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More Than Three Years After Being Bought By Netflix, A Restored Egyptian Theatre Reopens In November
The Egyptian Theatre back in the days.
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Security Pacific National Bank Collection/Los Angeles Public Library Collection
)
The 101-year-old Egyptian Theatre may have been built for the silent film era, but there’s nothing quiet about its return to programming next month.
The anticipated reopening will begin Nov. 9 with the thriller The Killer followed by a conversation with the film’s director David Fincher.
Originally built by theater producer Sid Grauman in 1922, the cinema palace was a fixture of Hollywood’s Golden Age. It held the first movie premiere in Hollywood with the 1922 film Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks, and screened it for the next six months.
The American Cinematheque purchased the building in 1996, two years after the Northridge Earthquake badly damaged the venue. After renovations, the cinema was reopened in 1998.
But the legendary theater, with its ornate ceiling and Egyptian-style paintings and hieroglyphs, never achieved the same level of glory as when it first opened, as moviegoers flocked to venues like the Chinese Theatre blocks away instead.
But the reopening could be the beginning of a new era.
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The beloved theater’s reopening follows a seismic retrofit and upgrades to lighting and sound systems that began in 2021 after it was purchased by Netflix the previous year.
The theater has announced a slate of programming. Tickets are available for purchase on its website.
- Nov. 9: David Fincher's The Killer, followed by a Q&A with director David Fincher
- Nov. 10-21: American Cinematheque’s “Ultra Cinematheque 70 Fest 2023” 70 mm festival
- Nov. 22-Dec. 7: Bradley Cooper’s Maestro
- Dec. 5: Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and other short films by the director
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