iPic Westwood
10840 Wilshire Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
10840 Wilshire Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
34 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 281 comments
The AVCO Centre Cinemas screened the World premiere of Die Hard.
I saw American Grafiti in cinema 1, the big auditorium
Can anyone remember which of the three auditoria American Graffiti debuted in?
and the reopening
iPic Westwood opening Fri, May 2, 2014 – Page 43 · The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) · Newspapers.com
That’s a great ad! And, wow, five years and a day before the opening of Star Wars at the Avco!
Grand opening ad:
Wed, May 24, 1972 – 72 · The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) · Newspapers.com
Just update, the iPic Westwood open on May 2, 2014
Just uploaded the grand opening ad. The theatre open under General Cinema in 1972. It might of been a Loews project, based on looking back at the LA Times, Loews left LA in 1971 and the theatres were taken over by General Cinema.
moviebuff82: There were three theaters that were THX certified for the “Return of the Jedi” release. The THX details (and lots more) can be found in my recent “Jedi” 35th anniversary retrospective article.
I remember it well! When I was watching Solo last night at the Village Theater and they ran the THX trailer, I was just thinking back to those days when the crowd would burst into wild applause for THX! And, yes Happy birthday yesterday to Return of the Jedi, the original Star Wars, AND to THX!
35 years ago return of the Jedi debuted in a thx certified dolby stereo 70mm screen. One of the first two thx theaters in America. The other in Texas. Years later lucasfilm sold thx to creative of sound blaster fame and then Razer bought THX. Without THX there would’ve not been premium formats that were calibrated by the audio companies like dolby cinema imax and others. Here’s the trailer that was shown before the movie began called wings…https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wDOy7VlYYFE
3 days straight without a break? ;–) That’s a lot of overtime! But if you were brand new, they may literally have forgotten you! By the way, it’s the 41st anniversary of Star Wars, not the 42nd. Oops. My bad. Happy Empire Strikes Back’s 38th birthday today, May 21st. I saw that opening day at the Avco as well!
I worked that opening weekend – they put me on the line out on Wilshire for three days straight without a break(they forgot about me LOL)
I will, by the way, be thinking about the Avco with it’s large screen this Friday when it will be the 42nd anniversary of the opening of Star Wars which I saw at the Avco on opening day. It’s nice that we actually have a new Star Wars film opening on that day this year to help commemorate the event!
Thanks, everyone! Plinfesty, I never really forgave them for twinning the main house. It took the Avco from being one of the very best screens in Westwood to be virtually irrelevant overnight. Anyway, it sounds like my quest to find a lookalike theater (mostly for the exterior) is probably not going to pan out but, due to other events, it looks like my need for such a theater has diminished anyway. But thanks everybody for the info!
The question about the unique look of the GCC Avco Center was due to the fact that the theatre was designed and started construction with the intent of being operated by Avco Embassy’s chain of boutique cinemas (at the time, they were operating the Cine-Cienega on La Cieniega Blvd. near Beverly Hills. But before the theatre was completed, the chain was closed and GCC was brought in to operate it. It did not even resemble a GCC theatre on the inside. No corrugated aluminum side walls, no shadow box screens, but surrounded with yellow drapes. The downstairs theatre even had TWO pairs of screen curtains (all three had curtains, though). Seats were not pushbacks, although the carpeting looked like the typical GCC type. In the mid 80’s or so, they painted the white ceiling tiles black and replaced the yellow curtains with red (in the big theatre they cut back to only one curtain). I believe it was in the 90’s when they replaced the seats to standard issue GCC chairs at the time and this seemed to be when they remodeled the lobbies to match the look of the new GCC designs they were implementing across the chain. It was between Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List in 1993 that they twinned the main house.
I believe the architectural firm Hodges and Associates changed its name to Hodges Architecture because there is a large law firm called Hodges & Associates. Lawyers would be the last people anyone would want to get into a naming rights conflict with.
As can be seen from this photo uploaded here by stepwest, the AVCO was mostly demolished and rebuilt for iPic. This page on the Robinson Construction Co. web site has four photos of the iPic, but the three interior shots are all of the restaurant and bar.
The rebuild was designed by the Dallas firm Hodges Architecture (formerly Hodges & Associates.) This page at Hodges' web site has a more extensive slide show that includes a couple of pictures of the Avco building before demolition.
Thanks OC and Dave! The reason I was asking is that I was wondering if there’s any building ANYWHERE that could double for the AVCO’s exterior back in it’s heyday. It doesn’t really sound like it but if anyone can think of any that look similar, I’d love to hear about it!
Just as I thought. General Cinema’s architect at the time was Wm. Riseman Associates of Boston and the exterior of that building seemed beyond their imagination. I think Riseman did do the interior build-out. The Levitt and LeDuc firms were probably the architects of the entire Avco development.
Hi Kravdude. I saw Star Wars there on opening day so maybe I saw you!
Hey everyone, it’s been awhile since we’ve had a post here but I’m wondering if anyone knows whether or not the GCC Avco Cinema Center in Westwood was a one of a kind structure or whether any other theaters were built with the same general design and look anywhere else in the country? Alas, my somewhat limited Google searches have not shed any light on this question.
Thanks!
Alan Sanborn
I worked the Avco the summer of 77' during Star Wars run(i started the day it opened). Was a lot of fun and exciting with lots of celebrities and cool folks to work with. Yes, worked under Al Szabo. I remember a few employees, namely Dan Fern and Mark Friedman. Sorry to see this theatre go but it was a shell of itself in later years. Also worked there Christmas and January of 77/78.
The price has been reduced for members to $12 for the regular first 2 rows seats and only $22 for the others. NOTE… This not only comes with drink refills and food at your seat with the push of a button, but also FREE popcorn brought to you the entire movie….
SO is it worth it? AMC is over $19 for a 3D Movie and this is $3 more but you get a lot more. Try it… It is worth it.
I’ve been inside and I really like what they’ve done. The AVCO has been reborn. Is it the cinema we remember from the 70s? No. Is it ten times better than the cinema we remember post split? Ten thousand times. This is a classy spot and I urge you to come see for yourself.
Status above needs to be changed to open showing movies. It currently says closed.