news articles and the Web site.

I loved telling them that the theaters “exceed THX standards” with their state-of-the-art “Kinoton projectors, JBL speakers and Dolby and SDDS sound systems.” Some of them asked me if I was a spokesman for Arclight. I bought the tickets online; a bunch of tickets had already been sold, so I had to take seats in the back of the theater, Row Z.

Everything I had bought into, and therefore sold my friends on as well, was false for Row Z. It seems that the moviegoing experience described doesn’t fully apply to the last five or so rows in the Cinerama Dome. Imagine the dome and a circle’s perimeter. The last couple of rows are outside this perimeter, underneath the projection booth. This makes most of the features of the Arclight movie experience moot.

All of the speakers (and even the projectors) are way in front of you. I could hear the people around me eating their caramel popcorn and the girls talking about Tobey Maguire’s abs better than I could hear the film. Here’s a little more sensory overload. Imagine this space (outside the perimeter) with a short ceiling and walls on three sides, jammed with five rows of people. The warmth of body heat was unbearable for the first hour, not to mention the combination of popcorn, chocolate, hot-dog and other less pleasant smells.

I have had better theater experiences at the Bose store in the mall—and those were free.

In another brillant job of programming by our friends at Arclight, the day after its Best Picture Oscar Nomination was announced, they moved “Slumdog Millionaire” out of the Dome and put “Underworld – Rise Of The Lycans” in its place. BARF!

Well that’s what I thought Friday, but both films have been advertised since then daily.
JSA

In the most bizarre booking I’ve seen in a long time, the Dome is showing “Slumdog Millionaire” along with “My Bloody Valentine”…

JSA

Well now we know what movie bcareful saw them prepping to shoot at the Dome from his September 19th post of 2007…
Frost/Nixon

How about some “good” and “varied” indoor pics of the Cinerama theater, itself? :)

Here are some photos from last night. Coincidentally, the Cinerama Dome was seen in the Frost/Nixon movie.
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According to their official website, the upcoming releases scheduled to open at the Arclight include:

• Bedtime Stories
• Last Chance Harvey
• Marley & Me
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Doubt
• Gran Torino
• Revolutionary Road
• Seven Pounds
• The remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still
• The Spirit
• The Wrestler

I posted this ad two years ago, but here it is again in honor of the anniversary. As Mr. Sittig said, and as it says in this ad, it’s still the only one of its kind:

View link

I’d bet that The Man Who Would Be King with Sean Connery introducing would have been great. Imagine, the original James Bond in person!

AFI Night At The Movies is sold out. I didn’t get a ticket. It’s just as well…this year’s lineup wasn’t too appealing to me. At least “West Side Story” isn’t in the Dome!