Film fanatics are celebrating this week after officials shared plans to inject new life into one of Sunset Boulevard’s most beloved cinematic landmarks.
Closed since 2020, Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome—instantly recognizable for its geodesic architecture that resembles a golf ball—is scheduled to reopen in early 2028 as part of a venture led by Sony Pictures Entertainment and its movie theater chain, Alamo Drafthouse.
“Hot damn! We’re bringing the Dome back, baby,” Tom Rothman, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s movie division, says in a statement. “We believe in moviegoing down to our soul, and no venue on Earth stands more for that than the one-of-a-kind Dome.”
Codera23 via Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA 4.0
The 956-seat, single-screen theater, which opened in 1963, was originally intended to be the first of 300 cinemas like it around the world. But replication plans were scrapped, leaving it as a unique venue. The theater’s dome roof—built from 316 concrete hexagons and pentagons—has become a fixture of Hollywood cinema, simultaneously featuring in classic films while hosting showings of many others.
The building appears in movies such as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, while its main theater, which houses an 86-foot-wide curved screen, has hosted premieres and exclusive screenings of the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
In a statement, Alamo Drafthouse called the theater, which in 1998 earned recognition as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, “one of the most important moviegoing destinations ever created.”
Fun fact: Geometry at the movies
The Cinerama Dome was the first concrete geodesic dome in the world, built using Buckminster Fuller’s patented technique, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy.
The theater’s inaugural screening in 1963 was of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, a madcap odyssey that follows normal folks going to drastic lengths to discover a buried fortune. The companies behind the Cinerama’s revival are hunting for treasure of a different kind as movie box office sales trend up and younger viewers continue flocking to in-person screenings.
The film industry as a whole is bouncing back after taking a big hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to the dome’s closure. A Fandango study published this spring suggests that members of the Gen Z and millennial generations are the most active moviegoers, averaging roughly seven visits to the cinema each year.
The dome had long been owned by the family of William R. Forman, the founder of Pacific Theatres, whose brand name is displayed on the building’s marquee.
Sony officials said the classic look and legacy of the Cinerama Dome will not be changed. While Alamo Drafthouse operates dine-in movie theaters at its other locations, this model will not apply to the dome’s main venue. Meanwhile, its name, traditional concession stands and Mid-Century Modern decor will remain.
“It was definitely the capital of, like, the moviegoing experience in L.A.,” Benjamin Steinberg, who leads the online Save Your Cinema campaign, tells the Los Angeles Times’ Cerys Davies. “I can’t wait to go back inside the Cinerama Dome and watch movies.”
An adjacent 14-screen theater complex, formerly known as the ArcLight Hollywood, will reopen simultaneously under the Alamo Drafthouse name and model.
