The End of ArcLight Cinemas And Pacific Theaters: A Tragedy For Hollywood

Genaro Molina

After well over a full year of struggling with Covid-19, it is with great sadness that we must add Pacific Theaters and ArcLight Cinemas to the long, and still growing, list of businesses permanently lost to the pandemic. In a statement issued by the parent company Decurion on Monday, April 12, it was revealed that neither chain theaters would be reopening due to the impacts caused by the virus: “This was not the outcome anyone wanted, but despite a huge effort that exhausted all potential options, the company does not have a viable way forward.”

Hollywood has suffered no shortage of difficulty due to the pandemic, with a vast number of projects being either postponed or thrown out entirely. With some theaters reopening their doors to small audiences, it momentarily looked as though hope was on its way to restoring the box office, yet the closing of both theaters portends a bleak future for cinemas in general, in addition to being a tragic loss in the sphere of premier theaters.

With locations across the U.S., the theaters’ closings surely came as devastating news nationwide, but especially in Southern California where they were first introduced. ArcLight Cinemas in particular, esteemed in both its focus on creating a comfortable viewing environment, as well as its connection to the renowned Hollywood Cinerama Dome, struck quite a blow not just among cinephiles, but across this region of California.

Since the opening of its first theater in 2002, the ArcLight has been known for bringing luxury and comfort to theaters, setting a trend of having high-quality services offered to enhance the enjoyment of watching a film. In an article published in 2012 by The Los Angeles Times, the ArcLight is described as having “redefined the moviegoing experience in Southern California.” This model of viewership certainly paid off, with the ArcLight Hollywood having consistently provided outstanding theater experiences to its audiences; as I myself have seen, even those who have not had the pleasure of watching a film at an ArcLight theater know of its reputation and mourn its termination as a casualty within the community.

Moreover, the Hollywood Cinerama Dome, a part of the ArcLight Cinemas’ multiplex on Sunset Boulevard, holds great historical and cultural significance, making the ArcLight’s closure all the more worrying to the film scene in Los Angeles. Constructed in 1963, the dome was designed to exhibit the three-projector Cinerama process which had been developed about a decade prior. Only a few of these domes were ever built, and even fewer still exist, with the Hollywood Cinerama Dome being the most renowned, in part due to its unique quality of being the only concrete Cinerama dome in the world.

The Dome has been put under pressure in the past, with a proposal in 1998 by its very own Pacific Theaters to alter the space with the intention of turning it and the surrounding area into a movie multiplex. Fortunately, it is located in the quintessential film-fanatic city of Los Angeles, one of the few cities that does not overlook the importance of film history and the preservation of its historical structures. Thanks to the vast cinephile population in Los Angeles, public opposition to this proposal was powerful enough to discourage the Pacific Theaters from enacting their plan.

Today, it remains standing as a core structure of both Hollywood and film history, having been the preferred screening site of many celebrity filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, and Christopher Nolan. Yet, given the closing of the Pacific Theaters and ArcLight Cinema chains, the L.A. community has grown increasingly concerned about the future of the building, with fears that it might be taken down or repurposed like many Cinerama theaters before.

Since the announcement of the theaters’ closings, film lovers have gathered once again (albeit virtually) to petition again for the preservation of the Cinerama Dome. As such a monument of film history, as well as a beloved staple of Los Angeles culture, it seems unimaginable that the building be repurposed or even demolished. While the much adored Pacific Theaters and ArcLight Cinemas are not to continue, at the very least there is still hope for the survival of the Hollywood Cinerama Dome.