National Theatre
10925 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
10925 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
64 people
favorited this theater
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I love the above idea! Lots of 70mm engagements.
Question is: If Mann can’t make the National work, what could Regent do better?
Reading this makes me want to cry. As someone who grew up in the 70s and 80s, The National, more than any other theater in Westwood, could instantly transport me back to those wonderful, informative years as soon as I entered the lobby. The theater has a wonderful, nostalgic, retro vibe, while still giving you a state of the art presentation, which is only found in a few other houses in LA. If it is truly going to be going, I’ll be very sad indeed.
I think the perfect use for this theater would be as a revival house (but a nice one) to offer people another chance to see some of these films on a wonderful, giant screen. I’d love to have the opportunity where I could show up and see Alien, Superman, 2001, Top Gun, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark… They could even start it off with another engagement of The Exorcist! I have to believe this town, more than any other, could support that. If I had the money, I’d do it myself.
thx for the info. I guess it was a glitch in movietickets.com. For about the past week or so, when you tried to see what was playing at the Village it would say ‘info unavailable for this theater’ if you chose dates up to the 26th. But, then if you chose the 27th or after it would show you showtimes for Superman. But now shotimes for Lake House are listed.
The Village is not dark-far from it…It is showing “The Lake House” and at the end of the week, will have the Premiere of Superman (Wed 6/21) and the opening night of the LA Film Festival(THUR 6/22).
do you happen to know why the Village is dark this week? Superman Returns opens there next tuesday at 10:00PM, and there are a couple premiers scheduled this week, but there isn’t anything playing there until Superman. Are they upgrading maybe? Seats? Sound?
It appears The National will be open in July. Two premieres are scheduled; “Little Man” July 6 and “You Me and Dupree” July 10th. I believe it will cease as a Mann Theatre end of July. I’m not sure if the Regent Entertainment rumor is true or not, but there is talk they are interested in taking over the National lease.
does anyone know how many subwoofers the National has?
ANOTHER ARTICLE REGARDING THE NATIONAL:
Marked Mann: Theater chain won’t renew National lease.
Source: Los Angeles Business Journal: Feb 6, 2006 issue
Author(s): Riley-Katz, Anne
Mann Theaters will not renew its lease on the landmark Mann National Theatre, continuing its exodus from Westwood.
The National, the last single-screen theater built in Los Angeles, was the site of numerous glitzy film premieres since its opening in 1970.
After exiting the National, Mann will be left with only three one-screen theaters: the Village, Bruin and the smaller Festival theater.
“The lease is coming to an end, and they were looking to raise the rent,” said Mann Theaters Chief Executive Peter Dobson. “We just can’t afford the money they want.”
Simms Commercial Development, which manages the property, declined comment.
The Mann chain, co-owned by Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Studios and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., will exit in August from the 1,107-seat venue. Mann previously abandoned the four-screen Westwood Theatre complex in 2001, which was replaced with a Whole Foods Market, and subsequently left the Regent and Plaza theaters.
“At one point, Mann controlled all 10 screens in Westwood Village proper,” said Steve Sann, a longtime Westwood business owner, real estate consultant and partner in the Nine Thirty Restaurant at Westwood’s W Hotel.
The first premiere at the theater was in 1970, when “The Boys in the Band” bowed. Since then, it’s been the site of scores of high-profile Hollywood film debuts, including “The Exorcist,” “Indiana Jones” and “Spider-Man.”
Westwood was once dominated by large, single-screen theaters. But the advent of stadium-seating cineplexes and competition from the ArcLight in Hollywood, Century Theaters' new 15-screen flagship operation in Century City and The Bridge all cut into attendance.
Mann executives had hoped to keep the classic picture palace. “We looked at renovating the theater or turning it into four screens and none of the business models worked,” Dobson said.
One plan discussed in 2004 called for Mann to be the anchor tenant of a five-screen theater project in a $60 million, mixed-use development on Broxton and Le Conte avenues. That project, however, recently stalled when the development partners filed lawsuits against each other. The reported price of renovating the National at the time was about $5 million.
Overhauling the National could be expensive due to required seismic and Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades, asbestos removal and other improvements. Parking and traffic concerns and lack of retail appeal also have made Westwood less appealing to theatergoers.
Sources said one potential tenant would be Westwood-based Regent Entertainment, which occupies the penthouse floor of the KB Homes building at Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran Avenue. Regent is the world’s largest independent distributor of television movies …
I’ll have to try to see Posiedon this weekend for one last time at the National. I doubt anybody will take it over at this point, it would not be logical. What is going on with the proposed Mann Stadium 5 plex behind the Bruin? Pretty soon Westwood Village will be down to only the Village and the Bruin unless someone builds someting new. If ANY theatre needs to go it is the Avco. That theatre lost any lustre it had when the chopped it up.
Mann is still going to close it at the end of June or in July. But it will go out with a bang (as a Mann at least). As of now, the last two films booked for the National will be Poseidon starting 5/12 for a week, then the big one——THE DA VINCI CODE starting 5/19, and it looks like DA VINCI will be the final farewell for the National (4-8 weeks), unless someone steps in fast and takes it over.
I’ve have been trying to go again before it closes but MANN has been using the National as a dumping ground for crappy movies. “RV”, “Silent Hill”, “ATL”, “Larry The Cable Guy…”, “The Hills Have Eyes”, “Take The Lead”, “Ultraviolet”, none of these are what I want to see as one of my last films at this great theatre.
The National Theatre opened on March 26th. 1970 with a private opening screening of “The Boys in the Band”. And opened to the public on Friday March 27th 1970 with the engagement of “The Boys in the Band”.
It may be a “bland exterior” but isn’t it also the first thing you see when entering Westwood Village from the south? That sign is a local landmark and would be missed by everyone.
Hopefully the theater will not be closed and this is nothing more than a tactic to negotiate a better lease. The National, amazingly, has survived threats of being plexed and having stadium-seating installed.
For Westwood, most folks I know seem to like the Village the best. Me, I always preferred the National.
Some of the movies I remember seeing at the National:
Christmas Vacation
Clueless
Empire Of The Sun (70mm)
The Hunt For Red October (70mm)
Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (70mm)
Interview With The Vampire
Lost In Space
Pretty In Pink
Some Kind Of Wonderful
Top Gun (70mm)
Star Trek: First Contact
The Untouchables (70mm)
Young Sherlock Holmes (70mm)
I think the last thing I saw there was a press screening of “Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace.” I remember Jay Leno and a few of his “Tonight Show” colleagues sitting in the row behind me. They seemed to enjoy the movie…but that didn’t stop him from bashing it on his show the next night!
The big problem is the theatre is a large theatre (1112 seats) and the neighborhood zoning rules of Westwood. The operator/chain is stuck with one single screen that does not make enough money to cover the leases rent. The landlord wants more money for the property than what Mann wants to pay and make a profit. With the opening of plexes in Santa Monica, Century City and other nearby areas. Westwood has returned to the days in the 70’s. During that time and earlier the big areas to open films were Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Westwood was a small area next to UCLA. From the late 70’s till the 90’s Westwood was the place, till the Santa Monica reinvented the Mall area. But during the heydays of the late 70’s till the 90’s the area neighborhoods have changed and made harder on what types of business that Westwood can have. Because of all the extra traffic and people that the films brought in. The neighborhoods got sick of the parking problems, so they made the surrounding areas permit parking and there still was problems.
I enjoyed working the National many times with full houses and running near empty. Because of the way the zoning for parking and seating. The National would have to be plexed to make any money. But I would hate to see that happen, because the National has a better screen than the Village. But Mann has always perferred the Village. The studios are another suspect in killing theatres like this. The studios want the big grosses and the big screens, but they also want to keep the screens hostage for X amount of weeks even if the film dies. And then they fight over the who has the Village or got stuck with the National. Mann should book the house with a clause of two to three weeks only, then maybe more people might go to this theatre if they knew it’s only going to play there for that short of a time.
Last year the Loews/Cineplex Century Plaza was razed.
I guess this is the third coming around on theatres.
The 1950’s because of TV.
The 1960’s because people moved away to the burbs.
The 2000’s because of poor movies, cable, cost of going out, etc. etc….
View link
Curtain may fall on Mann theater
JENNIFER HUANG/daily bruin
James Lazarre works the ticket booth at the Mann National Theatre on Lindbrook Avenue in Westwood. Mann will not renew its lease on the theater, which expires in July.
By Roberta Wolfson
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
.edu
Though the lights of the Mann Village and Bruin movie theaters will continue to vibrantly flash on the corner of Broxton and Weyburn avenues, the static lights of the Mann National Theatre may soon go dim.
Come this July, Westwood may be one theater short, as Mann Theatres will not renew its lease for the National Theatre, located on Lindbrook Drive.
The one-screen cinema has been in Westwood since the 1970s and has been managed by the Mann Corporation for most of its existence. It is one of five local theaters in Westwood Village, which includes the Village, Bruin and Festival theaters, all operated by Mann.
The fifth theater, the Regent, is operated by Landmark Theatres. Mann will be unable to renew its lease due to the National’s cost of rent, said Peter Dobson, CEO of the Mann Corporation.
The future of the Mann National Theatre is uncertain at the moment, as the landlords may either seek redevelopment, rent the theater to someone else or look to renegotiate a better term lease with the Mann Corporation.
“The lease is renewable, but it is an unrealistic rent, so we need to change the terms. As yet, we have not had confirmation that the landlords are willing to change the terms,” Dobson said.
The company, which has been involved with Westwood cinema for several decades, will be renewing its lease for its other three theaters in Westwood, as the rents for those facilities are financially reasonable, Dobson said.
There is a possibility that the National Theatre may have to close down, at least temporarily, though the possible closure is not an indication of Mann’s departure from Westwood, Dobson said.
“We are definitely not saying we want to get out of Westwood, as we are very involved and dedicated to Westwood. We’ve had a long and happy relationship with the Westwood community, but it has to be on a sound financial footing,” Dobson said.
Chris Escobar, a year-long resident of Westwood looking to enter the UCLA Medical School, said he sees movies in Westwood every two weeks or so, and though he does watch movies at the National, many people come to the Village and Bruin theaters because they “are a lot nicer and more clean.”
For movie-going Bruins such as Vikram Balakrishnan, a second-year electrical engineering student, the closure of this theater would mean a loss of entertainment and individuality for Westwood.
“Each theater in Westwood offers only one movie, which is a fun experience that is unique to Westwood and other parts of L.A., but once you leave Westwood, it’s hard to get to theaters,” Balakrishnan said.
Dobson said he was very sad about Mann’s departure from the National.
“The implications of our withdrawing this lease are obviously having one theater less in Westwood and one less screen for students to watch,” Dobson said. “This marks the end of an era. If the theater ends up closing, it will be a very sad thing.”
With reports from Derek Lipkin, Bruin senior staff.
Was in the National a few weeks ago for Brokeback Mountain, and man, (or should I say Mann), has this place seen better days. The auditorium was pretty run down looking, seriously in need of refurbishment. Moreover, they made a huge mistake with the seats here, putting after-market plastic cupholders on them instead of buying new, a move I could see for a dollar-house but not in a theatre with this prestige. I have never seen this done successfully in a way that retains the comfort of the seat, it takes away about an inch or so on either side of the patron, and if you have a few extra inches on your behind as many of us do you are in for an uncomfortable few hours. The projection and sound was still very good, though.
I’d be very sorry to see this go. It would be great to see some money thrown at this wonderful and historic screen, with some work it could be the pride of Westwood film-going, but I suppose the bean counters will out. Hell, let the guy who bought the Crest take it, he’s doing a bang-up job over there.
Just don’t mess with the Village or the Bruin, that’s all I ask.
From the LABJ – “Continuing its exodus from Westwood, the Mann Theater chain will not renew its lease on the landmark National Theatre when it runs out in August.” Will post more as soon as I get more info.
Any word on if the National will be refurbished? At least new seats? Drapes? It is still one of the BEST Theatres around.
I was the Manager of the National from 1986 to 1989. It was a beautiful and exhilarating time of life and Westwood provided the perfect backdrop. Good times!!
The National was among the handful of theaters equipped with Cinema Digital Sound (CDS), the 1990-1991 precursor to the contemporary digital sound formats.
I hope they don’t do the stadium seating.
Is a refurbishing going to happen to the National? I went over the weekend to see Team America:World Police. The consession stand looks newly updated but the auditorium itself is a mess. Broken seats and the seats in general are very uncomfortable. It really needs a cosmetic lift. The screen and sound are still top notch, except I was agry because the lights were on during the trailers and the first 5 minutes of the feature. Otherwise it is a great theatre still.
At one time the booth also featured Doug Trumbull’s Showscan projection equipment. The theatre was used as a test theatre at one time in the early 80’s.
A few months ago, I copied an ad from an LA Times on microfilm. The ad heralded the National Theatre as a luxurious showplace. It was first owned by NGC Theatres, a subsid of National General. The new theatre had dramatic, contemporary design with sparkling new decor. A year-round climate control system. Latest most sophisticated projection system, and full 6-track stereophonic sound.
Oh how things change in 34 years! The projection system would include 70mm, which would be prominent at the National, and digital sound would take over by the end of the millenium.