Fine Arts Theatre
8556 Wilshire Boulevard,
Beverly Hills,
CA
90211
8556 Wilshire Boulevard,
Beverly Hills,
CA
90211
25 people
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theatre still going, has been running 70mm titles.
Sunday 4/14 will be screening 70mm print of “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” with Stanley Kramer’s daughter hosting a q/a prior.
Also a Mann Theater, circa 1979.
The theater is showing Kong vs godzilla
The Premiere of “Mansfield 66/67” is at the Ahrya Fine Arts Cinema tonight.
https://www.laemmle.com/films/42844
December 28th, 1948 grand opening ad as well as 1993 reopening as well as the April 21st, 1937 ad for the Regina theatre.
If the 70mm capability is accurate, I wonder if The Weinstein Co. ever considered using this place for the roadshow Hateful Eight…
According to the Laemmle rental form, they still have both 35mm and 70mm capabilities. Not sure if it’s platter or reel to reel.
DCP projector is 4K… Christie I think.
question – so what are the technical aspects of this theater – can it show 35mm? what projector’s are being used (brand, 4K? or standard 2K?)
Laemmle’s Facebook page just posted about their Fine Arts take over. https://www.facebook.com/laemmletheatres/posts/10153621924443276
It also links to the official Laemmle blog post with more details, and from which I’ll reprint the 1st two paragraphs below: http://blog.laemmle.com/2015/09/announcing-the-ahrya-fine-arts-theatre-by-laemmle-opening-september-18th/
Laemmle Theatres is proud to announce we have taken over the management and operation of the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills. The theatre has been closed for five years. At the time of its closure it was used exclusively as a private screening venue. Laemmle will book the theatre with first run films screening daily for the general public. Laemmle will also use the Ahrya Fine Arts to host regular series like our Culture Vulture program, festivals and special event screenings.
According to CinemaTreasures.org, the Fine Arts first opened in April 1937 as the Wilshire Regina, with seating for 800. It has been well maintained over the years and is – and under Laemmle’s stewardship will remain – a single-screen theater, though now with slightly more than 400 seats. (Movie patrons’ expectations of things like leg room have understandably risen over the decades.) We last operated the venue from 1985 to 1993, mostly screening foreign films.
The Fine Arts was almost my first job when I started college at UCLA. I had gotten the usher job, had picked up my uniform, and then got a better job at the biomedical library on campus, which ended seeing me through four years of college and the first year of graduate school. But it would have been really neat to have a first-job at a movie theater!
I’d be interested in running the Fine Arts for a 4th different company. I know the place like the back of my hand. I can be reached at .
Laemmle Theatres just signed a management agreement with the theater’s current owner, Shawn Far. We are planning to re-open, book, manage and operate the theater beginning September 18, 2015 with daily screenings of first-run films. The name of the theater will be the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre by Laemmle. Ahrya is the name of Mr. Far’s eldest son.
Los Angeles Times article from April 25, 2014 –
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0426-fine-arts-theater-20140426-story.html
Philanthropist adds Beverly Hills' Fine Arts Theater to purchases
The Fine Arts Theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills has gone through a succession of owners and has been sitting empty for five years – By Martha Groves
The Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills, a classic Art Deco venue with a celebrity-studded past, has been sold to Paula Kent Meehan, the philanthropist who also is buying the Beverly Hills Courier.
Built on Wilshire Boulevard in 1936 as the Regina, the compact, single-screen theater served for years as a venue for small premieres that drew Hollywood A-listers.
In 1948, it was renamed the Fine Arts Theater and showed the premiere of “The Red Shoes.” Among the invited guests were Susan Hayward, Joan Crawford, Ava Gardner and Shirley Temple.
Vittorio Cecchi Gori’s film production company bought the theater in the early 1990s and spearheaded a 1993 renovation by the late Joseph J. Musil, a theater designer who also restored the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. Musil installed red velour seats, gold sconces, a sunburst ceiling and crimson carpeting in the lobby.
Roberto Benigni, the director and star of Cecchi Gori’s Oscar-winning film “Life Is Beautiful,” popped in to the theater in 1999 to practice crawling over the seats, a move he reenacted the next evening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion when he accepted his best actor award.
Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft used to watch movies at the Fine Arts on double dates with Carl and Estelle Reiner. Years ago, Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio had to dash across the street to an ATM when they learned that the theater did not accept credit cards.
The venue has been shuttered since 2009, a victim in part of patrons' shift to multiplexes with parking and food courts. Spice Global, an Indian conglomerate, bought the theater in 2010 with plans to reopen it to screen Bollywood films. That scheme did not pan out, and the company put the theater on the market for $4 million.
Brian Dunne, a Bentley Global broker who represented the seller, declined to specify what Meehan paid but said it was less than the asking price.
A Beverly Hills native, Meehan, 83, got her start as an actress in TV commercials and series. She co-founded Redken Laboratories, a maker of hair care products that was later sold to L'Oréal. She recently agreed to buy the Courier, a weekly tabloid.
Meehan was a major donor to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts adjoining the historic Beverly Hills Post Office, which is now named for her.
The Fine Arts, designed by architect B. Marcus Priteca, is dominated by its marquee and stepped tower. It is expected to be approved soon as a local landmark. Priteca also designed the Pantages in Hollywood.
Meehan expects to “clean it up, reopen it and let it evolve,” Dunne said of the theater. “They want to bring in more live performances and take care of the Beverly Hills community, including schools and seniors.”
A City of Beverly Hills Cultural Heritage Commission report on the theater (PDF here) says that Fox West Coast Theatres took over the Regina Theatre in 1948, and renamed it the Fox Fine Arts Theatre. The house was still owned by Fox when I first became aware of it in the early 1960s, but I don’t recall it being listed as the Fox Fine Arts by that time. It’s called simply the Fine Arts in the earliest newspaper listing I have for it, which is from February 10, 1971.
Also, the report has a couple of photos (badly copied) from ca. 1948-1950, and the name Fox does not appear on the marquee, and if it was on the vertical sign it isn’t discernible in the photocopies. I don’t know if the house was actually called the Fox Fine Arts for a while, or if the Fox name just got attached to it in people’s memories.
In any case, the theater was designated a city landmark earlier this year. It’s too bad Beverly Hills wasn’t so eager to landmark theater buildings when the Beverly and the Warner were still standing.
The following article appeared in the November 13, 2012 issue of the Los Angeles Times:
“Historic Theater in Beverly Hills an Empty Shell”
The renowned designer had a mission: to “transform this Wilshire Boulevard cracker box into a sumptuous palace.”
So Joseph J. Musil ordered up red velour seats, gold sconces, a sunburst ceiling and a lobby carpeted in crimson for the 1993 renovation of the Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills. Shimmery black curtains swept back to reveal the giant screen. The place thrived as a venue for small premieres, drawing A-listers on any given night and plaudits from nearby residents.
But it wasn’t enough. Unable to stay afloat, the Fine Arts closed in 2009. An Indian company’s plan to reopen it to screen Bollywood films fell through. The theater became an empty shell.
And so it remains. Some supporters worry that the Fine Arts will never function as a theater again. Back on the market for $4 million, the Fine Arts is at the mercy of an era and economy that make a tiny, one-screen movie theater a risky investment. And while former patrons view the theater with nostalgia, and a few prospective buyers have made inquiries, no investors have stepped up. Historic as the theater is, it is not quite a landmark.
“It’s a big shame, but you know, it’s a change in the entertainment system,” said Brian Dunne of NAI Capital, who has the listing. “People are going to the big multiplexes with food courts and parking. They want it to be more of a social experience. I don’t mean to say this is a dinosaur going nowhere. This place has a lot of charms. We need somebody who wants to keep its tradition alive.”
That tradition dates to 1936, when it was built. Named the Regina Theater, it would go on to generate a wealth of lore. Actor Peter Lorre once stopped in to catch a showing of “M,” the German film that kick-started his career. He fell asleep.
In 1948 it was renamed the Fine Arts Theater and hosted the premiere of “The Red Shoes.” Invited guests included Susan Hayward, Joan Crawford, Ava Gardner and Shirley Temple.
Vittorio Cecchi Gori’s film production company bought the theater in the early 1990s and spearheaded the Musil renovation. Cecchi Gori’s 1997 production “Life Is Beautiful” went on to win several Oscars. Its director and star, Roberto Benigni, arrived one day at the Fine Arts to practice crawling over theater seats, a move he repeated the following evening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion when accepting his best actor award.
Known as a low-key place that showed foreign films or indie flicks, the Fine Arts attracted cinephiles and celebrities.
Casey Rocke, who worked as the theater’s manager and film projectionist, recalled the days when Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft arrived on double dates with Carl and Estelle Reiner. An employee once jokingly carded Charlton Heston for the senior discount. Even Hollywood’s younger generation made their way to the ticket booth. Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio were both good-humored during its pre-credit card days, dashing to an ATM across the street.
“We had a solid audience and always booked something no one else had,” Rocke, 34, said. “The theater didn’t make a killing, but it didn’t lose money.”
At one point Landmark Theatres was operating the place; then Cecchi Gori rented it out as a screening room. The current owner, Bhupendra Kumar Modi, who lives in Singapore and has a home in Beverly Hills, is selling the Fine Arts after deciding its operation didn’t fit his company’s business plan.
City officials and staff have spoken in favor of keeping the site a cinema. Michele McGrath, senior planner for Beverly Hills, said city officials have been looking at how to invigorate the neighborhood and have even talked of creating a theater district.
“I think the city cares about theaters in general — they’re part of our cultural heritage,” she said.
Area residents say they have felt the loss. But most see it simply as a sign of the times.
“It seemed like it was part of our neighborhood and that we had a stake in it,” said Brenda Castiel, who has lived within walking distance of the theater for two decades. “I would love for it to remain a theater, but I imagine it’s not economically viable.”
Across from a gas station and an auto repair shop just west of La Cienega Boulevard, the theater is easy to miss on traffic-clogged Wilshire Boulevard. Display cases that once held movie posters are empty and the marquee blank.
Inside, boxes of Red Vines and Junior Mints still linger at the concession stand. A purple couch fringed in gold awaits a visitor. Although the entry shows some wear and tear, the auditorium, with its rows of plush seats and gold and silver decor, still exudes glamour. It is in need of a ruler but remains the sumptuous palace Musil envisioned.
Mr. Dunne, we at The Museum of Contemporary Art, are looking for a closed theater in Beverly Hills or Hollywood as a potential exhibition site. Do you have a phone number where I can reach you? Best, Alma Ruiz, Senior Curator, MOCA, 213621-1746.
I am a real estate broker seeking a buyer or a joint venture partner for the Beverly Hills Fine Arts Theater. Please contact me if there is an interest.
I did a little research and found out the Cecchi Gori Group sold the Fine Arts to Ferncrest International, INC. back in September 2010. Anybody know what Ferncrest International is? The theatre still looks closed.
Also, found this video of the 1993 restoration on the youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF909MwgKOI
Will always remember sitting in a packed house to see “Das Boot” in 1981. Was a lovely little theater.
Sad. Was a great theatre.
this kills me. I live a block away and would love to go to this great theater for a film. I used to love coming here when I lived in Santa Monica. oh well…
It’s back on the market after Cecchi Gori decided it didn’t want to invest the money to get the theatre running on a full-time basis. I was working on a booking/advertising deal with Laemmle when the plug was pulled. I put up the marquee in the last picture.
There was enough money to redo the lobby, just not enough for projection or concession equipment. Or advertising, or booking, or ticketing stations, or a staff, or parking or anything that would help me get the theatre running. But the lobby… looks great.
So, for a record 3rd time, I’m no longer the manager of the Fine Arts.
If anybody needs a theatre manager/ projectionist with 11 years experience, I can be reached at
So what’s the latest, RevDORK?
works now. Nice shot
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