Cinerama Dome
Decurion Corporation announced the shuttering of their Pacific Theaters chain, upscale Arclight Cinema brand, and the Cinerama Dome adjacent to the Hollywood Arclight earlier this week. The iconic 58-year-old Cinerama Dome located at 6360 W. Sunset Blvd. was envisioned as the first of hundreds of similar domes across the country promoting the Cinerama brand and large screen movies in the early 1960s. Pacific Theaters founder and Cinerama chief executive William Forman recognized the power of event films and the large screen to draw audiences away from the growing popularity of television.
Inspired by R. Buckminster Fuller’s “Geodesic Dome” principle of construction and designed by Welton Becket and Associates, architect for landmarks like the Capitol Records Building and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the 937-seat Cinerama Dome was the first stand-alone theatre in the Cinerama brand and the first with concrete roof. The unique roof featured 316 pre-cast hexagonal panels weighing approximately 3,200 pounds each and the theatre interior featured a wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling screen and the traditional three projector Cinerama system.
The Cinerama Dome opened November 7, 1963, after only 16 weeks of full-time construction with the film “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” featuring a single lens projector employing an anamorphic version of 70mm Todd A-O, rather than the traditional three projector Cinerama setup.
Over the years, the Cinerama Dome has hosted many premieres and screenings of Hollywood blockbusters, including “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Grand Prix,” “Paint Your Wagon,” “Play Misty For Me,” “Apocalypse Now,” “1941,” “E. T.,” “Star Trek IV: The Long Voyage Home,” “Star Wars: Episode II: Revenge of the Sith,” and “Avatar.” The theatre itself has cameoed in such film and TV shows as “Girl in Gold Boots,”
“Frost/Nixon,” “Entourage,” “Melrose Place,” “Keanu,” and most recently in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
In 1998, Pacific Theatres announced plans to drastically remodel the Cinerama Dome’s interior, including knocking down interior walls, removing and replacing the original giant curved screen with a flat one, removing the original seating to install stadium seating, and installing a restaurant in the lobby. Hollywood Heritage joined with the Los Angeles Conservancy and Friends of Cinerama to defend the beloved landmark. Bowing to pressure, the company agreed not to gut the building; they left the Dome largely intact and constructed the ArcLight complex around it in 2002 instead.
On December 18, 1998, the Cinerama Dome was named City of Los Angeles’ Historic-Cultural Landmark #659. Hollywood Heritage will continue to advocate for the preservation and continued use of the iconic Cinerama Dome as a premier motion picture theater. Sign up for updates on this evolving story and other preservation news.