Regency Bruin Theatre
948 Broxton Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
948 Broxton Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
65 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 129 comments
Mark, those hints turned out to be not so obvious after all. Unless the source is legally obligated to yank our chain to protect his neck!
There’s been obvious hints on the Village’s page about who will be taking over that theatre lease. Will the same people take over the Bruin’s lease?
Mann’s lease here is up in 2 months. Any news of future plans for this place?
Any chance of Arclight Westwood?
The digital projector was removed this past week. Time is winding down …
I doubt that retail will take over the Bruin or the Village…at least anytime soon. There are so many empty retails spaces as it is in Westwood. It really is not a shopping district these, parking is awful, and
I’m wondering if Mann will extend the lease a bit for the Bruin and the Village. They operated the National 8 months after the lease lapsed. Maybe they will come up with a short term ‘deal’ with the owners.
If the owners lease the theatres separately the Bruin could survive as a theatre. That is if there someone revives the plans to build additional screens behind it. Who knows what is being discussed at this point. Westwood needs to be revived before a movie theatre or retail space with truly trive again.
Any current news on plans for this theatre? Is it going to say -Pottery Barn – in big letters across the marquee after March 2010.
Marty Weiser used to visit the Mann theatres in Westwood practically every weekend. The displays were phenomenal. Much of the fun going to the BIG theatres like the Village, Bruin, National, Picwood, Avco (when it was a major theatre), Plitt Century Plaza, Chinese, Pantages, Pacific Hollywood, Cinerama Dome etc. during the 70’s / early 80’s was seeing how the studios were going to “dress” them. We’ll never have that again; the new theatres do not have that charm.
Brad41, his name is Ron Chan. He took over alot of these promos when Marty Weiser passed away. Marty was the one who dressed the Cinerama Dome with a easter hat for “Mame” and held that special screening of “Blazing Saddles” at the Pickwick Drive-In. We all learned alot from Harry Francis during those days about Showmanship.
Alot of great memories at those theatres in Westwood. It is going to be my saddest day as a moviegoer when the Village and Briun close. I still get sad when I see the still empty lot where the National stood.
There was a guy at Warner in the early 80’s when I worked at the Village who used to be in charge of the displays; he would visit Harry Francis and they would visit at the outside cafe next to the Bruin for hours. I cannot remember his name. But yeah the displays were great. I still have the “Arthur” silhouette from when it booked for the Bruin.
Yes, that torch was a promotional touch that Warner Bros. did for the film “Chariots of Fire”. Over the years the studios would do little promos to theatre fronts and marquees. In the Los Angeles market they did many of these displays at the Village, Bruin, National, Chinese, Cinerama Dome, Hollywood Pacific and Pantages Theatres and others. So people who grew up in the area got to see many of these displays as they went to the these theatres. Having worked with Warner Publicity shoting many of the marquees during this time of the 80’s and 90’s..
Ken, the two 1982 American Classic Images you linked to show a pole with a flourish on top sticking out of the center portion of the marquee. It’s not in the 81 or 83 photos. I wonder if it was something related to “Chariots of Fire,” the movie they were showing when those shots were taken… maybe an Olympic torch??
Here is another 1982 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/nm8b3k
Here is a photo taken Sunday:
http://tinyurl.com/krmce8
Bercy, there’s still an empty lot where the National used to stand — with a sign reading, “prime retail space opening Spring 09!”
That would have been an expensive undertaking for the Village. They would have had to add a elevator. The Bruin is large but narrow, the only way to could plex it is to either add on screens behind the main, or just gut the theatre out and build a whole new complex extending back into the parking lot.
Mann had drawn plans for plexing the Village way back in the mid 80’s. The California Theatre in Huntington Park has a auditorium that is very like the Village. It was tri-plexed with the main theatre as the big house and the balcony split into two small theatres. They ran two walls just off the center line in the balcony so they could use the single projection booth for all three theatres. It works but it is not that great.
Mann does not own the property and the think the owners would not want to ruin the theatre.
Having never been privileged to visit this theatre, as well as the Village, and indeed, the now lost National, is it possible that Mann might consider twinning or even tripling these iconic theatres in an attempt to secure their future? Please note – this is NOT my preferred option, but better than the fate that befell the National. BTW. What now occupies the land that used to be the National?
The Village and Bruin have two things going against them.
The first is the nearby AMC 15 and LANDMARK 12 who have clearance to play the same films. With the blockbusters like Harry Potter available all three locations, the Village ends up third choice.
THE BIGGEST OBSTICLE is that Westwood Village is a complete drag. They have done nothing to entice the public to really come there. The parking is still awful and Rents are still ridiculous. Retails have bailed and have chosen not to come into the village whatsoever because the lack of return. There are places that have been empty for a decade. It is not an ejoyable place to hangout any longer. When I go see a film at the Village and Bruin I time it so I can see the film and then leave.
Doubtful any chain will take these leases in this current economy, and with Westwood a mess. It would take someone with foresight to hope it will turn around at one point. But Westwood has no interest in becoming a mecca again and will probably just ended up as it has settled into.
We can only hope that the owners will offer a deal to Mann to keep operating them until perhaps they find a new lease holder. I’m not sure when the lease expires, but Mann was flexable with the National for a while and kept it open an additional 8 months.
I’m very sad about this. Those 2 theatres and the National have always been my favorites since I was a teenager. THere will never be anything like them ever again.
Mann will not renew its leases for the Village and Bruin.
View link
A picture of the booth in the 1990's
View link
Here is a July 1975 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/ptvyce
Here is a photo taken last year:
http://tinyurl.com/dl2nvk
Ned Fairbairn, we had to meet. I did some projection fill-ins there also.