Hollywood Galaxy
7021 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
7021 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
11 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 46 comments
Well to be fair… all GCCs looked the same. That was their thing.
Beverly Connection (also GCC) across from the Beverly Center (also with a closed theatre!) looked the same way as this one and suffered the same fate! š³š„ŗš
The Galaxy suffered from a “looks good in theory/on paper” market, but doesn’t pan out in reality. At first glance, the Hollywood Blvd area appears lucrative; massive foot traffic and dense residential areas near bye. However, in reality, most of the foot traffic is comprised of tourists/pass-through visitors who aren’t interested in staying to watch a movie and locals tend to venture away from the blvd for movies/shopping/etc. due to the perceived hassles of the area. The Chinese 6 has suffered greatly from the same scenario, only getting by on festivals/rentals/special events as a means of survival. The El Capitan and main Chinese are destination theatres which operate in their own unique business model, but the days of the blvd. being a viable location for a standard day to day theatre going destination have long passed.
The $30 million multi-use Hollywood Galaxy project was announced in March of 1987. General Cinema Corporation (GCC) decided to put its stake in the ground just a block and escalator ride up from the venerable Graumanās Chinese Theatre. Making way for the project was the 1919-built Garden Court apartment building - declared a monument and historic landmark in 1981 and then declared an obstacle in the revitalization of Hollywood in 1984 when preservationists lost a hard fought battle to save the neo-baroque complex after it had been unceremoniously stripped of its historic landmark status.
The home that was once home to Lillian Gish, Laurel & Hardy, Mack Sennett and others could at least play those folks' films nearly five years later as the General Cinema Hollywood Galaxy 6 when it finally launched on November 29, 1991. The best value by far that day was a 70mm double-feature of āAlienā and āAliensā in a THX certified house. Wow! But with the multiplex era soon giving way to the megaplex era, General Cinema would go into freefall collapse watching cinema chains enter the market that decimated the GCC business plan. GCC dropped the “6” from ads as six-plexes were no longer drawing cards, especially with paid parking lots that were sometimes hard for folks to find.
AMC took on the struggling General Cinema Galaxy on April 4, 2002 along with the lionās share of GCC properties around the country. The theater chain had just 73 theaters representing 677 screens nationwide in December of 2001 when AMC purchased the circuit - that was down precipitously from the 350 theater locations with some 1,500 screens that GCC operated just 15 years earlier according to its annual financial report. After the GCC buyout was approved in 2002, AMC exercised patience at the Hollywood venue before permanently jettisoning it from our galaxy on December 4, 2003.
If remembered, the Hollywood Galaxy was an early effort that helped revitalize what had become a seedy area in Hollywood as even the once-opulent Garden Court had been nicknamed a flop house called āHotel Hell.ā But the movie house would be undercut by a higher visibility annex to the Chinese Theatre in Mannās Chinese 6, the revamping of the El Capitan Theatre, and the major efforts to keep the Chinese Theatre, itself, vibrant.
Grand opening ad posted.
This theater could be seen in the 1992 “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” movie.
I found some ticket stubs from Hollywood Galaxy I posted in the photos, for 6 Days 7 Nights and U571.
Great to hear Patton name drop the theater in that bit!
Comedian Patton Oswalt does a funny bit about this place in his “Finest Hour” special. It come near the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6oATzbndjE
Did this thing even last ten years?
Along with the Northridge earthquake, this complex was probably the final nail in the coffin for the Egyptian and Hollywood Pacific. The Vogue and Fox probably would have closed either way. But the Hollywood Pacific was still doing business with pictures like Silence of the Lambs and Sea of Love. Alien, Aliens and Return of the Jedi were typical premiers at the Egyptian in the 80’s. Instead of finding a way to keep the Hollywood blvd theaters vital, local pols approved this multiplex for one of the best locations on the blvd.
How could the Hollywood Pacific and Egyptian compete?
And this thing didn’t even last 10 years.
Since it was called the Galaxy, didn’t star wars play here?
Judging by that photo, this theater looked classy.
DOCUMENTARY ON CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD CINEMAS – Lookn for interviewees, photos, videos of old hollywood
Hello,
I’m and independent filmmaker working on a documentary about old movie theatres in hollywood (Iris, Warner, Pacific, Hollywood, Vogue, Grauman’s Chinese, Egyptian etc..) that have had an impact on the hollywood community, both as a symbol of Hollywood as well as the historical and heritage effects it has had on “hollywood” as an industry. We are profiling theatres that are currently functioning as well as the obsolete. If you worked in these theatres back in the day (during their highlights) and have interesting stories to tell, photos to show, video to talk about I would like to hear from you. Many older movie houses are being demolished due to new developments and it is important to help future generation know and understand how these movie palaces have helped shaped the Hollywood we know today. If you have any photos or videos with personal stories you’d like to share, please contact me (323) 876-0975 – – You must owns the materials you are willing to share (taken the picture- recorded the videos, written the letters, etc…)
If you do have materials you’d like to send that may help in accurate information, you are welcome to send it to me.
Jorge Ameer
Classic Hollywood Cinemas
Box 3204
Hollywood, California 90028
View link
For KingBiscuits post it’s “Jurassic Park”. “Undercover Blues” played the Hollywood Pacific.
The mall, even today, has the feeling of a deserted suburban shopping center. A Fresh & Easy supermarket is now on the lower level and brings some life to the central courtyard. A sad example of 90’s commercial architecture.
The whole thing’s gone. Nothing remains.
Do any interior features remain?
Here is a photo taken today:
http://tinyurl.com/3tvfzp
Films showing in the 1993 photo:
1- either Jurassic Park or Undercover Blues (hard to make out)
2- The Secret Garden
3- Needful Things
4- Kalifornia
5- Calendar Girl
6- Hard Target
photos taken in 1992
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2121395166/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2121396256/
Here is an undated photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yq4wdd
It seems AMC aquired all the LA area GCC’s at a bad time:
Hollywood Galaxy: Arclight and Chinese 6 had recently opened. Result? Closed.
Beverly Connection: The Grove had recently opened. Result? Closed
Sherman Oaks: Pacific opened Galleria nearby. Result? Pacific takes over screens 3-7 as a move over house, Screens 1 and 2 demolished.
Glendale 5: Always had 14 Mann screens nearby. Result? AMC dumps it quick, independent operator takes over, but only for a short time.
The Redondo Beach Galleria and the Avco seem to be the only LA GCC theatres remaining in AMC’s operations. But the Redondo Beach is probably being cannibalized by AMC’s new Del Amo 3 miles away as is the Avco with new AMC Century 15. At least in the Avco’s booking zone 9 screens have closed in the last couple of years (I write this with a heavy heart as my favorite, the National, just closed again, this time probably for good).
The Galaxy complex looks better not being a theatre.
The Mann Chinese 6 has almost taken over as the new Galaxy theatres with the films being book there. Arclight pretty much takes most of the “A” films leaving Mann very little to book into the Chinese 6 plex, they show move-overs (from Main Chinese and Arclight) and the films Arclight passes on.
A good street level view can be seen near the begining of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie.
Another footnote, the CGC Galaxy had the misfortune of being built a few years before stadium seating became the popular standard.
After the Garden Court Apartments were demolished, the site was vacant for nearly 10 years. The CGC Galaxy Complex opened in the early ‘90s (I think it was 1992). The complex has never lived up to its potential and has been altered several times. At one point, a Hollywood museum was located in the lower level.
LA Fitness is in the space formerly occupied by the theaters. It opened in the fall of 2006. The fitness center follows the layout of where the various theaters stood. There used to be escalators leading up to the theaters, but they were removed and only the stairs remain. There is an elevator that leads directly into the fitness center. Before, when you got off the elevator, you basically faced the box office window. It was a few steps to the left.