City’s Most Craptaculous Laemmle Finally Throws In Towel
Yes folks the City’s Most Craptaculous Laemmle® which for years had prided itself on charging old ladies full admission for a movie recently released on DVD, the city’s Laemmle which never got a crack at the first-run offerings before every other Laemmle had a shot, the verysame Laemmle which in early 2005 leaked rain all hell over the head of yours truly during a downpour has apparently finally admitted, “We really are a $3 theatre. Who the hell are we kidding.”
For those with $3 to burn come Friday, said theatre sits at the corner of Beverly and Fairfax.
Are you being sarcastic about that Pete or didn’t you notice the one there already or are they building another one?
I’m not being sarcastic; the city just recently sold a municipal-owned parking lot in the Hayden Tract area–which is a couple miles east of downtown CC and the Pacific Theaters multiplex there–to a developer who wants to put up a multiplex. Remember, this is Culver City, one of the region’s leaders in sales tax farming, that we’re talking about.
Damn. We need more cheap-ass second run theatres. This place may be a little down-at-the-heels, but it beats the shit out of the Vine Theatre on Hollywood Bl. near Vine ($7 for stale old crap).
Now I just need Regency to rent out one (ONLY ONE! JUST ONE!) of the shuttered theatres downtown on Broadway. There’s about 9 closed theatres down here. JUST ONE! FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!
It’s funny that Pete should call me out to comment on retail in the context of this post becuase the only movie I’ve seen at the Fairfax 3 was “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices.”
The Beverly Center continues to do well despite competition from The Grove. There’s not a lot of overlap between the two centers, and BevCen has some heavy hitters like Bloomingdale’s, Dior, Louis Viutton, and (soon) H&M. In addition, the exterior escalators/entrances are undergoing some renovation.
BevCen, Century City, The Grove, and Westside Pavilion are able to coexist because of the large and wealthy customer base in greater West L.A.
I’ve never been to the BevCen’s theatres and have only heard bad things; if they were to shut down, I’m sure the mall’s management could fill the space.
For that particular theater, this is actually just return to form. When I moved here in ’97 it was one of those $1.50 theaters that used to be all the rage.
Actually, that’s exactly what they have been doing with the Beverly Connection, which more or less has been closed (save a few stores, like Rexall Drugs, Wherehouse, Souplantation and Old Navy) for more than a year as it’s completely redone. But let’s face it, even with a fresh face, I’m not holding my breath that the new Beverly Connection will be much better.
As for the BevCen, as crappy as it is, I’m always surprised every time I go in that there are fewer and fewer mid-range stores for me to shop in. I haven’t been there in a while, but someone told me now that even The Gap is gone. How that mall survives even as it squeezes out the mid-range stores is beyond me.
Are you being sarcastic about that Pete or didn’t you notice the one there already or are they building another one?
What’s kind of scary about the BevCenter muliplex is that it was kind of crappy the first time I set foot in the BevCenter 15 years ago. Actually so was the whole BevCenter. The design is rather poor (they need to have better street-level access to it: Perhaps take it and Beverly Connection, tear the whole thing down and start over from scratch.
I heard that a multiplex is going to be built in Culver City in the Hayden Tract area, just west of La Cienega. If that ever happens, it’ll finish off the Beverly Center multiplex.
I can’t imagine that the BevCenter as a whole is doing too well these days, but Mitch Glaser is the guy to ask about malls, not me.
Agreed with #1…the Beverly Center “multiplex” is a joke. 20 seat theaters? And it’s in the super rich people’s mall, so it should have reserved seats of leather, gourmet snacks, and lots of booze. And THX and huge screens. Sad.
Now if only the Bev Center multiplex would admit that it too is a $3 movie theatre. Tiny theatres, out-date-films on half the screens, just not worth the $10 they want for admission, especaily with the Grove and Century City so close by for mainstream faire and bunches of arthouse screens in the neighborhood as well.