TCL Chinese Theatre

I went to see a movie at the 6 screen cinema today, a couple things of note that I haven’t seen mentioned on here. Apparently they now have a full blown resturaunt in The 6 screen. Its weird though because the brick wall decour of it doesnt really match the look of the rest of the lobby. Also in theatre 6 all the regular theatre seating in the lower part of the auditorium has been replaced with couches and short tables. And there is an actual permanent stage at the very front of that one auditorium. And also found it intersting to note that the coming attractions posters are all IMAX releases. The Posters were The IMAX poster for Riddick, the IMAX poster for something called Never as well as IMAX posters for OZ and Enders Game. Is it safe to say that these are going to be the upcoming movies once the IMAX is complete?

Thoughts comments?

BigJoe59, FYI There have been 3D conversions of original Release 2D movies as far back as Harold Lloyd. If the propper time is taken and given any conversion can look amazing. Harold Lloyd converted his own 2D movies to 3D back when he was alive. So just think what the 3D conversions of today can achieve

CTCrouch when i drove down the parking garage entry way it looked like they had simply used the extra wide double doors that exit out to the parking garage entry way, there was no indication breaking through any walls into the parking garage as you suggest.

To handle the demolition stage of the remodel, they appear to have broken through a wall in the underground parking garage and accessed the Chinese Theatre’s basement. Monday through Thursday, debris is being carted up the Orange Drive parking entrance and hauled away in a dumpster. Thus far, the debris has been little more than concrete and miscellaneous metal (i.e. nothing particularly interesting being hauled away). I uploaded a picture of the work.

I agree that 3d is totally a gimmick, not worth it for me personally, but if the audience is buying it then I understand the studio’s mentality. My understanding of how they do it is by manipulating the 2d image digitally, isolating key foreground and background objects and shifting them left or right. I used to do it with stills, I assume computer have made it a lot easier for motion pictures. Stick a few techs in front of a computer and do the adaptation, then make a big deal of it and see if people come. It’s certainly cheaper for them than making a new movie! Getting people out of their livingrooms and into theaters to see old movies is a win-win, in my opinion. People get exposed to the oldies, and theaters get used! Greed, yes, but that is the system we live in. And if people don’t go to theaters to see these adapted oldies, they will not continue to do it.

@Bigjoe: IMAX has repositioned themselves to have a new release every week. So they’ll be fine.

Hello From NYC-

i hope this isn’t a silly question. if the auditorium is being done over into an IMAX theater does that mean it can only play IMAX movies? if that is correct then doesn’t that limit the commercial viability of the theater?

That was the real thing, not a replica.

bigjoe59: I don’t know of any other reserved seat engagements at the Wiltern, but it seems likely that there could have been a few. It is a big, palatial theater in a district that, until the late 1950s, still had a number of fairly posh neighborhoods nearby.

It’s likely that quite a few roadshows were hosted at theaters in downtown Los Angeles as well, but not in recent memory. The last hard ticket movie downtown that I know of was in the mid-1950s, when Todd-AO was installed in the United Artists Theatre and the house shared the reserved seat engagement of Oklahoma with the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. It ran five weeks exclusively at the Egyptian, then ran in both houses for 46 weeks, then an additional six weeks exclusively at the United Artists.

There are quite a few engagements and roadshow listings here:

http://fromscripttodvd.com/70mm_in_los_angeles_main_page.htm

bigjoe59: The Chinese hosted some roadshow engagements other than West Side Story over the years, but the only ones I recall offhand were Hello Dolly and Windjammer. By the late 1950s, which is as far back as my personal experience of Hollywood Boulevard goes, roadshow engagements were much more likely to be booked at the Egyptian or the Pantages or even the Paramount (now El Capitan) than at the Chinese. The Warner Hollywood got all the Cinerama roadshows of course, until the Cinerama Dome opened.

Hard ticket engagements also took place at some theaters outside Hollywood, usually at houses on or near Wilshire Boulevard. The Carthay Circle was the most notable roadshow house outside Hollywood, but there were also quite a few hard ticket engagements at the Fox Wilshire and the Warner Beverly Hills, and even at a few smaller theaters.

Hello From NYC-

a history question. down thru the years Grauman’s Chinese(i refuse to call it by any other name) hosted many exclusive first run engagements of big films when studios still opened their big releases in only one theater. this is where my question comes in- other than the roadshow engagement of “West Side Story” did the Chinese host any other roadshow engagements?

Folks, I propose a little more tolerance and a little less nit-picking (sp?) Let’s stay on subject here, which is the Chinese. I have my settings so I get notified if people post here, but it is a waste of my time to read petty spelling and word choices. I can find that on any chat on the internet! We should be able to rise above this on CT, since we have so much in common!

Speaking of the Chinese, for those in the Hollywood area, the Chinese is offering Hard Hat tours during construction. I have no idea what parts of the theatre will be on the tour, and it will probably change as the process continues, but it might be of interest! You can buy tickets at the link at the bottom of this page: http://www.tclchinesetheatres.com

That’s correct. They are making the audience slightly steeper, lowering the front into part of the basement (the orchestra pit was removed long ago, and the screen already has taken most of the original stage area). They are also raising the back rows up to where they used to be. Originally the back rows were at the same level as the lobby, then it sloped down to the orchestra pit. At some point the seating area was leveled, so you had to go down a flight of steps before getting to the back row. So in a sense the new seating will more closely reflect the original! It will be a HUGE screen, I’m sure it will be bright and high rez since the whole point of this renovation is to make it once again the state of-the-art, best place to see a movie!

I wonder what Sid’s ghost will think of IMAX. There are many who say the place is haunted.