TCL Chinese Theatre
6925 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
6925 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
161 people
favorited this theater
Showing 626 - 650 of 1,682 comments
Yeah, if it was Real D it could not possibly be 90 feet. The format doesn’t allow for a screen that big at the moment.
As everybody knows, the Cinerama Dome is 82 feet wide. The Hobbit at Grauman’s Chinese was nowhere close to that. I don’t need a tape measure to figure that out. :p
The current screen at the Chinese is 90 take out your tape measures and check it! It was open far beyond 65 feet for The Hobbit. Does it matter anyway the current management isn’t doing very well are they if they have to sell the name to make ends meet.
The great thing about the Chinese is that they don’t NEED stadium seating. The screen is big enough that you rarely, if ever, have someone blocking you. This whole thing smells like a disaster. And yeah, the name will certainly go back to Grauman’s Chinese at some point, but the bigger question is… what about the actual theater (especially if they’re doing a remodel). After all, would we want the kind of seating that is now at the Egyptian?
Neither the LA Times nor Hollywood Reporter articles linked above today mention a looming ticking time bomb.
My understanding is that to save money, Sid Grauman didn’t purchase the land but instead bought a 99-year lease on which he built his Grauman’s Chinese Theater. And currently a real estate firm CIM owns the land the theater is on (they own Hollywood & Highland next door as well). That lease should be expiring in 13 years or so, and I assume at that point the current lessee (producers Samaha & Kushner) will lose the building to CIM, since they can’t very well pick up and move a historic landmark. So I’m really encouraged that they are interested in maintaining and upgrading the old place. And I’m sure CIM doesn’t mind at all the renaming. After all, their next door Dolby Theater was called the Kodak Theater up until last year.
And as one of the the articles points out, it’s not the first renaming. It was “Mann’s Chinese” back in the 80’s and 90’s. I’d bet at some point in the future it will be “Grauman’s Chinese” again.
Speaking of Screen Sizes, it appears this one is getting bigger.
In the LA Times this morning, it appears the new owners sold the naming rights. For $5 MILLION dollars, a Chinese tech company gets to name this The TCL Chinese Theatre.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-chinese-theater-20130111,0,1298028.story
It appears that the new owners are taking the money and making improvements to it at least. This is from the end of the article.
“Planned improvements include a new extra-wide screen, stadium seating, superior sound and projection systems, and a new box-office marquee on Hollywood Boulevard.”
Taking out the Graumans name, and adding Stadium seating scares me a bit. However, I highly encourage a new huge screen.
I saw The Hobbit there. No way that was 90 feet wide (at least not on opening weekend). 65 feet sounds more reasonable.
In other news…TCL CHINESE THEATRE??? According to The Hollywood Reporter, that will be this theatre’s new name. Barf.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywoods-chinese-theater-naming-rights-411270
The Chinese had a 120 foot screen holder used for Cinemiracle presentations but a newer 90 foot screen holder was installed during the last remodel. They make a point showing off the size of the screen during the theater tour. Masking is used to reduce the viewing size depending on the format shown. It looked like the making was open to the full 90 feet for The Hobbit.
The largest picture with 35mm film was about 65 feet due to the amount of light required to fill a larger screen would damage the film. Of course 70mm has a larger frame size allowing more light and a larger picture. The maximum screen size depends on how much light the projector can put out.
A decade ago when I was last there, I understood the screen width to be 80 feet.
Isn’t the maximum screen size for the Real D XL about 75'?
I’m pretty sure the full width of the screen at Grauman’s is closer to 70ft than 90ft. I was there last night and the screen is as masked down as much as it was when I saw Attack of the Clones there in 2002.
Great presentation btw but the lack of heating was inexcusable. The awkward reclining seats which were put in for the 2001 restoration also need to go. Sadly I don’t think the current management cares that much.
I went to see The Hobbit at the Chinese and the presentation was impressive. The masking opened to the full 90 foot with and the picture was sharper than most of the movies they play there. The 3D was good too. I wasn’t happy to find out that the movie was in three parts and this is installment 1.
the total seat amount is 2608
the original Chinese Theatre is 1162
new Chinese 6 theatres are 459,177,177,177,177,279
I believe they’re RealD and that’s why the screen size is now smaller than it was in past times.
what kind of 3D setup does Grauman’s have? Active shutter glasses? Dolby3D glasses? Real3D glasses?
And there is a new THX trailer? I don’t see it on the THX website yet. Interesting.
We saw the 4pm showing yesterday. There were about 300 people or so in the auditorium. Since I am one to watch the LOTR trilogy over and over, I was going in with very high expectations. This exceeded every expectation my friend and I had. The 48fps HFR did get some getting used to, I understand the comments of it being too ‘video’ looking, yet on the other hand I have never seen 3D that looked so real and smooth, and with no eye strain at all. I didnt take my glasses off for the entire length of the film, it was as if you forget it was in 3D. The nearly 3 hour run time just flew by. The manager told me that the tech team from Warner Brothers was in the theatre all week calibrating the projectors and sound and it showed.
It was great to see a new film at the Chinese full of fans, people were yelling and clapping during the titles, when Gollum showed up and at the end.
Everyone will have their own opinion as to whether or not the HFR will work. Sure, it seemed a bit video gamey at time…and there were times I was expecting the cast of Upstairs Downstairs to show up and serve tea, but for a movie about trolls, hobbits, goblins and mountain giants….I think a little suspended disbelief adds to the tale. BTW…the sound was just amazing….the new THX trailer was great too.
has anyone seen The Hobbit here in HFR yet? I saw it in HFR at Arclight La Jolla (a brand new Arclight down in San Diego). I wanted to like it, but after seeing HFR with my own eyes, I realize that it will take a while to get used to. Motion in the picture is crystal clear, but its a clarity I’ve only been used to seeing up until now in video games running at 60fps. So i was constantly feeling like I was watching a video game instead of a movie. HFR will take some getting used to for me.
Bought my tickets for The Hobbit and found out there is NO reserved seating for this engagement in the main theater, only upstairs at the 6 plex. We are going old school and waiting in line at the Chinese on opening weekend….guess there are worse things…. :)
In reference to bigjoe59’s comment: the impression I get from a number of news stories about “The Hobbit” in 48 fps is that while Peter Jackson is enthusiastic about the results of filming at the higher frame rate, Warner Bros. is being more cautious which is why the release of the 48 fps version is being limited.
Just as a significant number of patrons of late are less impressed with 3-D than they once were, Warners is probably wondering if it audiences will really perceive something really different, and is regarding this release as a kind of marketing test. I think their caution is also reflected in the decision not to add an upcharge to ticket prices for the 48 fps showings beyond that customarily charged by a theater for 3-D showings.
All Hobbit info is at http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/11/07/64780-complete-listing-of-theaters-showing-hobbit-hfr-3d-imax-3d-imax-dolby-atmos/
They list all theaters that will be playing this in each of the 5 formats and if it has Dolby Atmos. What I still don’t get, is they list IMAX and IMAX3D. I have never seen an IMAX theater not play a movie in 3D if it was available. Also, it is not made clear if the IMAX version will be HFR.
All I know is that The Hobbit will play the Chinese, I will be seeing it there and I am thankful for that!
Hello Again-
i am totally confused now. i was under the impression that the reason Jackson shot the film at the 48 frame per second was so that even if you didn’t see it in 3-D it would look far sharper than regular 24f frames per second.
According to the information accompanying this continuously updated list of theaters that will be showing the film at 48 fps, the 2-D showings will not be shown at the higher frame rate.
Hello From NYC-
as in L.A.in Manhattan “The Hobbit” will be playing in a number of theaters which prompts a question- will the much hyped 48 frames per second technology only be seen in the 3-D showings or will it be seen in the 2-D showings as well? the reason i ask this is i have seen very few 3-D films in which the 3-D actually amounted to much to justify the surcharge.
One note re The Hobbit. According to the ChineseTheatres Facebook page: “It will be showing in 48 fps in Grauman’s and 24 fps in Chinese 6 Theatres”
So if you want to check out Peter Jackson’s new 48 fps HFR 3D technology, get a ticket for the Grauman’s and not a Chinese 6 auditorium showing.
Also note for Los Angelenos who don’t feel like driving to Hollywood, the HFR version (including an IMAX HFR 3D version) is playing in several other theaters in the LA metro area besides Grauman’s.
RE: HOBBIT: yes, it looks like in addition to the Main theatre it is in all 6 screens in the other theatre.