An iconic Hollywood theatre is reopening, just in time for a film revival

Benjamin Steinberg can’t wait to watch another movie under the warm glow of the geometric roof at Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome.

It’s a pleasure that’s been denied to him and other film lovers since 2021, when the iconic Los Angeles cinema closed up shop and boarded its doors. 

But now, after years of advocacy by Steinberg and others, Sony Pictures Entertainment has announced a plan to restore the Dome to its former glory and reopen it in early 2028 — just as movie theatres show signs of emerging from a years-long decline in ticket sales.

“I have a lot of really strong and good memories of the theatre,” Steinberg told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. “It’s one of the best places to watch a movie in the world.”

‘It’s a place that’s beloved’

First opened in 1963, the movie theatre is known for its geodescent dome architecture, colourful block-letter signage, curved 9.8-by-26-metre screen and ability to project 70-mm film. 

The city designated the Dome a Historic-Cultural Monument in 1998, a rare feat for a building that had only been open a few decades. 

“It’s a place that’s beloved,” said Adrian Scott Fine, CEO of the L.A. Conservancy, a non-profit that works to preserve the city’s historic locales.

When the Dome shut down permanently in April 2021, it had already been closed for more than a year. The double-whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of at-home streaming had dealt it a fatal blow.

The news was devastating for many Angelinos, says Fine.

“It’s one of those places that we get calls on all the time in the last, you know, six years asking about what’s going on with it, is it at risk of demolition and will it ever reopen?” he said.

“So to finally have some resolution is very welcome news for Los Angeles. We could all use more good news right now.”

Why now?

In a press release, Sony said its theatre chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will operate the Dome, as well as the adjacent 14-theatre complex.

The company vowed to preserve the theatre’s distinctive retro-futuristic architecture, reminiscent of Toronto’s now-closed Ontario Place Cinesphere or Montreal’s Expo ’67.

“Our goal is to preserve its legendary history while ensuring it remains vibrant now and far into the future,” Tom Rothman, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, said.

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Alison Whitney, a film and media studies professor at Texas Tech University, says the announcement coincides with a rebounding box office and a film renaissance driven, in part, by Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. 

“Being able to have a kind of, like, tangible relationship to media is very appealing to people,” she said. “It sort of carries with it a rhetoric of authenticity.”

This rise in movie ticket sales has been driven largely by younger moviegoers, who Whitney says are seeking an alternative to the digital, algorithm-driven media landscape they grew up on. 

“There’s a kind of almost celebration of the relative inconvenience,” she said. “Part of what’s interesting about, say, going to see a film [that’s] projected on film is that you … have to go to a special place to do it — even though it’s a lot more convenient to watch it on a streaming service.”

A years-long quest 

In his years-long quest to save the Dome, Steinberg has organized rallies, forged alliances with Hollywood directors, launched a petition with more than 30,000 signatures and run a social media account with almost 12,000 followers.

He even hired a lighting technician earlier this year to project images of the property owners onto the building’s facade to shame them into taking action — a protest that earned him a visit from Los Angeles police.

At many points, he says, others urged him to give up. 

“A lot of people just told me, like, ‘Oh, like, good luck. Like, it’s going to be impossible,” he said.

When the news broke that the theatre had been saved, Steinberg says Sony reached out to him.

He says he’s also receiving messages from Hollywood bigwigs and movie lovers around the world, including folks looking for help saving their own local movie theatres.

“It was just nice to receive a lot of support and know that people care,” he said.