Beverly Center Cinemas 13
8522 Beverly Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90048
8522 Beverly Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90048
17 people
favorited this theater
Showing 151 - 175 of 180 comments
Photos posted here:
http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=2114
Taken a few months prior to closing. I counted a whopping 67 seats in that small auditorium.
Give it alittle time, it’s only been a week or so. All the screens on the main floor of that plex need tobe gutted, so better theatres can be made. All to replace all of that crap equipment in the booths. I worked that theatre many times and the equipment was just wore out.
I hope if MANN does take over the space they gut it out a build some nice screens. Wasn’t Pacific going to build more screens at the Grove?
So what is happening to this theatre? On another page, someone linked to an article claiming that Mann would take it over.
The Cineplex Beverly Center 14 was the original configuration when they opened back in 1982. Sometime in 1986 the theater underwent a major renovation. When Cineplex added the 2 five hundred seat theaters upstairs they re configured the original 14 theaters downstairs to 11. They made some of the original small theaters larger.By the time they finished the renovation, the Beverly Center was just 13 screens.
Also, The Beverly Center website has taken the theatre off the site.
maybe someone who worked there could solve this. If you look on the marquee on CinemaTour, you can see space for what was a 14th theatre.
Interesting. Anyone know what happened to the 14th Screen? Perhaps a wall was broken through because the largest house had well over 200 as well as the 2nd largest (the 2 screens on the 9th floor, both with balconies).
More from that July 21, 1982 NYTimes article:
“There are 14 movie screens tucked away on the eighth floor of the Beverly Center mall in West Hollywood, not by any means a world record. Cineplex, proprietor of the 14 theaters, holds the Guinness record for its 21-screen complex in Toronto.
“The 14 theaters in the Beverly Center have about 1650 seats. The largest theater has about 200, the smallest 75. Films can be mixed and matched like clothing separates because automated equipment allows one print of a movie to be shown in as many as six theaters at a time….
“Three projectionists are needed to run the 14 projectors. Fourteen projectors are needed, rather than the usual two per theater, because the film is spliced into one continuous loop. It spools onto immense silver platters and never has to be rewound. In the immense rectangular projection booth, black ribbons of film are looped along the walls like live party decorations.
“A computerized system that allows tickets to be bought hours in advance for any performance the same day eliminates waiting in line; the Art Deco concession stand has added cappucino, Perrier, and Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut Bar to the usual popcorn, hot dogs, and M&M’s.”
The article lists some of the films showing on opening weekend:
The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball (on three screens with 350 seats)
Don’s Party (on two screens with 200 seats)
Garde a Vue
A Week’s Vacation
Quest for Fire
Chariots of Fire
Author! Author!
Firefox
There is no listing for the Theatre in today’s L.A. Times so I am assuming it is now gone. The theatre WILL NOT be missed; it really sucked.
Probably just a misprint…
I presume this theatre is closed today, as people mentioned in comments on other pages here.
A New York Times article from July 21, 1982, said: “THE largest movie theater complex in the United States opened last week in a new shopping center in Los Angeles. There are 14 movie screens tucked away on the eighth floor of the Beverly Center mall in West Hollywood.” I guess one of the screens must have closed later.
This theatre has no evening showtimes scheduled for Thursday, January 26, only matinees. Since that’s supposed to be the night for changing all the Loews theatres over to AMC, I wonder what’s afoot.
Some pictures posted at:
http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=2114
Check out the screen size in relation to the exit door…
You caught me, Mark, just as I was typing my message – good eye…
Both Chuck1231 and lostmemory’s recently posted links are actually links to images of the New Beverly Cinema: /theaters/1156/
Nice pictures, fellas, but wrong theatre. This thread is for the Beverly Center multi-plex, which is in the Beverly Center Mall at the corner of Beverly and La Cienega.
Incredibly small screens and extortionately high ticket prices. The GCC Beverly Connection across the street is completely gone now, too.
I went to this theater once in the 1980’s. My television at home had a bigger screen than the theater I was in. Good riddance if it closes. Maybe they can level the Beverly Center and bring back the pony rides.
Beverly Center had it’s day. Cineplex ran that theatre into to ground, and I guess Loews finished it off.
That least Pacific Theatre’s Grove gives the neighborhood area the Best show for their money. The former GCC Beverly Connection Theatre did a very good job before the Grove opened and AMC closed it.
Word has it that the Beverly Center Cinemas will be closing sometime within the next 6-12 months and replaced by a location of the Loehmann’s clothing store chain.
The booth is in shambles and has been since it opened. It was not planned out by an architect. There are huge water pipes and electrical conduits right in walkways and along the walls. I was always climbing over or ducking under something while working this maze. One projector has a mirror reflecting the image from the lens to another mirror on the floor and out a floor-port onto a screen. Try focusing this mess! I don’t know how Bobby Popita, the regular projectionist, can stand it.
This was built by Cineplex, this was their 1st US theatre after building miniplexes in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada.
Looking at fellow Cinema Treasures poster Ken Roe’s impressive photo essay on the Pacific Theatres at the Grove on the Cinematour web site (http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=20400), it’s no wonder it’s dominating the market it serves; it’s truly an impressive venue.
I heard the The Sunset 5 theatres on Sunset in West Hollywood have even been hurt by the very successful Grove theatres.