Hopes arthouse haven ArcLight Cinemas and the adjacent Cinerama Dome — a high-profile destination for Hollywood’s most respected directors — will reopen in time for the 2022 awards season and the year-end festivities wind down.
Countless studio sources tell News Kidda that the Sunset Boulevard complex will not reopen until the second half of 2023, after they were informed it could happen this year.
In April 2021, the Decurion Corporation said it would close the Dome and its Pacific Theaters chain, including the ArcLight Hollywood, a haven for art house enthusiasts. Decurion owns the land under the actual Dome and made it clear to the suitors that it intended to hold onto the iconic location.
Social media lit up in December 2021 when a public notice of an application to sell alcoholic beverages was posted outside the building. At the time, studio distribution sources confirmed that the theater, built in 1963 by Decurion, was preparing to resume showings at both the Dome and ArcLight.
Now those same sources are being told nothing will happen until next year, despite the application being approved this summer.
The only sign of life in the complex on a recent September day was a guard standing outside the ArcLight, whose floor-to-ceiling windows are covered with plywood (same for the Dome). In its absence, AMC Theaters has been the biggest beneficiary of the closure of Decurion’s Hollywood complex, between AMC’s new location in The Grove — formerly operated by Decurion’s now-defunct Pacific Theaters — and AMC Century City.
A distribution chief says, “Filmmakers keep asking me what’s happening with the ArcLight and Dome.” Other sources say they’ve been told major renovations are in the works.
Decurion himself has remained silent and has not immediately responded to a comment on this piece.
The Dome had long been a favorite place to stage premieres, while the Arclight multiplex was also a favorite place to host screenings and premieres during the awards season.
This story first appeared in the September 16 issue of News Kidda magazine. Click here to subscribe.