NuWilshire Theatre
1314 Wilshire Boulevard,
Santa Monica,
CA
90403
1314 Wilshire Boulevard,
Santa Monica,
CA
90403
26 people
favorited this theater
Showing 201 - 225 of 261 comments
Yup, that’s right. I work tomorrow by the way. I took plenty of pictures. For those of you who would like to see them, just hit me up with your e-mail and I’ll be glad to send them to you!
The last day apparently is Nov. 4. At landmarktheatres.com, no showtimes are listed after that.
If so, the NuWilshire’s last screening is to be a documentary called “Sharkwater” at 9:40pm Sunday evening.
(Or “Into the Wild” at 8:15 is appropriate: a sad film for a sad occasion.)
Then turn out the lights …
I to am very sad that The NuWilshire Theatre will soon not be screening films anymore. I recently spoke with the S.M. Landmarks public liaison about this matter and she said that it would be on the agenda for this Nov. 12 meeting. She indicated to me that even if it gets designated a landmark the owners could still change the function of the building. To stop it I think it would require a zoning change. Does anyone know more about this idea?
Landmarks Commission
Santa Monica City Hall, City Council Chambers, Room 213
1685 Main Street, Santa Monica
Anyone know who the current property owner is?
Exactly! So, unfortunetly it is inevitable…
The theater to the left when you walk in hold 317 while the theater on the right holds 307. And 130 for one auditorium on a Saturday night when the movie is this far along in its run, like Into the Wild, is not a bad turnout at all. The theater was doing well. It is not closing due to a lack of profit, but due to leasing terms and a building owner with a different agenda.
Nushboy07: How many seats in each auditorium? I’ve always felt the left one was slightly larger.
Well, actually no matter how many people we had come in, the building has already been sold so we would be closing reguardless. This particular Landmark theatre has been making more money than all other theatres, but since the owner has sucessfully sold the theatre to another company, we will be closing no matter what.
Good that people knew of its pending closure so they can say goodbye.
This theater was built with almost 1200 seats and above comment says after a remodel it had 800 seats. Split in two, that means each screen started with 600 and has 400 seats now? To have 130 attend on a Saturday evening doesn’t sound enough to keep the theater open under another oerator. My question is will the entire building be demolished?
Man, last night sure drew a big crowd for Into the Wild. We had 130+ people attend our 8:15 show. My dad even stopped by. Although it was crowded like crazy, it was nice to know that my theatre drew in a crowd near closing time. I felt really good about having a nice large crowd in our little theatre, and hoped to witness these things in the future. But, I guess after the 4th, those days will be long gone.
Man, I sure am going to miss this place. Even though I’ve only been working there since last May. I remember the first time I came there, back in 1999, to see The Blair Witch Project. Man, and to think that would be a place I would be working eight years later and to see it go, is just amazing and sad at the same time. A jean store…yeah…what an idea. Just what Santa Monica needs. *Even though there already is an Ancor Blue and Lucky Jeans just on Montana several blocks up. [rolls eyes]
The images I have a are a little distorted, but I will get better ones later on. I’ll add the address to the theatre as well.
I’m sure that he is legally required to have contact information at the tax assessor’s office. Someone want to go down there, copy it down, and post it here?
No, he’s not dead. He just doesn’t want to be bothered by anyone because I’m sure he knows that if it was possible to contact him people would call him nonstop and that might actually make him fell guilty and not want to close the place down.
put theatre name and address in the email. They’ll post them on their website.
www.cinematour.com
Any stats (# of seats per auditorium etc) you can include as well. You can also send that info into this website.
Responding to an earlier comment – why is there “no way of contacting the owner”? Is he dead?
Will do. Can you give me a specific e-mail I can send the pictures to?
Please be sure to get auditorium pictures from both directions and booth pics and send them to Cinematour.com
Right now the staff and I are taking as many pictures as possible to remember how unique and unaverage this theatre is.
I lived in Santa Monica for 30 years. My favorite house was the old Criterion. The theatre was big and roomy great scope picture. No real changes on that theatre from 1966 to close. I enjoyed the Wilshire, but never worked it.
Very true, all thanks to City Hall, which by the way has been more corrupt then ever. They’ve been trying to approve the removal of 50+ ficus trees on 2nd and 4th streets, and the people are highly against this. This just prooves how Santa Monica is not a green city thanks to City Hall. Luckily, the “Treesavers” have been successful to halt the actions until October 26th. Let’s hope that lasts. It would be such a blow to have 50 natural grown tress gone along with the NuWilshire.
There has been a lot of changes in how Santa Monica runs in the last 10 years. There are ways for landlords to change rent control apartments, by taking them off the market for alittle over a year and then re-entering them back on the market at larger rents. The city council changed many rules and laws about housing and business and the landlords all want their larger cut of the rent pie. Santa Monica is not as friendly as it once was.
Well, we’ve started to tell people about the closing of the theatre and from every person we told, grief and sadness was expressed. Unfortunetly, since there is no way of contacting the owner, it’s impossible to do anything to the theatre now. I’m surprised at Santa Monica for allowing this to go forward, but I guess this is just another factor of business and how important it is for people to make profit. Yeah, there is a large amount of space behind the two screens at my theatre. A lot of storage space that could be used, but still, lol!!!
The problem is that many landlords can make more money on their properties. The landlord is not dumb on this matter. The property value along Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica is very high. The theatre which at one time seated 1200 seats, is a large building with a stagehouse. So the amount of money per square foot that the theatre is using is large. So once that lease ends the landlord can raise that rent to make that theatre so unprofitable, which would be his plan. If Santa Monica cared so much it would have never let Cineplex raze the El Miro (Broadway 4) or Mann Theatres raze the old Criterion for just the facade wall. Both of those theatres original decors out did the Wilshire.
I can’t believe the owner is so dumb as to sell such a wonderful and historic theatre. I mean, if it was going to be an upgraded theatre, I wouldn’t mind as much, but a jean store? Are you serious? Yeah, we really need more stores like that in Santa Monica…Screw the 80 year old theatre. Rediculus. This has been such a great place for the fact that it was out of the way of the Promenade and was just a nice little cozy place to catch an artsy flick.
All of us here are sad that it’s closing. And right now we are playing to successful films: Into the Wild and Eastern Promises. These old theatre houses are all we have left of old historic places that are still around, and to just change it and see ANCHOR BLUE all over the building will just be something hard to live with. But ofcourse, the landlord doesn’t give a crap. Oh, well.