TCL Chinese Theatre

If I am reading this correctly, THE HOBBIT will open here in December, in High Frame Rate 3D. Tickets are on sale now and are $19. This is the first Christmas in a few years they will be getting a genuine box office hit, that Arclight didnt snag. Looking forward to this, finally!

I’d estimate it was 85-90% filled. One theater staff member wished they did the 25-cent special once a week as the concession sales were off the charts.

The “Godfather” screening was great. TV viewers eat your heart out. FYI, the costume collection, on loan, has been removed; however, there are two display cases showing old Grauman’s programs/tickets.

Next Monday, 9/17, “The Wizard of Oz” screens one hour earlier at 7PM. Tickets on sale now.

The 25-cent classic movies are presented in the big theatre, preempting their normal movie on traditionally the slowest movie night. This 85th anniversary promotion rolls back the price to its 1927 opening; happily, the concession counter does a huge business as patrons getting in for essentially free splurge on popcorn and drinks.

The next 25 cent movie is on Monday 9/10, with a showing of “the Godfather.” Tickets are now on sale.

25-cent movie night is back! Tuesday 6/12, at 6:15PM Kirk Douglas will view his refurbished imprint, followed by “Spartacus” at 7PM. Unlike the previous 25 cent screening(10-ticket limit), this time they are limiting to 4; however, as they have separate box offices for Grauman’s and the Chinese 6, just visit both and buy 8 as I did. Tonight I’m going to the Egyptian and may buy 4 or 8 more. As with the “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” showing I give away tickets to tourists. LOL, “Candid Camera” should film the expressions on skeptical passersby that a good samaritan is offering free tix! It must be too good to be true…but it’s not.

dtrigubetz, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your alert 3 days ago to the special Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation’s (lahtf.org) tour this weekend of Grauman’s Chinese. On a whim I went, and that was by far the best $20 I’ve spent in ages. (By comparison, the regular “tour” offered daily to tourists by the theater is a waste). They took us into many non-public areas such as: all backstage and behind the screen, and then down into the massive green room in the basement, and up into Sid Grauman’s private viewing box, and a peek into his office (occupied by the current manager). And even the open areas have many “hidden” features until pointed out by the expert guides. I overheard that about 150 people were there Saturday,(we were broken up into 11 more manageable smaller groups). Finally at the end, we all seated in a Chinese 6 auditorium and got an excellent slide show talk about the history of the theater and of Sid Grauman.

If LAHTF ever offers this tour again, I would recommend making the trip to Hollywood for it. I would definitely repeat the tour in the future. They have a Facebook page and posted several photos.

Also, a blogger went on the tour with his video camera and put together a 3 minute video (which actually covers only some of the tour) and put it on his post: http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/05/lao_behind_the_scenes_gra.php

It’s being put on by Playboy/Hugh Hefner, who has an affinity for film, and the website says nothing of digital (it normally reads “Digital Presentation”), so I’d say there’s a semi-good chance these are archival prints. Will need to get confirmation, though.

Graumans is showing Marilyn Monroe movies at 8PM on seven consecutive nights. $10 opening night, then $5 per screening or $30 pass for all seven. 6/1 – Some Like It hot 6/2- No Business Like Show Business, 6/3-How to Marry a Millionaire, 6/4- The Seven Year Itch, 6/5-bus Stop, 6/6-The Misfits, 6/7-Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

So nice to see that this theater is still around to celebrate its 85th anniversary this evening!!

To bigjoe59 about your April 20th post: Even if it is officially true that the SF Castro Theater was built as a 2nd run neighborhood theater, it is pretty darn grand with awesome organ pipes in the walls, beautiful and detailed decor, balcony, etc. There were many neighborhood theaters (some still standing) from that era that did not get that kind of floor plan and design embellishment. I would call it a palace.

Singing in The Rain was a 2K file according to the TCM programming guide. The only 4K DCP they showed was Two for The Road. 20000 leagues was also 2K. I am not sure why, there are 4K DCP files available, Barco provided a 4K projector, I found it quite disappointing to be honest. I mean 4 day passes are 600 bucks, this is Hollywood, I just assumed that all features on a huge screen would be the best file available. Even the premiere restoration of Warner Bros Cabaret on Opening Night was in 2K, I cannot imagine that Warner’s would not have,and want to show a 4K file.