# Hollywood Cinerama Dome no more? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2021, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-cinerama-dome-no-more/939898 "2021-04-13T07:19:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-cinerama-dome-no-more/939898/1 "2021-04-13T07:19:53Z")
Pacific Theatres is closing its 500 theatres, and one of them is the Hollywood Cinerama Dome: [Celebrities mourn future closure of iconic Cinerama Dome, Arclight Cinemas due to coronavirus pandemic - ABC News (go.com)](https://abcnews.go.com/US/celebrities-mourn-future-closure-iconic-cinerama-dome-arclight/story?id=77035614) My first movie in Hollywood, the day I arrived to start my stint at March AFB, was “2001: A Space Odyssey” at The Dome, and my last movie, the day before I left the Air Force, was “Apocalypse Now” at The Dome. I was just a kid from Spirit Lake, Idaho. I was used to the Rialto in Spokane, so when I entered that giant dome I was amazed at the size and grandeur of that theatre, and was blown away by seeing a movie in 70mm Cinerama and listening to a movie through a damnfine sound system. That place made me appreciate the hard work and vision it takes to make movies, and is the reason why I insist on seeing some films in theatre instead of just downloading them onto a smart phone or tablet-I want to see and hear the details that are there for all to experience…if one cares enough to want it. Mann’s Chinese was an experience, the Egyptian was grand, but The Dome rises above them all in my heart. Anyone else have memories and/or thoughts about the Hollywood Cinerama Dome? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-cinerama-dome-no-more/939898/2 "2021-04-13T13:49:24Z")
Thanks to its [Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Historic-Cultural_Monument?wprov=sfti1) designation it’s not likely to be demolished, but some moron might want to turn it into a multiplex, which would be even worse in my opinion. Like most movie theaters, the inside is far more impressive than the outside. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-cinerama-dome-no-more/939898/3 "2021-04-13T15:24:19Z")
The only movie I got a chance to see there was Remo Williams. I don’t hold that against the theater. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-cinerama-dome-no-more/939898/4 "2021-04-13T16:15:56Z")
I have been fortunate to have some great movie experiences (not just “viewing”) at the Dome. The most memorable was seeing **Close Encounters of the Third Kind** there. Not unlike the characters in the movie, we all felt the mothership approach long before it came into view. I saw **Apocalypse Now** there, but we got in line too late, so we had the almost front row, neck craning seats. Not the best experience. During a re-release of **Fantasia** , I got to see that at the Dome and it was pretty magical. Was almost more “symphonic concert” than movie going experience. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-cinerama-dome-no-more/939898/5 "2021-04-13T16:17:34Z")
These theaters arent necessarily closing. Handing the keys back to the landlord is a negotiating tactic. > **[Arclight Cinemas And Pacific Theatres Won’t Be Reopening; Parent Company...](https://deadline.com/2021/04/arclight-cinemas-and-pacific-theatres-wont-be-reopening-1234732936/)** > > EXCLUSIVE: The last thing we needed to hear as the box office and exhibition are rebounding from the pandemic was a piece of bad news, but word spread like wildfire in distribution and exhibition c… > [@](#): > > Behind the scenes, what I hear that’s technically happening is that Decurion has handed the keys back to the landlords on all their Arclight and Pacific properties. That doesn’t mean the chain is bankrupt — rather, it is part of a thick lease negotiation. What happens in this instance is that the landlord decides which keys to keep and which they’d like to return to the exhibitor. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-cinerama-dome-no-more/939898/6 "2021-04-13T16:20:08Z")
I’m not sure (I was pretty young), but I believe I saw _It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World_ there. I think I remember gasping when the airplane flew through the billboard because the image was just so huge and overwhelming. And I think I remember the intermission screen and theme. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-cinerama-dome-no-more/939898/7 "2021-04-13T16:27:36Z")
I’m sure I saw something there as a kid. I know I saw _2001_ first run at a major Hollywood-area theater but I can’t say for sure it was that one; plenty of screens were showing that blockbuster. I also know there were several other dome-designed multi-screen theater complexes in SoCal at the time. I saw _Andromeda Strain_ first run in 1971 at the **[Cinedome Theatres](http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/4975)** in Orange, CA. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-cinerama-dome-no-more/939898/8 "2021-04-13T16:29:48Z")
Here’s a very interesting well-informed post from earlier today on the likely evolution of the cinema industry. > [@Industries Ripe for Disruption](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/industries-ripe-for-disruption/939859/29): > > A couple of relevant facts on this topic: First, concessions is always the theater’s money maker. The physical cinema (known in the business as the exhibitor) makes little or no money from ticket sales. Decades ago, they would take a small percentage of opening-weekend sales, sending the majority of ticket revenue back to the company that licensed the movie for exhibition (the distributor). Then, over the subsequent weeks, the proportion of the exhibitor’s take would rise, and the distributo…