Cinerama Dome facts for kids
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| Location | 6360 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, California |
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| Coordinates | 34°05′51″N 118°19′41″W / 34.097581°N 118.328088°W |
| Owner | Pacific Theatres |
| Type | Indoor movie theater |
| Construction | |
| Opened | November 7, 1963 |
| Architect | Pierre Cabrol Welton Becket & Associates |
| General contractor | AECOM Hunt |
| Designated: | December 18, 1998 |
| Reference #: | 659 |
The Cinerama Dome is a famous movie theater. It is located at 6360 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. This special theater was built to show widescreen Cinerama films. It first opened its doors on November 7, 1963.
William R. Forman, who started Pacific Theatres, was the original builder. The Cinerama Dome was a top theater for showing new movies. It was part of the ArcLight Hollywood complex. The theater temporarily closed in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic in California. The ArcLight chain then closed permanently in April 2021. The Cinerama Dome never reopened at that time. However, in June 2022, plans were announced to reopen it. It will be called Cinerama Hollywood.
Contents
The Cinerama Dome: A Movie Landmark
Building a Unique Theater
In February 1963, a company called Cinerama Inc. showed off a new theater design. These theaters would look like a geodesic dome. This dome shape was created by R. Buckminster Fuller. The new theaters would cost less to build. They would also be built much faster than regular movie theaters. Cinerama wanted to build at least 600 of these domes around the world.
The following April, Pacific Theatres Inc. announced their plans. They would build the first theater using this new design. They started clearing the land for building. The location was on Sunset Boulevard near Vine Street. It was the first big new movie theater in Hollywood in 33 years. They planned to finish it in time for a special movie premiere.
A Dome Like No Other
The unique design was suggested by French architect Pierre Cabrol. He was the main designer at the famous firm Welton Becket and Associates. Pierre Cabrol had even worked with R. Buckminster Fuller. This was during his studies at MIT.
Fast Construction!
William R. Forman, the founder of Pacific Theatres, announced the Cinerama Dome's construction in July 1963. Many stars attended the groundbreaking ceremony. Spencer Tracy, Buddy Hackett, and Mickey Rooney were there. They put on hard hats and helped start the building. Forman had promised that the theater would be ready. It needed to be finished for the November 7, 1963, world premiere. The movie was Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World. This was the first movie filmed in a new 70mm, single-strip Cinerama process.
Workers built the theater very quickly, working day and night. The entire construction took only 16 weeks! The Cinerama Dome is the only concrete geodesic dome in the world. The theater is made of 316 separate shapes. These shapes are hexagons and pentagons. They come in 16 different sizes. Each piece is about 12 feet (3.7 m) across. Each one weighs around 7,500 pounds (3,400 kg).
The theater also has special design features. It has a loge section with stadium seating. There are also cool floating stairways. When it opened, it had the largest curved movie screen in the world. It was 32 feet (9.8 m) high and 86 feet (26 m) wide. This screen had a very wide picture shape.
Movie Technology Through the Years
Old School Cinerama
The premiere of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was special. This movie was filmed in Ultra Panavision 70. It marked the start of "single lens" Cinerama. Before this, Cinerama was famous for its amazing three-projector system. This system used three projectors to show a super-wide image.
From 1963 until 2002, the Cinerama Dome only showed movies with the single-lens process. (Another nearby theater, the Warner Cinerama, used the three-projector process until December 1964.) A special film print was made for the Dome. It helped fix any distortions on the deeply curved screen.
Modern Movie Magic
In 2002, the Cinerama Dome reopened after being closed for two years. It became part of Pacific Theatres' ArcLight Hollywood complex. The dome itself stayed mostly the same. However, the sound system was greatly improved. For the first time ever, the Cinerama Dome started showing movies using the three-projector format. It is one of only three such theaters in the world.
The Cinerama Dome began showing digital movies in May 2005. The first digital movie shown was Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. In 2009, James Cameron's Avatar was the first 3D movie shown there. It used special technology from XpanD 3D.
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In December 2015, the Cinerama Dome got a new laser-projection system. It uses two Christie projectors and Dolby 3D. The theater can still show movies using both 35mm and 70mm film.
In April 2021, the company that owned Pacific Theatres announced something sad. They would not reopen any of their locations. This included the Cinerama Dome. This was due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that year, it was reported that permits were filed. These permits included plans for a bar and restaurant.
What's Next for the Dome?
In June 2022, news came out that Decurion Corp. had plans. They wanted to reopen the theater as Cinerama Hollywood. This would include the fourteen-screen movie complex next door. There were also plans for two bars and a restaurant. Three months later, it was reported that the theater would not reopen until late 2023. Then, in May 2023, it was delayed again to late 2024. In November 2023, the reopening was delayed once more. It is now expected in the second quarter of 2025. This is mainly because of redesigns. These include adding restaurants and event spaces.
Saving a Piece of History
The Cinerama Dome has a huge 86 feet (26 m) wide screen. It also has great sound and can show 70mm film. Because of this, it remained a favorite place for movie premieres. It was also popular for special "event" showings. But by the late 1990s, movie theaters started to change. Many new "multiplex" cinemas were being built. These had many smaller screens.
Pacific Theatres suggested a plan to change the Dome. They wanted to make it part of a shopping mall and cinema complex. People who cared about history were very upset. They did not want to see another great theater changed or destroyed. At the same time, some Cinerama fans started bringing back the three-projector process. These fans and the preservationists convinced Pacific Theatres to change their plans.
The Cinerama Dome was saved at a time when many other Cinerama theaters were being torn down. For example, the Indian Hills Theater in Omaha, Nebraska was a round Cinerama theater. It had a 110-foot screen. But it was torn down in 2001 to make space for a parking lot.
The Cinerama Dome was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1998. This means it is an important historical building.
Images for kids
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The Cinerama Dome, decorated for Shrek 2
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The ArcLight Cinerama Dome decorated for Spider-Man 2 in 2004
See also
- List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Hollywood
- Seattle Cinerama
- Pictureville Cinema
