Universal Cinema AMC at Citywalk Hollywood 19
100 Universal City Plaza,
Universal City,
CA
91608
100 Universal City Plaza,
Universal City,
CA
91608
17 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 57 comments
I worked there pre opening and opening day until 1988. The management was cool, all canadian guys. Exception was on Italian guy Rosseti. The guy was not very nice. Their big sell was the Cafe. No other theater had anything like that. The coolest guy I met there was actor Brian Thompson. He used to come in to see movies. I think he was working a stunt show at Universal studios at the time. The guy was very polite and cool. I let him in a couple of times for free. LOL. The thing that struck me about him was whenever he came to the theater he remembered my name. Telly Savalas used to come around quite a bit during summer. The guy was a true gentleman. I met Joel Schumacher and Richard Donner there as well. I escorted them to the theater playing Lost Boys. They asked me if I new anything about audience reaction to the film. I told them people loved it. Nice guys. All of them very friendly and down to earth. The theater today has been repainted, and the interior is the same (design wise). The area around the theater has changed dramatically. None of it was there back in 87-88. I was sixteen. and it was a fun place to work to earn some beach money.
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2012/01/11/dark-knight-rises-sold-out/
The IMAX theatre has switched to an all reserved seating system. Switch happened in Summer 2010. The remaining theatres are still first come first served.
AMC dropped the Loews moniker from this theatre’s name a while ago. LA Times ads along with AMC’s ad lists it as “AMC Citywalk 19 with IMAX.”
Zip code is 91608
I DID SEE 4 MOVIES HERE IN OCT THE STAFF WAS ON OF THE BEST I HAVE SEEN..
They added stadium seating and red high back chairs to all auditoriums. They also added purple and red painted floors on the entry level and purple and red carpet in the hallways and upstairs. They have black leather sofas along the walls. They kept the balconies in the large auditoriums.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluepupae/2004938592/
Would someone tell me how it is now after the remodel????Someone please post a comment about how the remodel has improved it.
I didn’t go here after all like I planned. Looks like I won’t get to see this joint till late summer.
Garth our leader at the time was more into small theaters as the flagships IT SEEMED IT WAS MORE ABOUT THE PRESTIGE THAN HOW MUCH A THEATER MADE….In his mind i would think the flagships were ..
Carnagie hall theater…Pantage(live theater) was his favourite.In the beging he loved the Warner theater (42 nd st &broadway)HE always felt he was the first to put money into 42 nd st …
like the now closed Route 4 tenplex and the extinct Eaton Center 21 screen theater that was at the time the first true megaplex in North America, and also the still open Ziegfeld theater and Chelsea multiplex. Also, it had 4 more screens than the still open Beverly Center 14 (which is now a Mann theater) and was much bigger and luxurious.
Flagship….not really…. maybe for the west coast….This was the first mega theater for Cineplex Odeon but it never was the flagship as one would have thought….Cineplex had so many high profile theaters in Ny and Canada that overshadowed this theater….
Was this theater a showcase for Universal’s movies, much like the El Capitan was for Disney? Also, was this theater the flagship of the Cineplex Odeon chain before the takeovers?
The remodel has been completed and the theatre is now referred to in AMC ads as Citywalk Stadium 19 with IMAX. The ads also declare that it has 360 degree surround sound and the widest stadium seating seats in the country.
Seeing (and hearing) is believing, of course. And I will see for myself on June 2nd when I go to a movie here.
“300” is currently playing here in IMAX.
http://www.fromscripttodvd.com/300_imax_dmr.htm
I thought I had posted a comment on this venue several years ago and it seems like it has disappeared for some odd reason. As posted above, by Manwithnoname, the auditoriums play rather loudly but I haven’t frequented the place enough to say it is with consistency. My first visit here was way back in ‘93, where my cousin and I saw the first “Jurassic Park” in the then new sound format DTS. The show was a matinee but if I remember correctly, there was a balcony and yes, the sound was quite loud. My cousin kept clawing into my arm during the T-Rex stampede that they made impressions! The movie was quite a thrill ride due to, in part, to the digital sound system.
The last time I was saw a movie there was in ‘01 where gasp my friend and I saw Jurassic Park 3, in digital projection. This particular auditorium had the requisite crisp colors and bright picture that DP can bring and the movie, itself, was enjoyable. What I recall is that they played the THX trailer, sound trailer, DLP trailer and Technicolor trailer at the very end of the movie after the credits played.
If memory serves me correctly, didn’t this venue, or an adjacent place also have the now defunct Showscan operation? I thought I saw a Showscan poster at a theater next to this one, but it wasn’t showing anything when my friend and I saw JP3. I remember Showscan when they started out here in VA, back in …‘83 or so..70mm projected at 60fps and multi channel sound brought to life an almost life like experience that was something to behold.
Is this theater patronized mostly by Universal tourists or area residents, or a liitle of both ???
This theatre is in the process of getting remodeled. Gone is the marquee, the west box office is closed, and stadium seating is going in. I dont know what is going to happen to the two auditoriums with balconies.
William, all of the former Loews Cineplex Theatres anre now called either AMC loews, AMC Star or AMC Magic Johnson. Examples include: AMC Loews Universal City 18 Theatre (Former Cineplex Odeon Universal City 18 Theatre), AMC Loews 34th Street 14 Theatre (Former Loews Cineplex 34th Street 14 Theatre), AMC Magic Johnson Harlem 9 Theatre (former Magic Johnson Harlem USA 9 Theatre), AMC Loews Shore 8 Theatre (former Cineplex Odeon Shore 8 Theatre), AMC Loews Paramus Route 4 10 Theatre (former Stanley Warner Route 4 Theatre).
The last three posts have stated that this theatre should be listed as a AMC house now.
It’s actually called AMC Loews Universal City 18 Theatre (or AMC Universal City 18 Theatre for short) since 1/27/2006
Universal City Cinemas was designed by Mesbur+Smith Architects, of Toronto, Canada. There are three pictures of the interior on this page. The two largest auditoriums in the complex each opened with 750 seats, and the total seating of the complex was over 6000.
The theatre no longer carries the Cineplex Odeon name. It was called the Loews Universal City 18 for a while, but it is now called the Universal Studio Cinemas, and is operated by AMC, which has swallowed Loews.
The Cineplex Universal City 18 Theatres opened on June 30th. 1987.
It should now be listed as part of AMC.
When it opened, there was no CityWalk and the drive from Ventura Boulevard ran straight to the door of the theater into a circle drive. This was removed after a “drive-up box-office armed robbery” that took place one evening about 1990. When that area was made inaccessible to cars, the CityWalk seemed to be born.
Parking was normally to the right of the driveway (southeast, where I believe there is now a two-story parking structure with a pedestrian crosswalk). I would always go to late shows on the weekend and I often saw unusual wildlife when returning to my car at 2 am.
The first year, you had no access if you were a pedestrian. My sister and I learned this the hard way. We walked from a bus on Barham up to the theater…three one-way traffic lanes and NO sidewalk! We had to walk on the dirt incline!
When they started using the multi-level lot across from the box-office, they kept no record of the number of cars and you often were stuck turning around at the top. On the way down you would pass twenty cars headed to the same fate!
I started riding my bike…
Now I always park at the bottom and walk up…but I haven’t gone in the theater for over ten years. It was one of only three theaters in Los Angeles with coffee, but that hasn’t been strong enoough to lure me back. It was once my favorite theater.
here is a marquee shot
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