I guess the new AMC/Loews will become the new monopoly on Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. They’ll have 2 theatres bookending that whole block – Santa Monica 7 on the North side and Broadway 4 on the South side (with Mann’s Criterion 6 in the middle).
One of the most overrated movie theatres in Southern California…if not the country as a whole…Regal/Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21 is only worth visiting if you’re seeing a film in either the IMAX, Chinese, Egyptian, Palace or Hollywood auditoriums. Every other auditorium in the theatre is a shoebox – cramped and stuffy with very small screens and very inferior sound systems.
I said it before…I’ll say it again. The real crowds and $$$’s are waiting for Arclight to steal the annual “Great Big 70MM Festival” from the American Cinematheque/Egyptian Theatre and to bring it to the Dome where 70MM belongs!
When I went to HTWWW at the Dome in 2003 the joint was packed like sardines on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe the crowds are scarce because of the fact that this film has already played in the Dome fairly recently. Could it be that LA area audiences are hungry for other classic films (like “2001”) to play in the Dome as opposed to reruns such as this?
This is the type of programming Pacific/Arclight should be running in the Cinerama Dome instead of half-empty showings of “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”!
I saw “Four Brothers” and “40 Year Old Virgin” here in August. Neither time did they close and reopen the curtains before showtime. Just a dimming of the house lights after Regal’s very annoying “2WENTY” pre-show.
One of our SoCal DIMS members posted a letter to the editor in this past Sunday’s Los Angeles Times in response to an article about Texas area drive-ins. It’s a good letter that lets the folks in SoCal know that the drive-in scene is still very much alive and well!
As founder of the Southern California Drive-In Movie Society (SoCal D.I.M.S.), allow me to share bit more about this newly launched group.
In addition to being a member of Cinema Treasures and a host of other online movie theatre discussion groups, it was my membership at Yahoo’s Drive-Ins discussion group that gave me the idea to launch this organization. We have a strong contingent of Southern California based members and I’d always wonder why the SoCal area folks didn’t get together to launch a drive-in club. After 5 years of wondering, I took matters into my own hands.
We officially launched in July 2005 with our first 2 back to back meetings (or, as it’s labeled above, Membership Outreach events) at the Mission Tiki D/I in Montclair, CA. Our last event took place on August 27, 2005 at the Van Buren D/I in Riverside, CA.
Our plan is to have a monthly event at one of the remaining SoCal area D/I’s to show our support for the theatre as well as to recruit new members. We have the support of Drive-ins.com as well as De Anza Land and Leisure Corp. – the owners of various drive-ins in SoCal and across the country including the Mission Tiki and the Van Buren.
We do not have a website yet but we expect to get one in the near future. Feel free to contact the email address above for more information. We hope you’ll be able to join us on 9/24 at the Vineland or for other events in the future.
IMHO…Arclight Hollywood is THE PROTOTYPE that all new theatres should follow. Here are some reasons why:
They didn’t tear down the exisiting classic Hollywood palace (Cinerama Dome) and build a new theatre in it’s place. Instead, they preserved the classic theatre and built their new theatre behind it. All theatre chains should be following this example!
Every one of the auditoriums at Arclight is as wide as the screens are. They wisely put the screen masking on the sides and not at the top…insuring that every film that shows on even the smallest screens will have magnificent presentation.
No car commercials/Fantanas/Fandango ads.
Real butter on the popcorn…not to mention a more selective concession menu.
21 and over screenings to keep the kids away.
Crystal clear, THX Certified sound in all auditoriums.
Ushers who CARE about the film experience.
Eclectic programming. Where else can the classics play alongside blockbusters on a weeknight?
The only thing wrong with Arclight is the prices. Lower the prices there and you’ve got the most perfect cinematic experience in the world!
“The problem is that land in the Northeast is too valuable. In Connecticut we only have two left and I don’t see anyone opening a new one because there would be no way to afford the land.”
It’s the same story here in California. We’re hanging on for dear life to the 4 Drive-ins left in the LA and surrounding areas.
The Vineland is still doing big business. There are consistently long lines throughout the night as the 4 screens run their double features. There’s always rumors of this place closing, but Pacific Theatres is holding on to the place.
They’ve recently replaced their marquee and original screen tower. Hopefully they’ll repave the lots, clean up the restrooms, redo the snack bar, and upgrade their projection system. One of the nearby drive-ins is using a new system called Technalight that projects what is possibly the most clear and bright picture ever seen at a drive-in. It’s so clear that even dark movies are nearly crystal clear with minimal loss of detail. If Pacific forks down the $$$ to get this new system, it will pay off in dividends in the years to come!
Each year the quality of movies has been getting worse and worse as the days go by. Slump or no slump, this is the worst movie year since I’ve been alive (I’m 32)! It’s a telling sign of the times when the #1 movie of the year (SW Episode 3) rates only a “B+”.
It’s been 11 years since I’ve experienced this theatre. I had the pleasure of doing a summer internship w/Disney in 1994. That was the summer of Lion King, Forrest Gump, True Lies, and Speed! I still remember seeing all 4 of those films in the main auditorium in THX and Dolby Digital. A great great summer and a great great theatre!
HTWWW is coming back? Great. Maybe I’ll take some friends who’ve never been here.
To piggyback on Bill Huelbig’s comments, the American Cinematheque is running their yearly 70MM festival in the wrong theatre! With all due respect to the Egyptian, the Dome is THE PLACE to experience the true glory of 70MM projection!
I think the Dome should be running festivals and classics during the not so busy season. There’s no reason why this auditorium should be showing anything “fluffy” in the slow months. January-April and September-October are the perfect times for the Dome to go retro and show classics worthy to fit on that glorious screen.
The first time I ever went to a movie theatre in California, it was here. It was 1982 and I was 10 years old. It was a double feature of “The Beastmaster” and “Swamp Thing”. I don’t remember much of anything else except the fact that I thought it was cool seeing a movie in California!
The new name for this D/I is Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre.
The owners have installed a new projection system called Technalight that has revolutionized the way films are projected at drive-in theatres. It is the clearest and brightest image I’ve ever seen at a drive-in. Even films with consistent nighttime and dark scenes have very minimal loss of clarity.
All LA/OC/San Bernardino/Riverside area folks should definitely visit this place.
I guess the new AMC/Loews will become the new monopoly on Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. They’ll have 2 theatres bookending that whole block – Santa Monica 7 on the North side and Broadway 4 on the South side (with Mann’s Criterion 6 in the middle).
Heck, yeah! Vineland’s still alive, running first run flicks, and featured everyday in the Pacific Theatres ad section of the LA Times.
The theatre mentioned in the first comment is Century Theatres' “Century 25 Stadium Promenade”, built on the former grounds of the Stadium Drive-In.
New Website Address for this theatre: www.missiontiki.com
One of the most overrated movie theatres in Southern California…if not the country as a whole…Regal/Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21 is only worth visiting if you’re seeing a film in either the IMAX, Chinese, Egyptian, Palace or Hollywood auditoriums. Every other auditorium in the theatre is a shoebox – cramped and stuffy with very small screens and very inferior sound systems.
I said it before…I’ll say it again. The real crowds and $$$’s are waiting for Arclight to steal the annual “Great Big 70MM Festival” from the American Cinematheque/Egyptian Theatre and to bring it to the Dome where 70MM belongs!
When I went to HTWWW at the Dome in 2003 the joint was packed like sardines on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe the crowds are scarce because of the fact that this film has already played in the Dome fairly recently. Could it be that LA area audiences are hungry for other classic films (like “2001”) to play in the Dome as opposed to reruns such as this?
This is the type of programming Pacific/Arclight should be running in the Cinerama Dome instead of half-empty showings of “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”!
I saw “Four Brothers” and “40 Year Old Virgin” here in August. Neither time did they close and reopen the curtains before showtime. Just a dimming of the house lights after Regal’s very annoying “2WENTY” pre-show.
One of our SoCal DIMS members posted a letter to the editor in this past Sunday’s Los Angeles Times in response to an article about Texas area drive-ins. It’s a good letter that lets the folks in SoCal know that the drive-in scene is still very much alive and well!
View link
As founder of the Southern California Drive-In Movie Society (SoCal D.I.M.S.), allow me to share bit more about this newly launched group.
In addition to being a member of Cinema Treasures and a host of other online movie theatre discussion groups, it was my membership at Yahoo’s Drive-Ins discussion group that gave me the idea to launch this organization. We have a strong contingent of Southern California based members and I’d always wonder why the SoCal area folks didn’t get together to launch a drive-in club. After 5 years of wondering, I took matters into my own hands.
We officially launched in July 2005 with our first 2 back to back meetings (or, as it’s labeled above, Membership Outreach events) at the Mission Tiki D/I in Montclair, CA. Our last event took place on August 27, 2005 at the Van Buren D/I in Riverside, CA.
Our plan is to have a monthly event at one of the remaining SoCal area D/I’s to show our support for the theatre as well as to recruit new members. We have the support of Drive-ins.com as well as De Anza Land and Leisure Corp. – the owners of various drive-ins in SoCal and across the country including the Mission Tiki and the Van Buren.
We do not have a website yet but we expect to get one in the near future. Feel free to contact the email address above for more information. We hope you’ll be able to join us on 9/24 at the Vineland or for other events in the future.
IMHO…Arclight Hollywood is THE PROTOTYPE that all new theatres should follow. Here are some reasons why:
They didn’t tear down the exisiting classic Hollywood palace (Cinerama Dome) and build a new theatre in it’s place. Instead, they preserved the classic theatre and built their new theatre behind it. All theatre chains should be following this example!
Every one of the auditoriums at Arclight is as wide as the screens are. They wisely put the screen masking on the sides and not at the top…insuring that every film that shows on even the smallest screens will have magnificent presentation.
No car commercials/Fantanas/Fandango ads.
Real butter on the popcorn…not to mention a more selective concession menu.
21 and over screenings to keep the kids away.
Crystal clear, THX Certified sound in all auditoriums.
Ushers who CARE about the film experience.
Eclectic programming. Where else can the classics play alongside blockbusters on a weeknight?
The only thing wrong with Arclight is the prices. Lower the prices there and you’ve got the most perfect cinematic experience in the world!
“The problem is that land in the Northeast is too valuable. In Connecticut we only have two left and I don’t see anyone opening a new one because there would be no way to afford the land.”
It’s the same story here in California. We’re hanging on for dear life to the 4 Drive-ins left in the LA and surrounding areas.
The Vineland is still doing big business. There are consistently long lines throughout the night as the 4 screens run their double features. There’s always rumors of this place closing, but Pacific Theatres is holding on to the place.
They’ve recently replaced their marquee and original screen tower. Hopefully they’ll repave the lots, clean up the restrooms, redo the snack bar, and upgrade their projection system. One of the nearby drive-ins is using a new system called Technalight that projects what is possibly the most clear and bright picture ever seen at a drive-in. It’s so clear that even dark movies are nearly crystal clear with minimal loss of detail. If Pacific forks down the $$$ to get this new system, it will pay off in dividends in the years to come!
Each year the quality of movies has been getting worse and worse as the days go by. Slump or no slump, this is the worst movie year since I’ve been alive (I’m 32)! It’s a telling sign of the times when the #1 movie of the year (SW Episode 3) rates only a “B+”.
It’s been 11 years since I’ve experienced this theatre. I had the pleasure of doing a summer internship w/Disney in 1994. That was the summer of Lion King, Forrest Gump, True Lies, and Speed! I still remember seeing all 4 of those films in the main auditorium in THX and Dolby Digital. A great great summer and a great great theatre!
Are any of the auditoriums still THX certified?
HTWWW is coming back? Great. Maybe I’ll take some friends who’ve never been here.
To piggyback on Bill Huelbig’s comments, the American Cinematheque is running their yearly 70MM festival in the wrong theatre! With all due respect to the Egyptian, the Dome is THE PLACE to experience the true glory of 70MM projection!
I think the Dome should be running festivals and classics during the not so busy season. There’s no reason why this auditorium should be showing anything “fluffy” in the slow months. January-April and September-October are the perfect times for the Dome to go retro and show classics worthy to fit on that glorious screen.
I visited this theatre in June. Very bland. Sound wasn’t all that great. Definitely nothing to write home about.
Yeah…but not in this decade…and not since it’s reopening.
We used to rotate between this and the nearby Southbay 6 drive-ins back in the 80’s and 90’s. My family and friends were all shocked when it closed.
The first time I ever went to a movie theatre in California, it was here. It was 1982 and I was 10 years old. It was a double feature of “The Beastmaster” and “Swamp Thing”. I don’t remember much of anything else except the fact that I thought it was cool seeing a movie in California!
Awesome Awesome Theatre! Helped to make the letters THX a household name. Sad that it’s gone.
Super clean drive-in…one of the cleanest ever! Visited many times in the summer of 2004. Can’t wait to get back here!
The new name for this D/I is Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre.
The owners have installed a new projection system called Technalight that has revolutionized the way films are projected at drive-in theatres. It is the clearest and brightest image I’ve ever seen at a drive-in. Even films with consistent nighttime and dark scenes have very minimal loss of clarity.
All LA/OC/San Bernardino/Riverside area folks should definitely visit this place.
First time I went here was to see T2 on opening day in 70MM and CDS. One of the greatest movie experiences of my life!
Now if they’d only get permission to show 2001 in here!