iPic Westwood
10840 Wilshire Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
10840 Wilshire Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
33 people
favorited this theater
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Showtimes indicate that this is their soft opening.
Please update the theatre name w/the new info. As Brad said, it’s now named iPIC Westwood.
iPIC Westwood has opened.
This is what they are now showing. They are booking day/date with Regency Village and Bruin.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2D (PG13) 7:00PM 10:15PM Divergent (PG13) 4:15PM 7:45PM Draft Day (PG13) 6:30PM 9:45PM Muppets Most Wanted (PG) 9:15PM Transcendence (PG13) 5:30PM 8:45PM
Why they didn’t just restructure it to the way it was BEFORE the plexing is beyond me. There aren’t going to be enough movies to fill all the screens in about two years. Theatrical releases are going to be less. They should have redesigned. Losers!
I can’t imagine a lot of studios are going to want to book an 85 seat screen when they have 1300 seats up the street (at least on their biggest releases). I imagine a lot of move-overs and limited first runs. At best, you might get the occasional big summer movie taking up three or four of their six screens.
I wonder how Ipic will be booked. I’m thinking the could book day and date with the Village on some engagements. It has been a while since I took Wilshire into Westwood. I’m assuming this will open later this year.
“Demolished” means ABSOLUTELY TORN DOWN with no remains left. That picture is a GUTTED building, not a DEMOLISHED one.
You want demolished? Take a stroll around the corner and see the grassy knoll that was once The National.
Under the photo tab on this page, the second pic from the left – looks mostly demolished to to me. While another theatre may be built on that site, the building that closed in December 2011 is, for the most part, gone.
The story of the asbestos:
http://www.laobserved.com/biz/2013/05/delay_in_opening_wes.php
Probably because it’s not “DEMOLISHED.” As I earlier stated on May 30, 2013 they found asbestos in the construction. The only way to deal with asbestos is by gutting the theatre to get all the gunk out and then rebuilding it afterwards.
Terrible. Another Westwood humiliation.
BTW, based on the previously mentioned photo, the status of this theatre should be changed to ‘Demolished’.
I’m surprised that nobody has commented on the photo added Aug. 13, showing that the Avco Center Cinema has nearly vanished from the face of the earth. So much for the alleged conversion that was supposed to save it.
Drove by it this morning. Looks almost completely gutted. Hope they restore it to the original decor it once showcased back when the biggies were hitting the screen.
New article on CT’s front page says that they found asbestos causing delays that will, at best, push the opening to Thanksgiving 2013. At worst, sometime in 2014.
This is very much under construction right now. If you peer through boards, you can see that the entire place has been gutted. It doesn’t appear that they are keeping anything of the original Avco except the foundation and really just the shell of the building.
Anybody know when this place relaunches…?
For sake of clarity, in September of 1993 General Cinema made the horrible “business decision” to split the famous Avco Cinema 1 into two auditoriums. This evil deed was done long before AMC took over after GCC’s demise. Some of the finest moviegoing experiences of my life took place in that magical room. It is missed.
Brad— I don’t imagine double-booking will be a problem. The iPic less than a mile from the ArcLight Pasadena plays basically all the same stuff.
I believe I saw the original Die Hard here. The Dolby made the sound of bullets echo in the back of the theater.
ANYONE REMEMBER FIELD OF DREAMS PLAYING HERE? I SAW IT OPENING NIGHT 1989 AND IT WAS A NEAR RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. On the behind the scenes of the Field of Dreams DVD, the director speaks of the first showings at the Westwood Avco and how it was a special experience.
I don’t know. don’t know what the other theatres are in the areas those movies are playing. I’m just guessing that “unless double booked” big blockbusters are not going to show in a 80 seat screen when there are 1,000 seats across Wilshire Blvd. But it is just spectulation on my part, who knows these days. It may not be the powerhouse it once was but I think there is still respect for the Village, studios are still buying big murals for the tower, it still hold premieres there and it may have a 70mm exclusive of The Master this fall. Maybe since iPic theatres are essentially restuarants that show movies they will get day and date with the Village.
Well, if what you are essentially saying is true, BRADE48, then this IPic will be operating differently than its other nine current locations. If you look at the IPic website, the offerings at its current eight or nine other locations are almost all mainstream releases (all are playing “Dark Knight” and “Total Recall”). They are few art or independent films.
There is no chance a film like Dark Knight Rises will get a booking at the iPic over the Village. Regardless of it is sells out or not the Village has more seats and with a film like that a studio wants as many seats as possible. Also, Regency is an official theatre chain. They now have the muscle to outbid iPic because of the other screens they operate.
iPic will get smaller films, maybe indie and some foreign and move overs. They will get films first run films like The Watch and Hope Springs. Dark Knight perhaps on a move-over. In the meantime The Landmark will probably continue to get the return customers, the film lovers who want to just see a movie. iPIc will not cut into that audience.
I just walked past this theatre and it made me sad that they’re dicing it up further. With home theatres getting better and better, and with first run films appearing on VOD earlier and earlier – what is the difference between ordering fancy takeout at home, and going to a theatre like this?
I think we all agree here that the draw of the cinemagoing experience is the fact it’s playing on a huge screen with a packed audience of excited strangers. A crowd of 40 on a postage stamp screen is not what filmmakers would have ever intended.
Additionally, when iPic (how stupid of a name is that, by the way) inevitably goes out of business, it’s going to be that much harder to get it started again as a legit theatre because nobody is going to want to take over a theatre with tons of teeny screens (like the Beverly Center 13).
I just hope that these screens don’t force the larger scale films out of the Bruin or Village. Previously – the Avco would never book the same films; how pissed would you be if The Dark Knight Rises played at iPic, and the Village could only play something like The Watch.
It’s obvious Westwood is a dead zone for moviegoing. From 10 commercial movie theatres with 19 screens just ten years ago to three single screeners today, with nary a sellout at any of those houses no matter what is playing is proof of that.
The moviegoing public today would rather go down Westwood Blvd. a mile or so and go to a certain twelve-screener with smaller rooms with smaller screens, because there is more and cheaper parking closer to the building, more things to do near the theatre and a nice wine bar right there in the lobby. Or they’ll go a couple miles down Santa Monica Blvd. to a certain fifteen-screener with smaller rooms and smaller screens, because there is more and cheaper parking closer to the building, more things to do near the theatre and a place to have beer and wine next door to the theatre.
If they come back to the IPic Theaters at Avco Center in 2013, it’ll be solely because there isn’t anything else like it in the area, because it’ll be expensive to keep the kids and tightwads out, and they’ll be beer and wine right there at your seat.