Hollywood Desperate for ‘Someone’ to Save Arclight Theatre: ‘Netflix You Know What to Do’

But the “who” part of that equation is the big question

arclight cinerama dome
Photo by Chris Palmer (Creative Commons)

Following the news that the Arclight Cinemas theater chain will be closed for good as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, plenty of LA residents in and out of entertainment gnashed their teeth in dismay. But that dismay soon turned into calls from within Hollywood for someone, anyone, to step in and save it.

Who? That’s a question for another time since, as we write this, no one has actually stepped up and no one has seriously proposed any kind of direct action that might encourage a person or organization with deep pockets to do so. But given the theater’s significance, we suspect that will change. For now, the main takeaway is that a whole lot of Angelenos, (at least one of whom is writing this post), many of them famous, would be very happy indeed if one of LA’s most treasured movie landmarks was rescued from oblivion.

The scramble follows the Monday afternoon announcement by Pacific Theaters, parent company of both Arclight and the Pacific Theatres chain, that it was shuttering both permanently. “After shutting our doors more than a year ago, today we must share the difficult and sad news that Pacific will not be reopening its ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres locations,” the statement said. “This was not the outcome anyone wanted, but despite a huge effort that exhausted all potential options, the company does not have a viable way forward.”

Among the company’s property is the Sunset Blvd. location in Hollywood, which in addition to being an extremely popular place for movie premieres and special events also happens to be the home of the iconic Cinerama dome. It’s been a Los Angeles institution since the ’60s and most recently was one of the striking scene-setting locales used in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.”

And hey, speaking of Tarantino, more than few people noted that the famed director himself saved another LA moviegoing institution when he bought the New Beverly theater in 2007.

And some even hoped he might actually do it again this time:

And if not Tarantino, perhaps an equally acclaimed director might be the one?

Whether he’d do it or not, it was pointed out that Nolan does have a particularly compelling way into the matter:

However, it was also pointed out that major corporations with deep pockets are a more realistic idea.

But of course

Mindy Kaling had a slightly more cynical take on the whole thing:

Then again, maybe not?

She’s probably kidding, but Nia Vardalos hopes she isn’t at least:

Mindy wasn’t the only person who sort of kind of jokingly suggested that artists themselves should just buy it. “Bob’s Burger’s” creator Loren Bouchard got into the act too.

Sadly, that didn’t seem to pan out.

See some more of the suggestions, some serious and some tongue-in-cheek, for saving The Arclight, below:

https://twitter.com/HeatherMatarazz/status/1381786182036549638

Ross A. Lincoln

Ross joined TheWrap as a news editor in 2017; he was previously associate editor at Deadline from 2015-2017, and before that comics editor at The Escapist, and features editor at Game Front. As a writer, in addition to TheWrap his bylines can be found at Deadline, Box Office, The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, The…

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