LA County’s six-screen Old Pasadena cinema has been upgraded and will reopen as a LOOK Cinemas in December, in time for Dunesday, at its home in retail and dining destination One Colorado. The former iPic location is the latest in a string theater redos in the L.A. area that are online or pending including Directors Village, Cinerama Dome, the Alex in Glendale and the Bay Theatre in Pacific Palisades, which opens this Friday.
Dunesday, Dec. 19, marks the anticipated opening of Dune: Part Three.
LOOK Cinemas, the dine-in chain founded by Studio Movie Grill pioneer Brian Schultz, currently has seven theaters and 67 screens, not counting Pasadena. Its newest location will program a mix of studio wide releases, independent films and special programs and screenings. It will also be open for corporate and community events.
“Old Pasadena has had a movie theater at One Colorado for many years, and we weren’t willing to let that story end,” said Schultz, CEO of LOOK Dine-In Cinemas. “A local cinema is where a community comes together to laugh, cry, be inspired and share experiences. We can’t wait to welcome Pasadena back to the movies and invite everyone to make this LOOK cinema their favorite spot.”
Among other revivals, the Village Directors Circle, the collective of filmmakers led by Jason Reitman came together several years ago to save the Westwood Village Theatre. They subsequently inked a deal with American Cinematheque that will have the L.A.-based non-profit program, manage and be the operating partner for the century-old, 1000+-seat movie palace upon its 2027 reopening.
Sony is planning to reopen the landmark Cinerama Dome. Its subsidiary, Alamo Drafthouse, will reopen the former 14-screen Hollywood Arclight in the back under the brand that they’re known for, i.e. dine-in and curated cinephile programming.
The city of Glendale led significant investments in upgrading the historic Alex Theatre, which this summer returned to first-run feature film exhibition for the first time in 35 years. Paramount is reopening the the Bay Theater in Pacific Palisades — shuttered by the devastating wildfires in January of 2025 — this Friday. Kristen Stewart purchased the historic Highland Theatre in the Highland Park neighborhood of L.A. early this year.
It’s all part of a slow push since Covid pummeled exhibition to restore and reopen historic Main Street cinemas across the U.S. by existing theater owners (owners of Chicago’s Music Box Theatre recently acquired Minneapolis’s historic Heights Theater in Columbia Heights), civic groups, and specialized investment firms like Cinema Lab, launched by Luke Parker Bowles.
As the box office picks up steam, exhibitors overall have spent $2.7 billion on upgrades and new builds in the last two years, as per trade group Cinema United’s latest cinema investment report.