Topline:
The David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum is a modern movie palace with a wide range of programming, where tickets are always just $10.
Why it matters: With the rise of streaming, and the continued effects of the pandemic, many have closed — including, just last month, the nearly 100-year-old Highland Theatre in Los Angeles.
Why now: The Academy Museum has been screening more contemporary films like Nope or even Twister, and Gen Z is responding.
Go deeper:
It’s no secret that movie theaters have been hit hard in recent years. First, pandemic shutdowns in 2020 and then a dearth of product during the dual SAG/WGA strikes of 2023.
Approximately 2,000 screens across the nation have closed. That includes independent movie houses and chain multiplexes like Regal Cinemas. In the last few weeks, theaters in Cincinnati, Dover, Denver, and Boise, have joined L.A.’s Highland Theatre in saying goodbye.
But as we’ve been sharing in recent weeks, there are theaters that have found renewed life, especially around Los Angeles. Whether it's because of celebrity intervention or a serious dose of blood, sweat and occasional tears, one thing unites a lot of these places: repertory films.
The David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum is a red velvet marvel of a space. The walls, the ceiling, the seats envelop you in a red-carpet-red dome. While it doesn’t have the classic 100-year-old architecture of a place like the Egyptian or the Chinese, it’s a modern movie palace that might be showing anything from 2 Fast 2 Furious to Showgirls to Soy Cuba or Spellbound.
From the street on Wilshire, in the Miracle Mile neighborhood near LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits, the suspended spherical structure looks more like the Death Star than a 952-seat movie theater. And despite its location, you don’t have to purchase entry to the museum to catch a movie here, and tickets to screenings are just $10, regardless of the movie or guest speaker. (Christopher Nolan on-stage? $10.)
Underground is the Geffen’s sister cinema, the Ted Mann. (The theaters are named after the entertainment magnates and museum’s major donors.)
“Saying that the cinema is in the basement is not doing it justice,” says Academy Museum director of programming, K.J. Relth-Miller. It’s a 277-seat theater that is a visual counter to the Geffen’s overwhelming red — instead, draped in a cool green. Relth-Miller shares: “When the experimental filmmaker Mike Kuchar came into the space, he walked in and said, ‘I'm going to get lost in the cinema forest.’”
Both theaters are truly state of the art — equipped with multi-format projection (that’s the full range of 16mm, 35mm, 70mm, and digital) with Dolby vision and sound.
The screenings at the David Geffen and Ted Mann theaters will always nod to the Academy’s history, with programs like Oscar Sundays, celebrating films that have been honored at the awards. Or, the Branch Selects series, chosen in partnership with the 18 branches of the Academy, each representing a different craft or discipline in filmmaking.
But that doesn’t mean the only films they program are Academy Award winners or nominees. Relth-Miller notes that “the ceremony is one marker of cultural excellence, but we're really interested in moving beyond that.”
Programming at these theaters also explores counter-cultural trends and movements that may not have been recognized by the Academy, like screenings of cult classics by John Waters or talks with filmmakers like punk icon Penelope Spheeris.
And there’s an appetite for this kind of film programming among audiences.
Relth-Miller had been programming films in Los Angeles at UCLA for about six years, screening in the Billy Wilder Theater. There, she had been working with an audience that was skewing 50 and older before the pandemic shut their doors in 2020.
Now at the Academy Museum, which opened its doors in 2021, Relth-Miller is seeing the majority of audience members at screenings are under the age of 40.
(It should be noted that the New Beverly Cinema, just north of the Academy Museum in the Fairfax District, also reported younger audiences coming to the theater post pandemic).
“That's actually a different demographic than what we were seeing citywide in the repertory scene before the pandemic,” says Relth-Miller.
But it was not an easy road getting here.
Architectural plans for the museum’s building were first presented in 2008, shortly before the housing market crash. The initial land purchased for the museum site was sold and plans were put on hold.
In 2012, new plans were presented by architect Renzo Piano for a new location in the former May Company building, a historic Streamline Moderne structure on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard. The estimated opening date was 2017, but amid fundraising slowdowns, budget increases, and leadership changes, the museum’s launch was pushed to December 2020. That was announced before COVID shutdowns began. Then the museum’s opening was eventually set for September 2021.
”We have had to build an audience from a post pandemic reality,” Relth-Miller says.
The shifting age demos and trends around repertory screenings have opened doors to what is considered a “revival” film.
A successful screening of Twister (1996) took Relth-Miller by surprise. When she first started programming theaters in L.A., less than a decade ago, she recalls, “I felt like it was hard to get folks out for a film from the 90s because the films still felt fresh to the majority of the people who were going out to see repertory screenings, right?”
But younger generations who didn’t have a chance to see those films in theaters, and who are developing a cinephilia on platforms like Letterboxd, are clamoring for an experience.
“Gen Z did not have a chance to see something like Twister in the theater, and so they're gonna show up and see it on 35mm, and sometimes in their first ever opportunity to have a communal experience with it," Relth-Miller says.
In reporting out this series, every cinema operator or programmer I’ve spoken with has talked about movie theaters as a source of memory. Maybe you don’t even remember the movie itself, but you remember the company, the seats, the popcorn. And screening films can be an act of recall too.
“We're like activating ghosts, right?” says Relth-Miller. “We're watching people come to life. We're bringing Katharine Hepburn back to life when we show something like Christopher Strong, and when we screen Spellbound, we're bringing Gregory Peck back to life, before our very eyes.”
The David Geffen and Ted Mann theaters are only three years old — most of their history is yet to come.
“We can feel a sense of history the older a place becomes,” says Relth-Miller. “I think what's the most exciting thing to think about is what this theater will feel like in 20 years…because of the people who have come through it.”
Upcoming film programs include The Sewing Circle: Sapphic Icons of Early Hollywood, In the Midnight Hour: A History of Late-Night Movies and Forever a Contender: A Centennial Tribute to Marlon Brando. You can find a full calendar of screenings here.
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A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the city of Inglewood can, for now, continue its deal allowing WOW Media to run its digital billboards along the city’s major roads.
The backstory: Last summer, companies tied to SoFi Stadium, Kia Forum and Intuit Dome sued to block the agreement, arguing that the city had violated competitive bidding rules and policies governing the use of public roads and sidewalks.
More details: Superior Court Judge Joseph Lipner rejected several claims brought by the stadiums, saying in a 25-page ruling that WOW’s agreement with the city adhered to rules governing the public right–of-way, the legal term for publicly accessible roads, sidewalks and other paths.
Read on... for more on the judge's ruling.
This story first appeared on The LA Local.
Inglewood’s video billboards just secured a big legal victory.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the city of Inglewood can, for now, continue its deal allowing WOW Media to run its digital billboards along the city’s major roads.
Last summer, companies tied to SoFi Stadium, Kia Forum and Intuit Dome sued to block the agreement, arguing that the city had violated competitive bidding rules and policies governing the use of public roads and sidewalks.
The stadiums, which run their own massive digital billboards on its properties, also claimed the city’s dealings with WOW breached their contracts with the city. Court records previously reviewed by The LA Local suggested the yearslong relationship between Mayor James Butts and SoFi Stadium owner Stan Kroenke was fraying.
At one point, Butts claimed the city’s SoFi Stadium development agreement was void.
The dispute also moved beyond the courts and onto the streets when stadiums launched a ballot initiative aimed at banning WOW’s billboards. WOW fired back with a pair of its own ballot initiatives aimed at stadium taxes and parking fees.
Superior Court Judge Joseph Lipner rejected several claims brought by the stadiums, saying in a 25-page ruling that WOW’s agreement with the city adhered to rules governing the public right–of-way, the legal term for publicly accessible roads, sidewalks and other paths.
The judge also ruled that the city was not required to open a competitive bidding process for the agreement because WOW and its patented spiral video kiosks were uniquely positioned to fulfill the contract.
But Lipner said he did not have jurisdiction to rule on allegations by the Forum and Intuit Dome that the city breached their development contracts.
Butts told The LA Local that the court’s findings speak for themselves and touted the revenue the billboards bring the city. Inglewood has made as much as $7.4 million in billboard revenue in a year, according to budget documents.
WOW celebrated Lipner’s ruling in a statement to The LA Local, calling the stadiums’ court case and ballot initiative part of an “expensive misinformation campaign.”
“The court’s ruling makes clear that the city followed the law and acted in the best interests of its residents,” WOW CEO Scott Krantz said. “It has become abundantly clear that the stadium duopolists want complete control of every facet of Inglewood life.”
A spokesperson for Hollywood Park, the complex that includes SoFi Stadium, said it plans to appeal and that the case raised important questions.
“We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision regarding the city’s long-term agreement with WOW and continue to believe that leasing public rights-of-way in this manner is inconsistent with state and municipal law,” the spokesperson wrote.
Beyond a possible appeal by the stadiums, Lipner wrote that the parts of the case he did not rule on will be transferred to another court department to be calendared for future proceedings.
Larry Mantle and LAist film critics review this weekend’s latest movie releases in theaters and on streaming platforms.
The films:
The critics:
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A judge declared a mistrial on Friday for a former Pacific Palisades resident accused of starting a fire that led to last year’s destructive Palisades Fire after the jury said it was deadlocked after about two days of deliberations.
Why it matters: The Palisades Fire in 2025 burned for more than three weeks across 23,000 acres. It killed 12 people, destroyed homes, businesses and displaced thousands of residents, some of whom still haven’t been able to return to their neighborhoods more than a year later.
The backstory: Firefighters initially kept the Lachman Fire contained to about 8 acres, but it continued to burn underground in the days following. A strong, widespread windstorm spread the remnants to the surface and into nearby communities, becoming the Palisades Fire on Jan. 7.
Read on... for more on the case, how we got here and what's next.
A judge declared a mistrial on Friday for a former Pacific Palisades resident accused of starting a fire that led to last year’s destructive Palisades Fire after the jury said it was deadlocked.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, was facing up to 45 years in federal prison for one count of destruction of property by means of fire, one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and one count of timber set afire.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said on social media that the evidence against Rinderknecht is "strong."
"We fully intend to retry this case before a new jury and obtain guilty verdicts on all charged counts," Essayli said.
It was announced Thursday that the jury had reached a verdict, but when attorneys and Rinderknecht filed into the room, the judge said the opposite — the jury cannot make a unanimous decision on each of the three charges based on a note they shared with the court.
The jury exchanged further notes with the judge that said there is nothing the court could do to help them reach a unanimous verdict and there were jurors dead set on both sides.
The trial reconvened Friday to figure out the next steps after the jury said it was deadlocked.
Prosecutors were pushing for the court to tell the jurors to go back to deliberations in an attempt to work it out, but U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang expressed concerns that it could come off as coercion.
Hwang decided to call the jurors into the courtroom to confirm they cannot reach a unanimous verdict, and that there is nothing else the court could do to help them. All 12 members confirmed that was the case and said the split was 10 not guilty and two guilty.
Prosecutors argued that Rinderknecht maliciously started a smaller fire — the Lachman Fire — near a hiking trail in the Santa Monica Mountains just after midnight on New Year’s Day 2025. About a week later, it became the Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. It killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of structures.
Firefighters initially kept the Lachman Fire contained to about 8 acres, but it continued to burn underground in the days following. A strong, widespread windstorm spread the remnants to the surface and into nearby communities, becoming the Palisades Fire on Jan. 7.
According to the criminal complaint, Rinderknecht was working as an Uber driver on New Year’s Eve and dropped a passenger off in the Pacific Palisades before walking up the trail about a block from his former home. Two passengers later described Rinderknecht as appearing angry and agitated that night.
He took two phone videos from a hilltop clearing about half an hour before the first signs of the Lachman Fire were spotted in the area. According to prosecutors, Rinderknecht unsuccessfully tried to call 911 several times in the following minutes, eventually reporting the fire when he got through to authorities toward the bottom of the trail.
Cameras captured Rinderknecht driving away from the area before turning around and following fire trucks to the scene, according to the complaint. Prosecutors said he then hiked back up the same trail to take phone videos of the fire and first responders.
Officials later said the Palisades Fire was a “holdover” fire, a continuation of the smaller Lachman Fire from six days prior.
The Palisades Fire burned for more than three weeks across 23,000 acres. It destroyed homes, businesses and displaced thousands of residents, some of whom still haven’t been able to return to their neighborhoods more than a year later.
Rinderknecht pleaded not guilty to the charges last October, and his trial started earlier this month.
Steve Haney, his defense attorney, has said prosecutors are trying to blame Rinderknecht for a fire that started nearly a week before.
"Well what about what happened between Jan. 1 and Jan. 7?" Haney told reporters last fall. "Jonathan wasn't out there with a fire hose putting that fire out at the Lachman location, the Fire Department was. So why are they blaming him for whatever the Fire Department didn't do?"
Haney said during the trial that “no matter what the government's theory is, the evidence will show Jonathan did not start the Jan. 1 fire," according to LAist’s media partner CBS LA.
According to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after action report, staffing levels on the day the Palisades Fire started fell short of the standard for extreme weather conditions. Despite the high risk, the report said the decision not to deploy more firefighters in advance was made in part to save money.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore, who was tapped for the top job after the former chief was removed by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass citing the fire response, said things have changed since then.
Moore told LAist’s AirTalk in January that the department has updated its policies to increase staffing for especially hazardous conditions and promoted training in wildland firefighting, which have different challenges than those in urban environments and contributed to confusion during the Palisades Fire.
Topline:
It’s official: California voters will not be asked to overturn the Los Angeles “mansion tax.”
The backstory: A measure to eliminate Measure ULA — and similar taxes across the state — was headed for the November ballot. But a last-minute deal in Sacramento convinced the initiative’s sponsor to pull it just before the deadline to remove qualified statewide measures from the finalized ballot.
What’s new: The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association agreed to shelve its measure because state lawmakers swiftly passed language for a substitute measure. It will ask California voters to raise the threshold for passing new special taxes to two-thirds, up from the simple majority courts have ruled is sufficient to pass many special taxes, such as Measure ULA.
Why it matters: Economists, housing advocates and developers who say Measure ULA is depressing development did not secure any of the tax relief they were hoping to see in the deal. Supporters of the tax say crucial funding for affordable housing construction and tenant aid programs is safe, at least for now.
Read on … to learn why one observer describes the deal as “an absolute Game of Thrones twist.”
It’s official: California voters will not be asked to overturn the Los Angeles “mansion tax.”
A measure to eliminate Measure ULA — and similar taxes across the state — was headed for the November ballot. But a last-minute deal in Sacramento convinced the initiative’s sponsor to pull it just before the deadline to remove qualified statewide measures from the finalized ballot.
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association agreed to shelve its measure on Thursday because state lawmakers swiftly passed language for a substitute measure. It will ask California voters to raise the threshold for passing new special taxes to two-thirds, up from the simple majority courts have ruled is sufficient to pass many special taxes, such as Measure ULA.
Jon Coupal, the taxpayers association’s president, celebrated the deal in a statement.
“It’s a tremendous turnaround,” he said. “The Legislature voted to make it harder to raise taxes by advancing a constitutional amendment, ACA 22, to close a loophole that had allowed some special taxes to pass with less than the two-thirds vote required by Proposition 13.”
The founding of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association dates to the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, which ushered in an era often called the “taxpayers’ revolt.” Proposition 13 created statewide limits on property taxes that remain in place today.
But where the taxpayers association sees victory in this week’s Sacramento deal, another powerful group sees defeat. Real estate developers and investors bankrolled the Howard Jarvis initiative in the hope of pressuring state lawmakers to reduce tax rates levied on the sale of high-value properties by Measure ULA and similar “transfer” taxes in other cities.
But the deal cut in Sacramento this week leaves existing transfer taxes untouched, said Mott Smith, board member of the Council of Infill Builders.
“The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association got its major objectives fulfilled,” said Smith, also an adjunct professor of real estate at USC who has co-authored research concluding Measure ULA has depressed development in the city.
“The industry supporters that got them there really got absolutely nothing,” he added. “It is an absolute Game of Thrones twist at the end of this process. Nobody thought this was going to happen.”
Smith and other economists, housing advocates and developers have pushed for new limits on Measure ULA. Nearly 58% of city voters approved it in 2022 following a campaign that described the policy as a “mansion tax.” Previous attempts at the local and state levels to roll back the tax, or stop it from applying to new apartment buildings, have all failed.
The latest attempt at reform briefly coalesced around legislation unveiled earlier this week.
Assembly Bill 736 would have allowed Measure ULA to continue taxing the sale of mansions — defined as single-family homes selling for more than $5.4 million — at current rates, which can be as high as 5.5%. But it would have capped tax rates at 1.5% for non-mansions, such as apartment buildings, retail centers and other types of commercial and industrial properties.
Pro-development housing advocates with the group California YIMBY — as in “yes in my backyard” — argued the bill would have helped “fix the problems with poorly-designed transfer taxes” and “preserve the ability of local governments to expand housing supply.”
The bill, co-authored by Bay Area Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, now faces an uncertain future.
“Politics is often about navigating imperfect choices,” Wicks said in a statement. Getting the Howard Jarvis measure off the November ballot means local revenue raised by Measure ULA and other transfer taxes is no longer at risk of being eliminated, she said.
“At the end of the day, protecting those resources for our local communities is the responsible path forward,” Wicks said.
Measure ULA supporters celebrated the death of the Howard Jarvis measure, saying its removal safeguards funding for L.A. affordable housing development and tenant aid programs.
“The best programs we have to build affordable housing and prevent homelessness through ULA were at risk, and — at least for now — they're not,” said Joe Donlin, director of the United to House L.A. coalition. He estimated that AB 736 could have cut tax revenue by up to 50%.
Measure ULA has raised $1.2 billion since taking effect in April 2023. Tens of millions of dollars have already been delivered to tenants in the form of rent relief, legal defense in eviction court and other assistance programs. Other funding has helped subsidize the development of nearly 800 income-restricted housing units.
But the city has run into roadblocks on spending much of the money for its intended purpose. New tenant aid contracts remain held up by outgoing L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, who has refused for more than a year to approve long-term funding for the city’s lead eviction defense contractor.
The City Council is also still mulling changes to get more housing built by loosening strict limits that make Measure ULA dollars hard to pair with other sources of affordable housing funding.
Even with the Howard Jarvis measure now off the ballot, L.A. voters could still be asked to make decisions on other “mansion tax” reforms in November.
The L.A. City Council is considering placing two local measures on the November ballot. One would cancel the tax on new apartment buildings within the first 10 years of their construction. The other would exempt Palisades Fire victims who end up selling their properties.
Both of those reforms need further debate and approval from the City Council before they would be confirmed for the November ballot.
As for the deal Howard Jarvis hatched with state lawmakers, it remains possible that the taxpayer group could achieve none of its goals. If a majority of California voters reject the new measure to make special taxes harder to pass, future tax hikes along the lines of Measure ULA would still be allowed to take effect with a simple majority vote.
