The 75-foot-tall Pacific Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles is a staple of the network. On Monday, its owner, Decurion, announced that he would reopen after closing due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The resolution through the company, which owns the Pacific Theatre and ArcLight Cinema chains, was a blow to a city built at the box office. While Decurion’s movie portfolio includes locations in Boston, Chicago and Washington, D. C. , it’s the Los Angeles-based theaters that are perhaps the most valuable.
“For the Los Angeles area, ArcLight Pacific theaters are just cinemas, they’re movie destinations that offer a complete and organized cinematic experience,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst at Comscore.
The jewel in Decurion’s theater collection is the ArcLight Hollywood multi-cinema, with the Pacific Cinerama Dome attached. The iconic theatre, with its dome of more than three hundred pentagonal and hexagonal panels, has hosted countless Hollywood premieres in just 60 years. caused a wave of pain on social media.
“It seems to me that there are two different questions to ask: what about the historic Cinerama Dome in Hollywood and, as an extension, the ArcLight multi-cinema that follows?And what about other ArcLight and Pacific theater locations??” erik Davis, editor-in-chief of Fandango.
Decurion did not detail the reasons for his resolve to close about three hundred screens, and only said in a previous week that the corporation had “exhausted all prospective options” and did not have a “viable path. “This did not reveal his plans for the Pacific or ArcLight sites.
Decurion’s representatives responded to CNBC’s request for comment.
The lack of clarity has led some to assume that the company is the final announcements to attract investment or to convince potential buyers. Decurion owns some of its cinematic properties, but rents the rest to the owners. Since the company is private, it’s not, you know what your debt scenario is or what your real estate portfolio looks like.
Prominent filmmakers have jointly regretted the closure of ArcLight Hollywood and Pacific Cinerama Dome on social media, sharing their memories over the years.
For many, this specific theater was the position in which they fell in love with cinema.
Built in just 16 weeks, the Cinerama Dome designed through the same company that worked at the Music Center, The Capitol Records Building and the Beverly Hilton. It celebrated its grand opening in 1963 with the premiere of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World”.
The monument was originally created as a prototype for a new type of cinematic delight in which 3 35 mm projectors would operate on a giant curved screen; however, very few theaters have been built to this taste in the United States, which makes the Cinerama Dome rare. example.
Declared a historical monument in 1998, for enthusiasts of the famous position to rest peacefully, it will probably not be demolished.
“At the moment, reports mean there’s nothing for sale yet, so it’s hard to say what’s going to happen in the end,” Davis said. “This Hollywood place, and specifically the Cinerama Dome, is rich in history and is one of the iconic highs in Los Angeles. It is also one of the most productive performance theatres in the country. In fact it turns out that this post will be saved, if you want to save yourself. “
Real estate experts say Decurion can simply look to sell all of his cinemas as part of a singles lot or sell places individually. Based on the company’s debt scenario and the number of fully refunded rooms, said Mark Hunter, general manager of retail assets. CBRE.
Potential buyers at one of Decurion’s own movie sites are likely to be other corporations or film crews entering the film industry, he said. After all, it is incredibly expensive to renovate cinemas in other retail areas due to their design. film corporations would probably have to demolish the site and rebuild it if they wanted to use the area for other purposes.
It is at this time that a major film network will seek to buy Decurion sites, as the pandemic has paralyzed the industry and brought its most powerful brands into bankruptcy. are still accelerating their limited capacity operations.
Increasing debt by buying Decurion cinemas, especially when the pandemic is still ongoing, would likely galvanize the wrath of a company’s shareholders. However, there is still an opportunity for a company to launch and get the brand.
Shopping center locations are likely to be owned by other owners and leased to a theater company.
Cinemas, whether part of a shopping mall or an independent site, are pillars of the retail world and generate traffic to retail stores and restaurants, said Chris Wilson, director of JLL’s national retail agency.
As more and more vaccines are given and local restrictions are eased, Wilson predicts that film activity will increase significantly. He has now referred to the gym industry. JLL has noticed an increase in new gym rentals, a company that has also been greatly affected by the pandemic.
“That same point of optimism will manifest itself in theaters,” Wilson said.
If Decurion sells its assets and won’t invest to revitalize its business, the Cinerama Dome and adjacent ArcLight Hollywood location would probably be a primary goal.
“I suspect I’ll see an organization on time that will find a way to resurrect it,” said Eric Schiffer, ceo and president of Patriarch Organization, a personal equity firm.
Schiffer, who is also president of Reputation Management Consultants, sees this specific construction as an opportunity for an organization of investors looking to own a cinema, or even a possibility for a leading filmmaker to buy a part of history. The streaming service or a study can only be the assets to use for the former.
“This is not the end of the ArcLight, ” he said. ” I think I see someone mobilize for those assets. “
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Fandango.
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