National Theatre
10925 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
10925 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
64 people
favorited this theater
Showing 276 - 300 of 757 comments
Oh boy, you need to BE at a Drafthouse screening. It’s like no other moviegoing experience currently in the world. Besides the food and the drinks, they also strictly enforce their no-talking and cell phone policy, which has helped keep their sales up. The company has opened cinemas in Houston and San Antonio and no doubt they want to make a big expansion. So why not LA?
The National has plenty of room for kitchen and service space, along with providing, like you said, VIP sections and special seating. It might take that seat count from 1,100 down to about 400-500 or so, but as long as you kept that screen it would be worth it!
The Studio Movie Grills in the Dallas area appear, at least to me, to be more of a sports bar venue. I’d lean more towards the Drafthouse concept which I think would benefit greatly from the nearby campus who are looking for a fun night out.
As for the cinema’s current significance, I have an article I posted on efilmcritic.com about the National (the link is posted far up on this page) to contribute.
Jason I have heard of Alamo Drafthouse, and I have also looked up Studio Movie Grille and Movie Tavern, all of which are successful companies who have their top people listed on their sites. I’ve been working on a proposal about how many ways the National can can be viable for this purpose, and I hope to send it out by morning.
Meanwhile we have to prepare some kind of presentation regarding the theatre’s historical significance…
I am hoping Michael Coate can use some of the National article he was working on.
Roadshow,
How familiar are you with the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin? (www.originalalamo.com) They are just opening their new location on 6th street in Austin this week, but if they were ever looking for a move out to the west coast, THIS would be the venue to do it in.
Drinks, specialty films run near the UCLA campus? The Alamo has been very good in promoting their product in their home city, so I’m sure they could promote around LA and the campus. Say it with me now…The Alamo Drafthouse at the National…The Alamo Drafthouse at the National…
Of course not, because keeping the theatre successful was not the real goal. These past few months operation was just a way to make people think the place wasn’t going to be torn down. But if a real buyer came along…
So there’s no reason why I can’t contact every successful food-service theatre operator I can find, and point out what an ideal venue this would be to bring the concept to LA. It’s an concept that’s new to the area, in a college /upscale community.
The main space might be utilized on several tiers, with a high VIP level at the back, leaving room for a kitchen and two smaller rooms underneath…. A second level added to the upstairs lobby could hold some tables and flatscreens…
Hey, look, it’s worth checking into. I’d rather be able to say I tried something rather than just sit around and talk about how impossible and hopeless it all is.
Roadshow,
Unfortunately, it’s the stuff that only people who would go there think about. The people who actually run it, they close it down because they can’t figure out how to make “The Ex” profitable for two weeks. There are so many ways to make that theater successful, but showing a movie like “Becoming Jane” or running “Trainspotting” at midnight aren’t two of them.
I still think some sort of partial conversion to a Cinema Grill or Movie Drafthouse could make the National viable. A big screen with top notch presentation, good varied food service (maybe in the rear half of the auditorium, leaving some regular seats for regular use/price) Pitch it as moderately upscale and not too rowdy… And a varied program with some family oriented stuff, cult classics, midnight movies, themed nights/programs, personal appearance, panels, etc… take reservations in advance for a VIP section… This is the kind of stuff I think about all the time.
Here here Cliff. I wish Speilberg could buy the National and pull a Paul-Allen-Seattle-Cinerama hat trick as a thank you to LA fans. Certainly he has some spare change lying around. Cinematic Philanthropy.
D. Packard,
While I can’t point to most of what you said and disagree, the idea that the theatrical experience is dead is exactly the reason why we need The National. Everything you said is accurate, but for anyone that has been to The National, Village, Chinese, Dome, or El Capitan on the opening night of a big (sorry) event film knows that the theatrical experience is alive and kicking… it just needs a church to house its worshipers. That’s what those theaters represent. That’s why we’re all here on this site. That’s why The National has to stay.
It’s times like now that I do wish studios could own theaters. If all the studios just owned one or two of these palaces, they would ensure that their best product played continuously and would keep the screens much more profitable than they are currently capable, not just with new films, but with classics from their catalog, just as Disney does with The El Capitan. Just imagine if Paramount was able to buy The National, not only would they have a glamorous home for all their premieres and events, but they would make sure that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull played on that screen, just like it should.
Mark, one of the former theatres I worked was located on that site. The Picwood Theatre was also a theatre that was worth saving. But Pacific Theatres had sold the property long before it closed the house. I guess the meeting for the East Coast would be at something new like the AMC 25 or Regal Union Square, Or if their lucky the Loew’s Jersey City Theatre. Most likely the landowner will make a deal to save the facade of the theatre and gut the rest for retail. The National is just to large to operate as a single screen house. I’ve been to it and run it with just a few people per showing. But it runs with a good amount of people only three days a week (Fri,Sat,Sun). The rest of the week those theatres do fair business. By saying Mann was a culprit is they could have made it work for alittle more time. Mann could have booked the theatre harder. They could have did what Pacific did when the Dome was stuck with a turkey for a few weeks, use profits from one of their other houses to keep it running.
William, like you I prefer the National over the Village any day. Flawless and optimal presentation for any film, epic or not.
BTW: In light of what is happening with the National, the Rialto and other single-screeners, I was a bit disappointed that the Cinematreasures are holding their meeting to discuss theatre preservation etc. at the brand-spanking-new Landmark 12!!! Less than 2 miles away from Westwood Village, the densest grouping of open single screeners in the country. Are they serious? Are they serious about preservation?
I expressed my disappointment here:
http://cinematreasures.org/news/17409_0_1_0_C/
Feel free to express your feelings as well.
Brad, Let’s don’t give up without a fight… every one of us could fax a letter to the Cultural Heritage commission just as easily as posting here. What’s that cost anyone? Just a little effort to make it known you WANT the place to stay.
William, I’m not seeing Mann as the culprit here, as much as a landowner who would rather make a bundle now and doesn’t give a shit what we’re losing. According to the website, there is at least a chance: http://www.preservation.lacity.org/process It takes a big community to save and support a theatre, including people to come up with some variety of viable uses to keep the bills paid.
Remember when a film opened and there was a limit in miles as to the next theatre that could play the film. Well now the film making factory opens on so many screens (3000+) to get the braging rights their film opening to $50 million the first weekend. If you look at the costs of these films to make and market. They are SO high it takes so long to make any profit on it. Films come out on DVD in such a short time, which would long ago go through the ranks of 1st. Run to 2nd and 3rd. run theatres. Those theatres are now fighting to stay alive as people are staying home to watch their HD and SD cable programs. Back in the 50’s & 60’s hundreds of theatres had to fight off TV to stay alive or dead. The National Theatre is not the first product of the 60’s theatre building that has been targeted to be destroyed. It’s just to big to make money for the land it sits on. it’s all about the profits the company makes and the properties that do not perform well are razed. I’m sad the National is closed, I went to it and was lucky the work the booth afew times. I fact I like the national better than the Village. But since I did not win the Mega-Ball and buy the place. Hollywood & Mann Theatres is the blame for how this theatre was left high and dry.
The National is one of a kind. Unfortunately audiences do no see the beauty in it. They rather see films in small not very distinguishable multiplexes. Mann was going to remodel it and keep it going a few years back; but the cost of renovating and the chance of re-couping the cost it made it too risky. Film going has changed and films are not made for the palaces anymore; they are made primarily for home theatres. Current movie theatres are a selling tool for DVD and now Hi Def. Films are in and now so quickly and on DVD before you realize. A theatre like the National cannot function as an Indipendently own theatre, Mann barely kept it booked and probably made no money on it. Too late to save it in my opinion; the next fight will be to save the Village and the Bruin.
D Packard is right. Studio films today are mostly programmed crap. Thank god niche cable TV is actually giving us something good to watch. We have grown into such an immediate gratification culture that here and now is literally “here and now on my iPhone in the middle of the desert”.
I have been delving into that classic era of American Cinema (late 60’s to mid 70’s) and am wowed by how many good films there are from that pre-blockbuster era. (has anynody seen George Clooney’s top 100 DVD list?) I am not blaming Mr. Speilberg or Lucas for creating the blockbuster and sabotaging smart hollywood fims (I am as big of a Star Wars/Indiana Jones junkie as there is…Star Wars 1977-1983 that is) but once hollywood saw the potential they have been trying to saturate our theatre with nothing but blockbuster ever since. And they have to have all that revenue from a film opening wekend. Up front and as soon as possible. And on as many screens as possible. And on DVD 3 months later.
Theatres like the National were built for event films that people would come from miles to see. Trouble is, coming from miles is no longer necessary. And event films are so common-place, they themselves have become less eventful.
In my wildest dreams the National could be run in the way the Cinematheque is run. It would seem LA could support something like that…
Westwood used to be defilned by it’s movie-going but not anymore, it’s almost a ghost-town these days. In this day & age i don’t see how ANY single house theatres will survive much longer, the few that are left. And frankly the whole theatrical experience is dead, it’s a stay-home based multi-media world of 5000 satellite cable channels to choose from on your widescreen TV. Why would anyone want to bother with a movie theatre, just for some disposable new mainstream film that’ll be on cable or DVD 2 weeks later? Oh, people still go, mostly for desperation of something to do, so they’ll be around until at least 2012, but it’s not the same. And good movies still do RARELY occasionally get made, but seldomly distributed by major studios, their lucky to get a week in release at some small art-house, swept under the carpet, overlooked by the general public.
Like the slogan for the 1973 film “The Last Programme”
The Future is Cancelled
Cliff, You can fax your supportive comments to the Commissioners, the info is on the National page at Cinema Sightlines.
The Dome was constructed in 1963 and the National was in 1969, only six years apart, not decades.
I can readily see the beauty in The National, both as a unique architectural design (the multi-level lobby) and as an incredible place to see movies. Unfortunately, I don’t think many others see it as such. But if the only history worth saving has to be 80+ years old, then we’re in big trouble. They’re clearing these things out and there will be nothing left of the late 70s/early 60s to remember by the time these things would hit historical ripening.
Westwood is an area defined as much by its movie-going as it is by the UCLA campus. Taking The National out of Westwood is going to change the character of Westwood. It might not do it right away, but as I said a few months ago (and as others have more recently commented) losing The National is a major stepping stone to also losing The Village and The Bruin. And for what? Condos? And I’m guessing the type of condos that you would find on any street, in any town, in any state. They’re going to allow the removal, no make that the outright destruction of a one of a kind theater to make way for condos? That’s almost as bad as when it was going to be a Banana Republic. Westwood’s theaters were like their own little cinematic ecosystem. They needed each other to survive. Well, they’re about to remove a keystone species and I fear the rest of Westwood is going to soon go extinct cinematically.
I wish I could be there to attend this meeting, but I have to go to New Mexico for work and won’t be back in LA until Thursday night. But I would offer this…
History doesn’t have to be old to be valuable. Any one’s favorite memories are no older than they are.
Bill H: This is a website dedicated to preserving theatres. If you don’t share that feeling, you needn’t waste your time here.
One problem is since no chain has been willing to rescue the National, by running it. The developer could make a deal with the city and use the facade as part of their new design for the new building. It has been done before in many cites. But the rest of the building would be gutted or razed. Other than being a large single screen theatre in Los Angeles, it offers just the decor of the late 1960’s. The Village Theatre offers a 1925 style exterior and lobby and a mid 50’s style auditorium and the Bruin offers it’s exterior marquee and the old poster cases located behind the fake walls under the marquee.
So this theater closed for good? GET OVER IT PEOPLE!!
People should start lobbying for more of those DMX Dimensional 70mm showings before it gets demolished, that sounds cool
Confirmed over at Cinema Sightlines:
Meeting between Building & Safety and the Cultural Heritage Commission regarding the planned demolition of the National Theatre.
THIS IS THE OPPORTUNITY FOR FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL THEATRE TO COME FORWARD AND HAVE THEIR SAY.
TIME: Thursday, Nov 1 at 10:00AM
PLACE: 200 North Spring Street – Room 1010, City Hall - Los Angeles, CA 90012
The National theatre is the final item on the meeting’s agenda.Â
Last week the National Theatre held a demo for the DMX Corporation. For their DMX-“Dimensional Movie Xperience”. This was just a theatre rental for their “Demo” of the project and not a new lease on life for the National. It is 2K DCI compliant 48 frame technology that creates a 4K look for the production. Part of the demo used 70MM (SDS-70) with a DTS soundtrack. They held a demo like this not so long ago at the Harmony Gold Theatre. (no the Harmony Gold Theatre is not listed here, it’s a private Industry theatre).
I really don’t think any of the other theatres would have a huge turnout, either, unless there was a good deal of advance word, and just like with the National, the owner could avoid a public outcry by keeping the place open until its fate is sealed.
If you do a search at View link you may be able to see the satellite view of the National, which shows it’s not really on a very large lot.
Interesting strategy: if so many people would appear for the National, imagine how many would appear for the Village, Bruin, Crest, Rialto, etc?
Unfortunately, I don’t anticipate many will appear for the National. Tell us how many appear, please.
How big a condo building can they build on the National site? No retail?