Historic Westwood Theaters the Village and Bruin to Shutter This Week
Westwood’s movie theaters the Village and Bruin are set to close later this week. “The last day of operation for the Bruin & Village Theaters under Regency is Thursday, July 25,” Lyndon Golin, Regency Theatres president, confirmed in an email Sunday, first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Regency Theatres had managed the theaters for the past 14 years, enduring a turbulent time for theatrical exhibition and the COVID-19 pandemic, but the leases for the properties end later this month.
There is a silver lining for at least one of the theaters – the Village is set to reopen in the not-too-distant future, thanks to an effort by director Jason Reitman and a small army of filmmaker investors (including Christopher Nolan, J.J. Abrams, Guillermo del Toro, Christopher McQuarrie, Judd Apatow, Damien Chazelle and Steven Spielberg). The Village, which opened in 1931 and is known for the white tower that adorns the front of the building, is said to be getting some significant upgrades and will re-open screening a mixture of first run features and revival programs.
It’s currently unclear what will happen to the Bruin, which opened across the street in 1937 and was memorably featured in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (the LA Times report erroneously cites that the scene takes place at the Village). It was not purchased by Reitman and his crew; in recent years the two theaters have often been commandeered for big film premieres, splitting the audience between them. “The [Bruin’s] owners thank the Golin Family and Regency Theaters for our relationship with them for the last 14 years,” the family said in a statement, noting that the owners are “currently evaluating future opportunities for the Bruin.”
The Village was originally part of the Fox theater chain, designed by Percy Parke Lewis (who had previously designed the Desmond’s department store, also in Westwood Village). The theater went through a number of architectural changes and ownership shifts throughout its storied history; in the 1940s a backstage area was walled off and in the early 1950s got a remodel that upped the capacity and added California Gold Rush artwork. In 1973 ownership of the theater was transferred to Ted Mann, owner of the Chinese Theatre. That same decade a 70mm projector was installed and by the late 1980s it was designated a historic building.
A number of smaller, more boutique theaters have been kept afloat by the kind of deal that is keeping the Village alive – Netflix purchased the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and invested $40 million in gussying it up; Tarantino bought the Vista Theater in Los Feliz in 2021 (it recently re-opened), adding to his theater portfolio that also includes the New Beverly; and last month it was announced that Sony Pictures Entertainment would purchase the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain, known for its dine-in experience, including a small theater in downtown Los Angeles.
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