Beverly Center Cinemas 13
8522 Beverly Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90048
8522 Beverly Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90048
16 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 178 comments
The theater was not demolished but repurposed into a forever 21. The building itself is still there including its long hall to the new theaters.
The building opened as a 14 screen. One theater was combined with another to form 13. Later two small theaters were closed off for a long corridor and the two new large balcony theaters. It ended with 13.
It ended its days operating with 13 screens. The overview above has been amended.
Could anyone clarify-the grand opening ad from 1982 says 14 cinemas. The picture at top of page says Beverly Center Cinemas 13. The ad from 1987 says we’ve gone through the roof with two new theaters. So did the addition make it a 15 or 16 plex? The listing on Cinema Treasures still calls it the Beverly Center 13 Cinemas. I apologize if I’m missing something, but ? ? ?
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Cineplex Beverly Center 14 (July 16th), I devoted a full episode of my podcast to the life and death of the theatre. Includes a discussion with Cinema Treasures co-founder Ross Melnick on the importance of the Cineplex Beverly Center 14 on the exhibition industry. I hope you’ll listen.
https://the80smoviepodcast.com/episode-082-the-cineplex-beverly-center/
Grand opening ad:
Cineplex 14 – Beverly Center Thu, Jul 15, 1982 – 51 · LA Weekly (Los Angeles, California) · Newspapers.com
Sounds similar to the Route 4 tenplex in Paramus. Theater 1 was the big one while theater 10 was small.
I used to frequent this theater during the late 90s. Memorable screenings include: Star Wars Special Edition, Saving Private Ryan, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, American History X, The Phantom Menace, and LA Confidential. Cinema 1 with the balcony was where you hoped your movie would be playing. Cinema 11 on the other hand, like watching a movie at home.
Mary Lynn Raskjub used to work at this theater before she started acting. Her first music video was for Beck, “The New Pollution”. 1987 was when Cineplex Odeon opened its largest theater in the nation at Universal CityWalk in LA.
July 16th, 1982 grand opening ad as well as the March 20th, 1987 expansion. This is the first theatre for Cineplex in the USA, having built cineplexes in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg etc. Cineplex became Cineplex Odeon after the merger with Canadian Odeon theatres.
The mall in which the theater was in was featured in Volcano from 1997 in which the entire building gets destroyed by lava.
When I worked at the Cineplex Odeon Beverly Center in 1991-1993, these were the seat counts:
1: 465
2: 291
3: 103
4: 89
5: 100
6 and 10: 70 each
7: 78
8: 133
9: 113
11: 60
12: 80
13: 95
Houses 1 and 2 were 70mm capable.
The seating stayed relatively the same until the closing in June 2010.
For the first time in about 2 years.. I visited the Beverly center. I walked into the Forever 21 and looked around at what was the theater. A new escalator was installed from the mall into the area that once was aud 11-12. The shape of the theater can be seen as the store curves down the original hall. A second set of escalators takes you from the original lobby to the upstairs lobby. The elevator was moved. Upstairs is the stunner, the small narrow old lobby opens up into what were the two balcony theaters. High ceiling but way low compared to what it was before. The stairs were removed from the lower level to the upper, and the theaters flattened to one level in line with the mall, no longer raised up. It’s depressing to see it this way.
I know what Mark Tufiftee is saying!About the History of Loewscineplex 13,I used to work there from March of ‘99 to Oct 24,2000.I got so devastated when I saw a FOREVER 21 instead of my old fav theater!I experienced so much emotion in that Cineplex,I lost my “Innocence” (both emotional and sexual!) at that place.So many hot dates and so many good friends and memories!I got sadden when I saw them tear it down last summer(as I was FIRED in 2000,I vowed to be there at the end of it!Lol!!Sadness is all that I feel now.It signaled the end of my era,good times,great memories!It will be missed as the BC is now a fashion BORING PLACE TO BE!!
Those pictures made me cringe. I recognize theater 1 and the hallway leading from the stairs, the area where the old second stand used to be, and I think one is the lobby hall over by theaters 5-6-7 and that area where the booth came around the tall ceiling. I want to go just check out the store to see how much of the cinema still remains..
Those who wish to witness the destruction of the Beverly Center Cinemas can now do so, thanks to these photos from the crew who did the demolition.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=202713169745672&set=a.202712746412381.61420.198451240171865&type=1&theater
Yes, the theaters were boxes, but I saw E.T., A Nightmare on Elm Street 1, The Breakfast Club, Boyz N' The Hood, and many other great movies at the BC Cineplex. Wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world. And god, the BC used to be SUCH a great place to meet women in the 80’s, especially if you were a teenager. There were more gorgeous women in BH/West L.A. in the 80’s than any decade. I once saw Sharon Stone walking there in about 1986-7, drooled over her but was too shy about talking to such a cool older female (I was 16-17), and then recognized her onscreen (not at the Cineplex) when I saw her in Total Recall! Crazy L.A.! Plus, there is something inherently fun about seeing a movie in a mall – you can hang out before and/or after it. End of an era, I guess. Onward!
I lived in Los Angeles for 10 years and remember going to these theaters in their first couple years. While they were certainly tiny, it often felt like you were going to a chic screening room. My fondest memory was when I went to a showing of “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean” starring Cher. You couldn’t help but notice that a couple rows were being held. Just before the movie started, in walked Cher with a group of friends. Everyone cheered, and it was fun to watch and enjoy that group’s reactions during the show.
Rooms 1 and 2 were big, but rooms 3 to 13 were rather small. I still loved the place despite it all, I guess I’m just sentimental. I will especially miss the large lobby area adjacent to the two big rooms, and the rarely used second concession stand, which was actually walled up by the time I made my final trip there.
I always hated these tiny little boxes. Good riddance. And by the way, the Beverly Center itself is no longer what it used to be. I was there last weekend and saw what looked like gang members roaming around, shouting at one another, acting loutish. I stayed a half hour and left.
the theatre is not going to reopen the space is being turned into a forever 21
Thanks Jeff for those pictures, they bring back fond memories. I haven’t been to the theatre since January, the last two films I saw were Boondock Saints 2 and Twilight 2. When I saw Boondock, I was the only one in the auditorium! I watched the end of the film from the front row, and I suddenly got very sentimental. I got a strange feeling about the history of the place, and I tried to imagine what it must have been like to see movies like ET or Return Of The Jedi on a Saturday afternoon back in the heyday. I will always miss the Beverly 13.
I wish to complement Jeff Arellano on the excellent photography of the Beverly Center 13 that has been uploaded onto Cinema Tour. There are approximately 225 images on the site and I think that this a very polite reminder to all of us that we Do need to document theatres through the medium of photography. There is a calling here fellow cinema fans that we need to make a concentrated effort to document all aspects of a theatre, the booth included for preservation sake. We cannot control corporate Americas decisions to keep theatres open, however we can photograph them and utilizing sites such as this one and Cinema Tour preserve their existence! WIth showmanship a dying art and computer designed megaplexes insulting our intelligence we need to take the time and ask permission and then go to work. Again hats off to Jeff Arellano!
Patrick Goldstein posted a somewhat polite, if incorrect on many of the details, obituary on the theatre…
View link
Anyone who is interested, I have uploaded 25 of the 225 pictures I took on Thursday night to the Cinematour page on Facebook. Other pictures will be posted on Cinematour in the future.
Somehow, “Prominent” and “Multiplex” do not belong in the same sentence.